Dangers of Alcohol and Yoga
Looking to cure your hangover with a bit of yoga? Practicing the new asana you learned for your friends at a party? Not a good idea if your drinking. Alcohol and yoga don’t mix. Take it from an experienced yoga practitioner/alcoholic. Your heart can only take so much and putting yourself through a bunch of asana’s hungover or while showing off at a party isn’t a good idea. You may feel temporary relief and invigoration from circulating your blood, but it’s a bad idea. Alcohol stresses your heart, strenuous activity stresses your heart. Mixing the two cause problems down the road like an enlarged or weakened heart, bad circulation, slower recovery, as well as an inability to practice. Your heart is a very vital organ. Your circulatory, endocrine, nervous system and many other vital systems don’t work properly if it’s stressed. Your probably best to wait out the hangover until you feel it’s completely passed. I’m writing this article because i am an experienced yoga practitioner as well as an alcoholic. I found an invigorating practice that I love, originally for relief from hangovers. It worked, for a while. Now i have a heart condition to the point where i can’t practice because my heart feels uncomfortable, believe me, it’s not a nice feeling. Finally i’ve quit drinking alcohol completely, but after months of sobriety, my heart and circulation still have not fully healed. All of the yoga and booze didn’t mix well. So, i would caution anyone to refrain from practicing fun postures while your drunk, and don’t use yoga to find relief from that hangover. Yoga is sacred and should be respected. Be cautioned, don’t disrespect asanas and practice drunk or hungover, or it may come back to bite you in the heart with severe consequences. I found out the hard way.