What could be the cause of heart palpitations during inversions, such as Uttanasana and Down Dog? This was experienced by a healthy, 30-something woman, with no known heart problems.
Thank you.
This topic was moved to Mukunda Stiles Q&A.
Chandra
> This question is beyond my area of knowledge, however if I were teaching the individual, I would recommend that she have her heart function checked. I assume that the situation was bothersome for her and that she discussed it with you, or you would not know of it. Is she holding her breath? Is she using a bhanda? Does she experience the palpitations every time she does an inversion, or at other times during her daily life? Is there a history of heart disease in her family? I would also wonder if she has low blood pressure or experiences any dizziness.
Once those things were established, I would work with her to regulate her pranayama, using the wave breath technique taught by Mukunda. I would check with him about use of mulabhanda as a support for the blood pressure in the thoracic cavity. It may be beneficial for this student to limit her forward bends to 1/2 forward folds, with use of wall as support. She can get the stretch benefit of Down Dog at the wall without dropping her head below her heart, and can explore moving into a gradually stronger forward fold by slowly walking the hands down the wall, focusing on awareness of changes in breath pattern and/or heart rate as she does this. Emotionally, forward folds are inward moving. Does she experience any of the same sensations while doing seated forward fold? If she is physically healthy, this could be an emotional response. While I cannot claim to be an expert in this area, perhaps these thoughts will be helpful?
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> I will forward your querie and my comments to Mukunda and ask for his response. You may also want to do a search on heart palpitations on the forum and see other commentary regarding the heart. There is another yoga forum which handles yoga therapy at esutra@aol.com You may wish to inquire there. The site is hosted by Leslie Kaminoff. Thanks for your patience.
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> Love and light,
> Chandra
These are all good questions to understand. If answer is no to them all then i would suspect she may be having emotional difficulty or perhaps if not then a new physical problem may be arising. In the later case i would recommend she consider having a medical physical examination to see that she isn’t developing a medical condition.
A competent Ayurvedic specialist can also examine her pulse and determine whether something more sublte is occuring. If she were to see me i would instruct her on the use of a specific series of bandhas called tataka mudra that Krishnamacharya used as preparation for shoulderstand. This often removes all side effects of the pose. Blessings. Mukunda
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