Has anyone here taught any students with Crohns Disease or related illnesses? If so, what poses and other aspects of yoga did you find were beneficial to them or should specifically be avoided?
Hello David,
No, I have not taught a student with Crohn’s. However, one of my classmates in the yoga teachers program had Crohn’s. In the four years of study his condition improved considerably due to yoga in general. He is a journalist and was able to reduce his stress with yogasana and meditation. This improved his health and so he was able to cut down on medication.
I don’t believe too much in particular poses. Maybe vajrasana after meals to improve digestion. I think the answer probably lies in the style of yoga. Chron’s disease is inflammation (excess pitta). Therefore, heated yoga (ashtanga, Bikram, power) should be avoided in favor of more relaxing styles (hatha). Accentuate relaxation in savasana, yoga nidra, meditation, calming pranayama (abdominal breath, ujjayi, alternate nostril breathing without retention), cooling pranayama (shitali). It is probably best to avoid agnisar kriya, uddiyana bandha, bow pose, mayurasana.
Examine lifestyle for stressors and reduce these. No smoking!
Many benefits will come from adapting the diet (pitta reduction). Keeping a food diary may help to identify foodstuffs that bring on more inflammation. I’m not an expert on diet; someone well-versed in ayurveda could help here. A really bland diet of kichari (rice with mung beans and vegetables) perhaps?
I think Willem’s response is right on - I’m not a big fan of “prescriptive” asanas. But I think with Crohn’s some asanas might need to be avoided - particularly depending on what is happen for the student at the time. One of the symptom’s of Crohn’s can be diarrhea - so lots of forward bending and squatting may not be appropriate - on the other hand - I think constipation can also be a symptom - and it might respond well to these same asanas. Best to work on an individual level.
Gary Kraftsow has a nice write up on Crohn’s in Yoga for Wellness. Again not prescriptive - these are specific sequences for a particular individual - but I think it might give you something to chew on.
I think western doctors underplay the importance of diet - I’ve met 3 people with Crohn’s in the past 5 years. None of theme had been encouraged to do any kind of elimination diets - just given a list of foods to avoid.
I think stress is a big one - all 3 of these people - 2 women - were the primary breadwinners of the family - and showed outwardly visible signs of stress.
I think a short daily practice with an emphasis on stress reduction might be as “prescriptive” as one can get.
Please let us know how it goes.
Vic
Thank you both for such wonderful responses! I actually help out on a forum exactly like this one, but for people suffering from Chron’s Disease and similar afflictions. If you don’t mind, I’d to link them to this thread soon.
Victw, what is an “elimination diet”? Thanks 
For a dietary approach to healing bowel troubles see Elaine Gotschal’s [I]Breaking the Viscious Circle[/I].
[QUOTE=David;30701]Has anyone here taught any students with Crohns Disease or related illnesses? If so, what poses and other aspects of yoga did you find were beneficial to them or should specifically be avoided?[/QUOTE]
I’m pretty sure a lot of people here have taught someone with Chron’s disease but don’t really know they did.
The physiological “straight-forward” benefit comes from the fact Yoga decreases your stress levels. This induces your supra renal glands to produce less cortisol and less catecholamines. Even though the real base behind C.D. hasn’t been clarified, it is known symptoms tend to over show when high levels of adrenaline are flowing through your blood stream, and an over acidic environment is present. If you reduce your stress levels, the adrenergic impulse will lower, there would be less HCl production in your gastric cells leading to a more alkaline environment, though lowering your basal symptoms.
As you would know, you need a “special” diet in order to avoid further irritation. I know the diet for C.D. isn’t the most interesting and varied of them all. If you look closely to “Yoga Diets” (trying to embrace all types of diets followed in one term), you’ll be able to find a thousand new interesting recipes which can be added to your daily diet to keep eating properly for your disease but not get bored and annoyed by having to eat in a certain specific way.
A “Yoga” diet won’t be exactly what you would need, but it gets much closer than the “ordinary” diet. A If you look through a lot of recipes