Centuries ago, Hindu swamis of India probably knew when they developed yoga that the practice that not only increases flexibility and blood flow but can help treat and prevent a range of ailments.

Yoga Benefits

Yoga Benefits

Today in Westernized countries, where the mainstream continues to rely upon conventional medicine, research is now verifying the therapeutic effects of practices like yoga and tai chi, mind-body pursuits handed down by generations of devoted followers.

Three studies show yoga can help ease the pain of carpal tunnel syndrome, help manage hypertension, and maintain wellness in the healthy.

One shows people who attend yoga sessions regularly for 4 months are likely to report a significant improvement in their quality of life and feeling of well-being.

50-year-old Larry Franklin, who suffers chronic pain in his neck and back, has abandoned conventional medicine and turned to yoga for relief. “They told me now that I’m 50, it’s pretty much to be expected and there’s nothing I can do about it,” says Franklin.

His pain became so bad that he feared it would end his career as a marine mechanic and would force him to beach his surfboard forever.

Neck surgery 5 years ago didn’t help Franklin, who wants to avoid pain drugs as best he can. Multiple sessions with a chiropractor following a car accident a year ago failed to bring him adequate relief.

Willing to try just about anything, he turned to yoga. “You love how you feel afterwards,” Franklin says, “but doing it is pretty tough.”

Franklin and more and more yoga participants are seeing positive results. “I have people that know me say, ‘You’re walking differently these days, you’re walking good, strong and straight,’” he reports.

Dr. Bill McCarberg of Kaiser Permanente San Diego prescribes yoga for many of his patients. He says the stretching of the muscles and increased blood flow can help just about anyone. “There is proof that we can see now,” says McCarberg. “I have seen some people who have had everything in the world done to them and they will swear by yoga as being the only thing that has helped them.”

The meditative aspect of yoga, which emphasizes controlling and fine-tuning one’s mental awareness in conjunction with body control, is thought to contribute to stress relief. “There are some hormones in your body that are stress hormones, like adrenaline and epinephrine,” says McCarberg. “We know that yoga can decrease those levels. When we can concentrate on relaxing and our breathing, everything around us starts to feel better.”

Dr. McCarberg says some patients find regular medical care ineffective for many common medical conditions, including chronic headaches, backaches, sleep disorders, and fibromyalgia. “Sleep disorders that many adults have can be adequately treated with a pre-sleep session,” reports McCarberg.

He says peers have criticized him for his approach, as yoga is not covered in medical school training. While he acknowledges that yoga needs much greater study–optimum frequency hasn’t yet been researched–, he says his mission is to make patients feel better. “My bias is improving people’s outlook on life and their quality of life, whether that is supported by evidence [or not]: I just want to make people feel good.”

Since yoga can be performed with varying degrees of intensity, and flexibility is sometimes promoted by heating classrooms to 110 degrees (Fahrenheit), there are people for whom advanced yoga would not be recommended. “If you were to go and do a ‘power yoga,’ for someone who is very de-conditioned or someone who has been in bed for prolonged period of time, they would get worse with that,” says the doctor.

“You need to make sure that you are not treating cancer with yoga, for example, or a bowel obstruction–it would probably not be a wise idea,” he says.

But Larry Franklin is a good candidate for yoga. The practice has become as much a part of his life as surfing, and his back and neck pain is significantly reduced. “I’m never going to give it up because I know if I do, I’m going to go back to where I was, and I don’t want to do that,” he says.