Ardent practitioner
N. BALAJI
Yoga and Medical Science records the pioneering research of Dr. Krishna Raman in integrating medical science in yoga. He has used ultrasound to study the body in yoga postures documenting such internal changes in association with Dr. S. Suresh of Mediscan Systems, Chennai. Ultrasonographic pictures accompany the asanas performed by Dr. Krishna Raman.
In other chapters, Dr. Krishna Raman's focus is to demystify yoga, and to clarify common and uncommon doubts about the "holistic science". The text has a concise, reader friendly question-and-answer format. The author also draws from his experience in conducting yoga workshops in India, the U.S and Mexico.
"I love the human body, the mysteries of nature," says Dr. Raman, a full-fledged allopathic medical practitioner who uses yoga as a primary modality of treatment, whenever possible. This fascination for anatomy led him to perceive how they enrich one another.
As an adolescent, young Krishna found that learning asanas from books led to problems that the yoga teachers he approached could not solve. A friend introduced him to B.K.S. Iyengar's Light on Yoga. The boy was stunned by the dynamism, precision and tensile control in every pose. When the Pune-based Iyengar came to Madras, "I fell at his feet and said take me as your disciple."
Krishna Raman went to Pune and came back "blown off my mind". Iyengar's yoga techniques were a revelation, so were his methods of treating ailments. The teacher would share his experiences with the young man who was studying allopathy and yoga with equal interest. In his own practice of 16 years, the disciple has been melding the two systems.
In this interview with GOWRI RAMNARAYAN, Dr. Krishna Raman shares his discoveries — and excitements. Excerpts:
Many doctors prescribe yoga today. How is your therapeutic use of yoga different from theirs?
Yoga cannot be used as a prescription by a medical doctor unless he/she practises it. How can I prescribe say, trikonasana, unless I myself have felt the aches, pains and strains of actually doing that asana? Not only should I know how to do it, but more importantly, how NOT to do it.
Are there other doctors in India who use yoga as the main tool of treatment as you do?
I know of two others in Mumbai and Pune but I began in 1987 before they did. For me this was a natural process, something worthwhile, not something I got into because I wanted to be different or trendy. Even as a student of medicine, I had requests for help with sinusitis or sciatica because right from school, friends knew my passion for yoga. Later, a magazine interview about my methods drew a range of people who came with all kinds of problems. My professor Dr. Tiruvengadam had taught me the importance of quick, accurate diagnosis and I was amazed when I saw the results of what yoga could do.
How are your methods different from those of yoga institutes?
Generally speaking, in yoga institutes the patient or student is happy to do the asana with the guiding support of the teacher. This remains a one-sided, non-interactive, passive activity.
I can't do that here. I examine the patient using conventional methods — blood test, x-ray, scans, etc — and then teach simple yoga exercises. Even this gives remarkable relief. This process has helped me to understand yoga even better. For me, yoga and allopathy are like key and lock, they have a symbiotic relationship.
Do your patients take to these unorthodox ways?
Over the years, I have learnt two things. Patients are different from those who are motivated to do yoga as a part of their lifestyle. Most patients stop practising asanas when they get better.
Where does the intelligence go? Don't they know that the problem can recur with age? If they continue with the asanas they don't need medicines or doctors.
You are very blunt in your book about what yoga cannot do. No qualms in such admissions?
No science, including yoga is not a panacea. It cannot cure acne or cancer! I have to be a scientist and accept results even when they are contrary to longheld assumptions. We may in future find that yoga can cure some incurable ailments, however we should have medical proof.
What got you interested in doing ultrasound studies of the asanas? Did they prove or disprove beliefs about yoga? Of what use are they?
Twelve years ago I was myself amazed when in just a single week, stretching exercises cured a European patient of the terrible cramps she had suffered for 20 years. That was when I got the idea of measuring bodily changes during asana. More recently, Dr. Suresh and I documented such changes in ultrasound. The results were not always consistent with longheld theories. Now, if the yoga text is right we have proof, and if it is not, I have dispelled a myth. Therefore, this research has a practical value. Science has shown that a healthy velocity of flow in the arteries can reduce changes due to ageing.
My guru has said backbends are good for blood circulation in the aorta. Now ultrasound shows that urdhva mukha svanasana improves the flow of blood into the ascending aorta.
This kind of knowledge will make us precise in applying yoga as a tool and increasing its clinical benefits. Just double underline that we are still scratching the surface, we have a long way to go.
Why did the B.K.S. Iyengar School of yoga evolve a systematised use of props like ropes, pillows, blocks and stools for asanas? Can you then achieve the same results as the prop-less methods of the old school?
Look at the quality of asana poses in the different schools. The precision, grace and technically correct presentation of the Iyengar school remains outstanding, because all the important muscles are exercised in the right manner.
It is geared to extract the maximal benefit from every asana. The beginner is not told that he has to struggle for 20 years before he can get it right.
With practice he dispenses with props and does it on his own. He gains confidence. Patients, including the old and the disabled, are not turned away, methods are devised for them to get all the benefits they can. Even marginal improvements are beneficial to them, and once they improve they can graduate to doing asanas without props. Yoga is not just discipline. It is also compassion.
Yoga & Medical Science: FAQ, Dr. Krishna Raman with Dr. S. Suresh, in association with East West books (Chennai) Pvt. Ltd., 2003, p.188, price not mentioned.
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