To warm up backstage before the ninth New York Regional and National Yoga Asana Championship, some competitors slid their legs behind their heads and others curled into back bends. Michael Colwill, 46, stood still in a purple Speedo and practiced bowing. Perfecting a gentle smile, he stood on a yoga mat, secured to the stage with electrical tape, and gazed out serenely at the nearly 700 theater seats.

Since ease carries a 10-point weight in competitive yoga asana, warming up the face is as important as loosening the hamstrings. Competitors complete seven postures in three minutes, and the total 80-point score takes into account technical precision, physical presentation and timing, among other aspects.

Because there are no entry requirements for regional competitions, Colwill, a kindergarten teacher at Public School 8 in Washington Heights who had practiced for less than three years, decided to try.

On Thursday, he demonstrated the routine for his pupils. “It was like when I walk on my hands on the playground,” he said. “They were excited and quiet — well, at first.”

The competition, hosted by the United States Yoga Federation, also known as USA Yoga, took place Friday night through Sunday afternoon at the Hudson Theater in Midtown Manhattan. More attentive than most 5-year-olds, Friday night’s audience maintained more silence than any hushed golf crowd. As Craig Villani, one of the hosts, announced, “Yoga is about intention, and so the audience’s good thoughts helps these performers.”

Sneezes were strangled, Velcro frowned upon and vibrating cellphones feared while competitors bent and balanced their bodies as if on an invisible high wire.

Continue reading about the National Yoga Competition.

Phil Lempert, a food industry analyst, trend watcher and creator of supermarketguru.com, said studies also show tea drinkers are less likely to suffer from cardiovascular disease than non-drinkers, and a recent study discovered black tea lowers systolic and diastolic blood pressure.

Black tea is also packed with flavonoids, antioxidants that help combat free radicals that cause cellular damage and aging.

Flavonoids also help prevent the oxidation of “bad” cholesterol, protect blood vessels from inflammation and inhibit blood clotting.

Black tea is also a natural source of fluoride, which can help strengthen tooth enamel, and helps cut down plaque on teeth.

Tea, which has no calories, contains about half the amount or less of caffeine as coffee, Lempert said.

“Look for fair trade certified, which ensures that farmers are getting paid fairly, and that your tea is grown sustainably,” Lempert said in a statement. “Choose loose leaf tea for a rich tea experience, but if loose leaf is not available at your local grocer, read tea labels for ingredients — stay away from teas with artificial flavors and added sugars.”

Via UPI.com

You’d have to be living under a rock to not have heard talk of Mayan mysticism as we move into 2012, the supposed end of the world according to the Mayan calendar — or as many are interpreting, the “rebirth of a new calendar cycle” (a much less dismal interpretation!) To celebrate this rebirth, Fairmont Mayakoba, a stunning resort located on the beautiful Riviera Maya, presents its “Awakening to Wellness,” an exclusive getaway with master yogi Ana Paula Dominguez.

This experience will include daily lessons of Kundalini yoga, a Meditation Techniques workshop and a Stress Managementsession. Participants will relax with luxurious spa treatments and soothing massages at Willow Stream Spa. Sounds like the experience of a lifetime!

Tai chi, an ancient martial art characterized by slow, flowing movement and meditation, helps improve balance and movement control for people with Parkinson’s disease.

The finding, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, is the latest study to show the benefits of tai chi for people with chronic health problems. Past studies have shown that tai chi reduces falls and depression among the elderly, and lessens pain for patients with arthritis and fibromyalgia.

In Parkinson’s disease, nerve cells in the brain that produce the chemical dopamine begin to die. Lower dopamine production can lead to tremors, balance problems, stiff facial expressions and muffled speech, among other problems.

An estimated one million people in the United States have the disease, and another 60,000 receive the diagnosis each year. Although the condition usually develops after the age of 60, 15 percent of those who learn of the diagnosis are under 50.

In the latest research, 195 people with movement and balance problems caused by Parkinson’s disease were recruited from four Oregon cities. The patients were divided into three exercise classes that met for an hour a day, twice a week. One group took part in an extensive stretching class, another was taught resistance training, and the third group performed tai chi.

After six months, patients in the tai chi group performed better on a number of measures related to strength, movement control, balance, stride length and reach. Resistance training also offered some benefits, and both the tai chi and resistance training groups had fewer falls than the stretching group.

The findings are good news for people with Parkinson’s, who often lose the ability to maintain standing balance and have difficulty walking and are at risk for frequent falls. Although some symptoms of Parkinson’s, like tremors, can be relieved by drug therapy, balance and walking problems are typically not helped by drug treatment.

“Current medications do not work well in terms of providing relief for impaired balance or postural instability,” said Fuzhong Li, a research scientist at Oregon Research Institute in Eugene and the study’s lead author. “In fact, patients suffer a great deal of medication side effects which may lead to further deterioration in balance control.”

Why tai chi helps people with Parkinson’s isn’t entirely clear. Even for a healthy person it can be hard to maintain balance and stability while performing the continuous, rhythmical, weight-shifting movements of tai chi. It may be that practicing tai chi trains the parts of the brain that control balance and movement to adapt more quickly in response to the motor control challenges of Parkinson’s.

To learn more about the challenges of living with Parkinson’s, go to “The Voices of Parkinson’s Disease.” And to learn more about tai chi, read Jane E. Brody’s column, “A Downside to Tai Chi? None That I Can See,” then please join the discussion below.

While some doctors do believe in the healing powers of acupuncture and actually offer the therapy in their offices, other experts don’t give any legitimacy to acupuncture as an actual medical treatment.

Nevertheless, many studies and patient testimonials have reported positive results from acupuncture therapy.

