The Yoga Ailment

Most of yoga's devotees feel that the putative rewards of the exercises are worth the effort. Others may get something less than nirvana for their troubles. Dr. Joseph Chusid, a neurologist, told the A.M.A. Journal that sitting on the heels can damage the lower leg's peroneal nerve and lead to a complaint that he calls yoga foot drop.

This condition came to Chusid's attention when he was called on to treat a 22-year-old college student who had been experiencing increasing difficulty walking, running and climbing stairs. An examination failed to uncover the origin of the student's inability to control a drooping tendency in both feet. But conversation did. The youth, a recent convert to yoga, told Chusid that he often sat on his heels for periods of up to six hours while chanting. The position placed great pressure on the peroneal nerve, which winds about the head of the fibula (outer leg bone) just below the knee. After the youth agreed to do his chanting while standing, his feet, if not his inner tranquillity, gradually returned to normal.

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