Yoga as a Lifestyle Medicine – Foot Yoga for Anaemia and Hemochromatosis?

“The present data indicate that, whereas general circulatory trauma to the red blood cells associated with 1 h of exercise at 75% maximal oxygen uptake may result in some exercise-induced hemolysis, footstrike is the major contributor to hemolysis during running.” Source

It may be that holding your heels high in a strong asana class means that you prevent loss of iron or exercise-induced hemolysis through the heel of your foot!?

“Foot strike haemolysis” research has been primarily studied in runners.
The research showed that runners performing 1hr of exercise at 75 per cent maximal oxygen uptake could result in general trauma to the red blood cells, leading to footstrike haemolysis. Yoga asana can be practised at high speeds, in power yoga style, to increase aerobic capacity. To avoid foot strike haemolysis, you could lift onto your toes in yoga asana wherever possible, a critical consideration to those who are anaemic. It also may be wise to avoid jumping in asana between postures if you are regularly striking down on the heel of the foot. Instead, try landing lightly and gracefully on the ball of your foot, not the heel.

There can be a lot of bodily weight unconsciously placed on the heels in asana. Lifting the heels to strengthen weak foot arches can be done in short and long hold postures. Whilst we can’t prove this has a researched benefit in asana per se, it certainly applies in runners. Those with haemochromatosis should do the opposite – regularly place the heels firmly to the earth when practising vigorous yoga asana and run!

The way we stand on our feet not only affects our posture but can lead to stiffness and pain in the lower back and, or upper back. Good posture is proven to come from our feet!

When the heels are cracked and dry, it might be evident that there is too much weight posturally resting down on the heel on foot, a foot posture or “heel dig”, which can lead to stiffness and pain all the way up to the neck. Ayurveda looks at cracked heels with a similar view. The cracked, dry heel is indicative of vata being out of balance from either too much movement, running, exercise or too much air element overall. Ayurveda suggests this pressure affects not only the lower back, but also the colon, causing irregular digestion. Ayurveda sees digestion as primary to good health and that whatever is going on in the digestive tract affects the whole body and also the mind. The Vayu that is considered to be out of balance here is Apana Vayu.

Interestingly, most of our iron is absorbed in the portion of the small intestine called the duodenum and possibly a second minor absorption site near the end of the small intestinal tract. Exercise may lead to induced blood loss through the gastrointestinal tract and contribute to iron deficiency.

“During exercise visceral blood flow can be reduced by more than 50%, due to increased sympathetic nervous system activity, in function of exercise intensity, with possible necrosis and mucosal bleeding of the gastrointestinal tract. Repeated episodes of training and competition induced blood loss through the gastrointestinal tract may, therefore, contribute to iron deficiency and anaemia within athletes.” Source

In yoga asana, we use twists to positively affect the small intestine amongst other digestive organs in this region, targeting the movement of prana to these areas. The twists are said to affect the prana that innervates this region of the body, Samana vayu, and whilst not yet proven, twisting may be helpful to affect these organs when performed gently.

If you are running or doing high-intensity yoga asana or exercise, make sure you practise restorative savasana daily. This will increase blood flow to visceral organs and increase parasympathetic nervous system activity. Shavasana, corpse pose, is essential to master and practice daily. Ayurveda always recommends that we exercise to only half our capacity to preserve our bank of life force or prana. Those who are vata types or do excessive running or vata type exercise or activities are recommended to rest for short periods in the vata period of the daytime, 2pm-6pm. This rest time could also be taken into consideration if you are an athlete doing a lot of movement or training. The research in this area shows that athletes who nap in the latter part of the day enhance performance, and that napping may be beneficial for both physical and cognitive performance and mood.