Excercises for swallowing disability?

milkthistle · 03-14-2005, 02:32 PM

I would appreciate any information that would help a stroke victim recover the ability to swallow food. As yet I do not know the exact rating of the disability--let us assume it is a 3 out of 5 with a risk of the "food going down the wrong pipe." It happened six weeks ago.
Has anyone experience in these matters or has read of treatments methods or excercises?

I am new to yoga and go to a yoga center.

Mukunda · 03-23-2005, 10:39 AM

I would suggest using a variation of sitali pranayama that i learned from my first teacher, a student of Krishnamacharya. It involves breathing in while slowly raising the face toward ceiling. Then breathing out while lowering the head to look at the chest. This maneuver will elongate the trachea and esophagus on the inhalation and shorten these tubes on exhalation. By doing slowly and progressively this can decompress the cervical vertebrae also. often tensions or compressions in cervical spine will accompany this difficulty in swallowing.
After practicing this for one week you can give to client. EAch step should be gradually done slower to deepen the tone on the muscle tone as well as parasympathetic nervous system. On second week you should learn next level and thus be at least a week ahead of client so you learn first hand what can arise from this practice. Next level consists of opening the mouth and pursing the lips as if sucking through a straw on inhalation and closing mouth on exhalations. By this time there will be more tone and hence increased ability to swallow. if after learnign this more is wanted, ask there are more levels of this pranayama. namaste mukunda

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03-14-2005, 02:32 PM	#1
milkthistle Junior Member Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 3	I would appreciate any information that would help a stroke victim recover the ability to swallow food. As yet I do not know the exact rating of the disability--let us assume it is a 3 out of 5 with a risk of the "food going down the wrong pipe." It happened six weeks ago. Has anyone experience in these matters or has read of treatments methods or excercises? I am new to yoga and go to a yoga center.

03-23-2005, 10:39 AM	#2
Mukunda SYTherapy Creator Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Yoga Therapist and trainer Posts: 1,068	I would suggest using a variation of sitali pranayama that i learned from my first teacher, a student of Krishnamacharya. It involves breathing in while slowly raising the face toward ceiling. Then breathing out while lowering the head to look at the chest. This maneuver will elongate the trachea and esophagus on the inhalation and shorten these tubes on exhalation. By doing slowly and progressively this can decompress the cervical vertebrae also. often tensions or compressions in cervical spine will accompany this difficulty in swallowing. After practicing this for one week you can give to client. EAch step should be gradually done slower to deepen the tone on the muscle tone as well as parasympathetic nervous system. On second week you should learn next level and thus be at least a week ahead of client so you learn first hand what can arise from this practice. Next level consists of opening the mouth and pursing the lips as if sucking through a straw on inhalation and closing mouth on exhalations. By this time there will be more tone and hence increased ability to swallow. if after learnign this more is wanted, ask there are more levels of this pranayama. namaste mukunda