Page 33 - Time Special Edition Alternative Medicine (January 2020)

of Manhattan Physical Medicine and Re habilitation Yoga may provide
in New York. “In real life, patients with back pain
would be given a series of poses tailored to their di- benefits for an array
agnosis. Someone with a herniated disc would be
treated very differently from someone with spinal
stenosis. So the results could be even better.”
Fishman brings up an interesting point. The
many different versions of yoga provide an opportu-
nity to customize therapy. So to optimize yoga’s ben-
efits, patients should first consult a doctor to help
pinpoint a class or style for their specific ailment. Al-
though a general yoga class may help with problems
like stress and depression, particular problems like
arthritis may well require a more specialized class
or customized routine.
In any case, most yoga will help keep the heart
healthy by reducing stress levels and blood pres-
sure. A study conducted at the University of Penn-
sylvania found that after completing a three-month
yoga course, participants with hypertension had sig-
nificantly lower blood pressure. And a review of 70
studies by the Center for the Study of Complemen-
tary and Alternative Therapies at the University of
Virginia found that yoga may be instrumental in
improving glucose tolerance and insulin sensitiv-
ity, cholesterol and triglyceride profiles, and blood
pressure, all factors that contribute to cardiovascu-
lar problems. What’s more, yoga encourages heart-
rate variability, which, perhaps counterintuitively,
reduces heart-disease risk.
And while you are building heart health, you may
be building bone strength as well. A 2009 study
by Fishman found that just 10 minutes of yoga a
day helped build bone mineral density in middle-
aged subjects. How does yoga build bone? Bend-
ing and twisting stimulate osteo cytes, the cells that
make bone. Because yoga isn’t a traditional weight-
bearing workout, however, it shouldn’t damage car-
tilage or lead to osteoarthritis, both common conse-
quences of strength training.
Speaking of joint pain, rheumatoid arthritis is an
autoimmune disease that causes painful inflamma-
tion of joints and surrounding tissues. Conventional
treatments, including steroids, can have serious
and unpleasant side effects such as heart problems
and weight gain. Once again, preliminary research
shows that yoga may be an appropriate alternative.
An Indian study found that participants in a one-
week yoga camp who practiced breathing exercises
and yoga poses twice a day lowered their stress and
of hard-to-treat
medical problems,
including depression,
multiple sclerosis,
osteoporosis and even
rheumatoid arthritis.
anxiety levels and were able to perform basic tasks,
including dressing and eating, more easily. What’s
more, the subjects’ rheumatoid-factor levels, the
most relevant marker of the disease, dropped. It
was not clear why yoga helped reduce those levels,
but the study’s lead author, Shirley Telles, head of
the Indian Council of Medical Research Center for
Advanced Research in Yoga and Neurophysi ology,
in Bangalore, theorizes that the carefully designed
yoga program helped “correct the imbal ance in the
immune system.”
And a Mayo study found significant positive ef-
fects on its own employees after just six weeks of
a yoga-based wellness program that included nu-
tritional counseling and meditation. In par ticular,
the participants displayed reductions in blood pres-
sure and stress along with an increase in flexibility.
What was especially encouraging to the researchers
was that the participants attended class six days a
week at 5:10 a.m. in the dead of winter, yet, accord-
ing to Mayo’s Bauer, “we had to turn people away
in droves.” That, more than anything else, he says,
speaks to the interest that yoga is generating as peo-
ple get in creasingly concerned about contributing
to their own wellness.
They’re making a good call. Yoga’s reach extends
to most corners of the body, from the nervous system
to the circulatory system to the immune system. But
in the end, most of yo ga’s advantages are a result of
its overall calming influence. “Yoga is about learning
to be where you are in this moment and not trying to
be some where else or in some other body,” says Bar-
bara Verrochi, a co-director of the Shala Yoga House,
a New York studio. After a few months of yoga, there
may be no other body you’d rather be in. 
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