Its study can help both physically and mentally

Eric Small is one of the leading forces behind the movement to promote yoga’s power to alleviate the crippling effects of chronic illnesses such as MS.

BY RENEE STOVSKY
Of the Post-Dispatch

        On a weekend afternoon in Webster Groves, 18 yoga students sit quietly as their instructor, Eric Small, coaches them in the basic elements of pranayama, or breathing.

     “Breathe evenly and naturally through your nostrils,”he says. “Be aware of your breathing; listen to it. This will relax your nervous system and allow it to become receptive to various poses.”

     Next, he explains the benefits of some of the asanas, or postures: “Downward-facing dog,” to relieve fatigue and improve circulation; “forward bend,” to benefit bowel and digestive system functions; “legs up the wall,” to help with neck and back strain; and so on.

     In many ways, this yoga session at the First Congregational Church of Webser Groves, 10 West Lockwood Avenue, is similar to hundreds of others daily across the nation. First introduced in the United States more than 50 years ago, yoga is enjoying unprecedented popularity today; it’s estimated that 20 million Americans attend classes each day. What makes this class different is that the students in it and their teacher have multiple sclerosis. 

     The practice of yoga has been known to benefit healthy people by increasing flexibility, strength and endurance, as well as promoting serenity and a sense of well-being. Now, therapeutic yoga is gaining ground as a legitimate way to help the disabled with everything from increased mobility and better balance to improved cognitive function.

     Small, of Beverly Hills, Calif., is one of the leading forces behind the movement to promote yoga’s power to alleviate the crippling effects of chronic illnesses such as MS, an auto-immune disease of the central nervous system that can affect balance, arm strength, speech and memory as well as the ability to walk. And it’s no wonder, at 73, he is lean, muscular and flexible enough to do handstands, twists and back bends that many 40-somethings would find impossible.

     That’s a far cry from the prognosis he was given in 1950, as a 21-year-old college student who awoke one morning paralyzed and unable to breathe on his own. The doctors who put him on a breathing machine and diagnosed him with a severe case of MS did not expect him to live to be 40.

     Though Small suffers from blurred vision and fatigue – common among MS victims – he says he “has not had a serious relapse in more than 20 years.” And he attributes his relative good heath to the Iyengar yoga methods he practices from 5:30 a.m. to 7:30 a.m. six days a week, plus a diet that is mainly vegetarian. Unlike many MS suffers who rely on injectible drugs such as Copaxone to slow the progression of the disease, Small takes no regular medications, though he does believe in acupuncture.

     It was nothing short of good karma that led Small to the practice of yoga for its recuperative powers. Shortly after his diagnosis, Small was on his way to Scotland for an experimental treatment that included glandular shots and a special diet of grains and oils when he decided to stop first in London. That’s where he saw a man practicing gravity-de-fying yoga poses in Hyde Park. Through much persistence, he talked the man’s teacher, Sri Ananda, into taking on a student who walked with two canes.

     After he returned to the United States, Small still needed one cane, but he was stronger, and his mood had changed from the depression commonly associated with MS to fierce determination. When his well-intentioned parents, anticipating the progressive nature of hid disease, hired a carpenter to build ramps in their home on Catalina Island, Small fled to Los Angeles, continued his yoga studies there and combined them with a physical-rehabilitation program that he performed in a heated pool.  

     “I knew I had to start moving again; I had to do something for myself within my range of motin,” Small says.

     Several months after he began his regimen – and found that he needed to rely on canes only at the end of the day – Small met B.K.S. Iyengar at Berkeley. The two began corresponding, and Iyengar would write with suggestions on using props such as blocks, straps and bolsters to perform poses and compensate for Small’s disabilities. Eventually, Small was strong enough to go to India, where he studied for six months with the Iyengars.

     After several more years of study in the United States, Small became a certified Iyengar teacher. When he decided to open his own studio 22 years ago, he followed Iyengar’s advice.

     “He told me there were plenty of teachers for healthy students and that I needed to teach others like myself instead,” Small recalls.

     Small has taken that message to heart. In addition to his own classes, he now teaches MS patients at the University of California at Los Angeles’ department of neurology and rehabilitation, and two years ago he released a videotape, “Yoga with Eric Small,” adapted for people with multiple sclerosis or other disabilities. He also travels and lectures worldwide and teaches other yoga instructors and students how to use yoga in therapeutic situations.

     Small’s recent St. Louis visit was sponsored by the Gateway Area Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, 1867 Lackland Hill Parkway in Maryland Heights, which services 4,900 MS victims in a 90-county area in Missouri and southeastern Illinois. An estimated 2,700 St. Louisans have been diagnosed with MS. On the weekend of Nov 9 and 10, he led two morning classes for teachers and two afternoon classes for teachers and students.

     About 45 teachers from five states, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentuchy and Missouri, attended the workshop.

      Some, such as Bruce Roger of St. Louis studied previously with Small and believe deeply in yoga’s restorative power.

     “I’ve had students with everything from hypertension to arthritis who have been helped by the regular practice of yoga,” says Roger. “But it may be particularly useful with multiple sclerosis because MS is a nervous-system disease, and the true purpose of the sutras is to still the agitations of the mind. When you pacify the nervous system, you may be able to forge new neurological links.”

     Carol Bernstein, a physical therapist and yoga instructor, now teaches yoga for the Multiple Sclerosis Society at Hope Presbyterian Church in Creve Coeur. Though she says she hasn’t seen any dramatic improvements such as Small discusses – one of his students, a woman who has been wheelchair-bound for 10 years, purportedly now can take 100 steps – she definitely has seen gains.

      “MS causes fatigue, but when we practice deep-relaxation techniques in yoga, the body replenishes itself, and a sense of energy is restored,” she said. “Many students also have poor sensation in their feet, and paying attention to postural alignment helps them with their sense of balance.”

       Debbie Morrissey, 50, of Manchester, who attended Small’s class, was diagnosed with MS eight years ago and has been studying yoga at the Multiple Sclerosis Society for a year. She says it has helped her with mobility and balance, but more than that, she appreciates yoga’s camaraderie she feels in class.