As I am getting deeper and deeper into one of the books that we are to read for the YogaFit Therapy course, I am amazed at all the benefits of a regular yoga practice can do for folks. And I’m a yoga teacher. (The more you teach yoga, it seems the more you want to know….and need to know!)
Please read on for more information about “Yoga as Medicine” by Timothy McCall, M.D. at http://www.drmccall.com/ ~Gail Pickens-Barger, E-RYT.
Yoga appears to be effective in the treatment of a wide variety of health conditions. In Timothy McCall, M.D. Book, “Yoga As Medicine”, he goes on to say: We’ll be reviewing the scientific evidence later but, for now, let’s see what people who’ve tried therapeutic yoga have to say. In 1983 – 84, the London-based Yoga Biomedical Trust, run by Robin Monro, PhD, surveyed twenty-seven hundred (2,700) people, most between the ages of thirty-one and sixty, who used yoga therapeutically. To be included, participants had to have practiced yoga for at least two hours a week for a year or longer.
Though the number of people with some of the conditions in question was small, the results (see the table below, and in Dr. McCall’s book, Table 1.1) were impressive:
- 98 percent of back-pain sufferers found yoga helpful
- 90 percent of cancer patients
- 82 percent of people with insomnia
- and 100 percent of alcoholics
The lowest success rate in the survey was for women with “menstrual problems,” two out of three of whom found that yoga helped.
Table 1.1 Conditions Improved by Yoga, Self-Reported
Medical Condition Number of Percentage Helped
People Reporting By Yoga
Alcoholism 24 100%
Anxiety 838 94%
Arthritis &
Rheumatic Disorders 589 90%
Asthma or Bronchitis 226 88%
Back Disorders 1,142 98%
Cancer 29 90%
Diabetes 10 80%
Duodenal Ulcers 40 90%
Heart Disease 50 94%
Hemorrhoids 391 88%
High Blood Pressure 150 84%
Insomnia 542 82%
Menopausal Disorders 247 83%
Menstrual Problems 317 68%
Migraine 464 80%
Neurological &
Neuromuscular Diseases 112 96%
Obesity 240 74%
Premenstrual Syndrome 848 77%
Smoking 219 74%
