Transplant Medicine

For patients preparing for and recovering from organ transplant, there is a wealth of information focused on the science, technology, and experience of western medicine related to evaluation, surgery, recovery and immunosuppressive drug therapy.  Many exciting new developments are occurring every day, resulting in higher success rates and fewer complications.  Some of the areas of study include partial organ transplants, immunogenetics and transplant immunology, and stem cell transplantation.

Medicine Yoga presents a complementary structure for transplant patients to optimize their health before and after transplant surgery.  This framework includes guidance and teachings on diet and nutrition, yoga, qi gong, fitness techniques, sound therapy, and meditation and visualization.

The Hospital Yoga package provides a comprehensive structure for the period before and during the hospital stay that the patient can do in a bed, chair, or walking around the hospital after surgery.   The practices in this package provide gentle yet powerful energetic exercises to help reduce stress, improve rest and sleep, and minimize scar tissue and swelling.  This can result in faster healing, release from the hospital, and return to daily life.

The Transplant Yoga package presents an integrated and incremental approach to building flexibility, strength, and optimal health through joint mobility, breathing, yoga movements and postures, and meditation and visualization.   The fundamentals of Transplant Yoga include teachings of the classic yoga postures and movements with modifications for individuals with medical problems.  Traditionally, when a student came to a yoga teacher, the student was given a yoga practice that was specifically designed to heal the student's current medical problems or limitations.  After that, the student advanced in his or her own yoga practice.  Our teaching is in line with this tradition.  The yoga postures and sequences that you will be doing are beneficial as they provide a form of movement and exercise, but more fundamentally they are designed to be therapeutic in their nature

Transplant Qigong is a very useful complement to Transplant Yoga, bringing the benefits of a tradition of exercise and healing that has been used in China for thousands of years.   Qigong literally means “Energy or Life Force Cultivation” and is one of the five branches of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

Qigong views a person as an energy system in which body, mind and spirit are unified, each influencing and balancing the other.  The Qigong system thus emphasizes a holistic approach of wellness that treats the whole person, and helps the body to heal itself.  Many people have found Qigong methods of healing and exercise to be excellent tools for restoring and maintaining optimum health, preventing illness and enhancing well-being of body, mind and spirit.   Qigong exercises look similar to Tai Qi, but the movements are medically designed to boost the immune system and open energy channels.

Qigong can complement Western medicine to improve health care especially in the areas of treating chronic conditions and as preventive medicine, whereas Western medicine has special value for treating chronic conditions.   Anyone can practice Qigong exercises to help strengthen the Qi in the body and remove obstructions to Qi flow that may have developed due to injury, emotional stress, diet, disease or other factors.  Conversely, obstruction of Qi can produce disease.

Qigong has exercises designed for cleansing and cultivation of specific organs: lungs, kidney, liver, heart and spleen (pancreas).  The belief is that these five important organs all work together energetically, so all five exercises are very beneficial for balancing the body and improving overall health.

Other Medicine Yoga packages and classes, including Kettlebell and Indian Club training and yoga, are very useful for transplant patients to regain and build strength and flexibility after transplant.   These activities are excellent for increasing muscle, losing fat, and building and keeping strong bones as well as helping with mental and emotional balance and acuity.

All of the practices described above can help transplant patients prepare for surgery, recover from surgery, and go on to live a wonderful life, getting optimal health from their new organs.  Families and friends of patients benefit from these programs as well by acting as coaches and training partners for the transplant patient and developing great lifetime diet and exercise habits along with the patient.