By talking with many locals within the state of Jalisco, most Mexicans aren’t extremely educated with Chinese Medicine. In fact, many don’t believe in the ‘powers’ of acupuncture. They have heard that it can help with weight loss predominately, and the marketing is focused on how it was a ‘miracle’ treatment.

The acupuncture procedure involves the strategic placement of tiny needles around the body. It is used for pain-relief, stress relief, and some believe that it can treat the symptoms of a variety of ailments.

Recent studies have shown acupuncture to be an effective supplemental therapy for IVF, carpal tunnel syndrome, and ADHD.

Other uses for acupuncture include neck and back pain relief, tendonitis, childbirth pain, headaches, cyst removal, allergies, asthma, dental care, and to treat the side effects of chemotherapy.

Check out this story on an Acupuncturist Raising money to teach clinic in Mexico.

Physicians and biomedical scientists are always looking for chemical compounds that can be turned into drugs that can kill cancer cells and spare noncancerous cells. Researchers at the University of Colorado believe they have made such a discovery.

Investigators at the Rajesh Agarwal and his colleagues at the University of Colorado Cancer Center say grape seed extract kills squamous cell carcinoma cells in tumors of the had and neck without harming healthy cells.

“It’s a rather dramatic effect,” said Agarwal, a professor at the University of Colorado Skaggs School of Pharmaceutical Sciences.

In a study published last week in the journal Carcinogenesis, Agarwal and his collaborators reported that grape extract killed head and neck squamous cell cancer cells, both in cell cultures and in laboratory mice.

Created from whole grape seeds, grape seed extracts have high concentrations of vitamin E and other chemical bioactive compounds. Other research has found grape seed extract can help treat high blood pressure and elevated blood cholesterol. Various studies are testing grape seed extract against a number of other ailments, including skin cancer, osteoporosis and tooth decay. Its ability to aid wound healing is being evaluated.

Agarwal says grape seed extract kills squamous cells cancers of the head and neck by damage the DNA or cancerous cells and then blocking DNA repair. This creates conditions that inhibit the growth of the cancer cells.

“Cancer cells are fast-growing cells,” Agarwal said. “Not only that, but they are necessarily fast growing. When conditions exist in which they can’t grow, they die.”

Grape extract only kills the cancerous cells because the same defects that make them ravenous killers also renders them vulnerable to attack.

“I think the whole point is that cancer cells have a lot of defective pathways and they are very vulnerable if you target those pathways,” Agarwal said. “The same is not true of healthy cells.”

Having had encouraging results in experiments with cell lines and mouse models, Agarwal is now hoping to move forward with clinical testing of grape extract on humans with head and neck cancers. Its ultimate role may be as a second-line therapy after initial treatment attempts have not proved successful, he said.

The research by Agarwal and his colleagues was supported by grants from the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine and the National Cancer Institute.

Tulum, perched on the southern edge of Mexico’s Riviera Maya, has long since been considered a hotspot for yoga travelers and wellness tourists around the world. The great thing about Tulum as a yoga destination is that it’s the perfect spot for beginners and experts alike to practice and perfect yoga techniques.

The New York Times recently featured a piece that laid out the perfect four-day yoga expedition in scenic Tulum. From exploring the jungles, to eating ceviche at one of the city’s best restaurants, to exploring the cliffs overlooking the Caribbean, this guide goes far beyond just yoga time and provides a great sense of the sites and activities you won’t want to miss when visiting Tulum. Take a look at the full Tulum itinerary!

Every year The New York Times selects the top places readers should travel to. Puebla, Mexico, a city especially noted for its historical significance and culinary offerings, has earned the thirteenth spot on this famed travel list of places to go in 2012. … Keep Reading

While there is little scientific evidence supporting the long-term effectiveness of many of these treatments, a number of studies on the subject are currently under way. Here are some of the most common alternative menopause treatments:

• Soy. The phytoestrogens — estrogen-like chemicals — in soy may help with hot flashes, vaginal dryness, and mood swings, but there is no conclusive evidence. According to family physician and natural medicine specialist Dr. Novey, a combination of soy and black cohosh can be effective in reducing hot flashes in early menopause.
• Ginseng. Novey says ginseng has a stimulant effect and can help with the “brain fog” that some women report in menopause; it also may improve energy. It has no effect on hot flashes.
• Kava. Novey says this herb can help with irritability, but there’s no evidence it decreases hot flashes. He adds it’s possible to get withdrawal symptoms when you stop taking the herb. In 2002, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a warning about kava, saying it could damage the liver.
• Dong quai and red clover. These herbs have no benefits in treating menopausal symptoms, according to Novey and NCCAM.

Most yoga students understand that poses like Shoulderstand and Headstand should be practiced under the guidance of an experienced teacher, but Brood cites examples like the man who sat in meditation in Vajrasana (Thunderbolt Pose) for hours at a time and ended up temporarily incapacitated from nerve damage. He also describes a case where a woman suffered a stroke in Urdhva Dhanurasana (Upward-Facing Bow or Wheel Pose). “Yoga’s exploding popularity—the number of Americans doing yoga has risen from about 4 million in 2001 to what some estimate to be as many as 20 million in 2011—means that there is now an abundance of studios where many teachers lack the deeper training necessary to recognize when students are headed toward injury,” Broad writes.

Yoga Journal’s medical editor Timothy McCall, MD, who was interviewed for the book and quoted in the excerpt, comments: “The question is not whether yoga is safe. What matters is whether the specific practices you are doing are safe for you, and whether you are doing those practices in a safe way. Someone who pushes too hard, who ignores the body’s signals that something is too much, is risking injury,” he says.

“But,” he maintains, “yoga asana done appropriately is one of the safest forms of exercise.”

Do stories like this scare you? Have you ever injured yourself practicing yoga? What do you do to keep yourself safe and avoid injury?