CAREGIVER HEALTH

Q. I was told that yoga is a good exercise for relieving caregiver stress, but I'm 65 and have diabetes and mild arthritis. I wonder if I'm too old for this. Is it safe for me?

"There's an ease many people find through yoga, and goodness knows caregivers need it," says Peggy Cappy, a certified yoga instructor specializing in senior workouts. She points out that the Arthritis Foundation says, "The best thing you can do is mild exercise to keep the circulation moving around the affected joints." Yoga offers an ideal solution because, Cappy says, "you can take a gentle approach."

Cappy's DVD, Yoga for the Rest of Us, begins with "a warm-up of the joints, done seated in a chair. Through yoga, you learn to pay attention to sensations in your body so you know how much is enough or too much."

Regarding diabetes, Cappy adds, "it's essential to get circulation down in your extremities and many exercise programs don't. I've created yoga warm-ups that increase circulation into your feet and hands."

Cappy insists you're never too old to benefit. "I've had many people not start yoga until their eighties, and one started in her nineties. She told me, 'If I had only started when I was younger...in my seventies!"