Yoga as a Medicine

Originating from thousands of years ago in India, yoga is a path for living life completely.  The word “yoga” is derived from the Sanskrit term “Yuj” meaning "union" of mind, body, breath, spirit, and self to the divine.  The practice of yoga includes meditation, deep relaxation, control of breath, various bodily postures (asanas), and a healthy diet.  Regular practice of yoga establishes natural harmony and functional balance between various organ systems, leading to better health and overall Well-being.

Yoga is a life style for a journey toward physical and spiritual wellness.  Yoga has become an increasingly widespread therapy used to maintain wellness and alleviate a range of health problems and ailments.  Yoga offers an effective method of managing and reducing stress, anxiety and depression and numerous studies demonstrate the efficacy of yoga on mood related disorders.

Yoga has been the subject of research for the treatment of epidemic diseases like depression, stress, diabetes, obesity, hypertension, coronary and serious pulmonary disease.  As alternative medicine, hatha yoga focuses primarily on physical postures.  In this form of yoga, physical postures and breathing exercises improve muscle strength, flexibility, blood circulation, oxygen uptake and hormone function.

Yoga's breathing techniques teach relaxation.  The relaxation induced by meditation helps to stabilize the autonomic nervous system with a tendency towards parasympathetic dominance.  The state of the mind and the body are intimately related.  If the mind is relaxed, the muscles in the body will also be relaxed. [1]

Scientific Studies on Yoga

While modern medicine has the ability in many cases to heal physical diseases and alleviate psychological disorders, it is argued that a purely medical approach is far or less effective in healing the emotional, intellectual, and personality layers of the human entity.

The discipline of yoga offers individuals a timeless and holistic model of health and a holistic path of healing. [3]

A survey conducted by the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Medicine found that yoga is one of the most sought after and used forms of complementary medicine to heal a wide range of health-related conditions — particularly stress, mental health, and pain management.  Significant benefits of yoga were reported in arthritis and other muscle disorders, as well as in cardiovascular endurance in healthy individuals. [2]

According to an article in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, the system of hatha yoga believes that prana, or healing "life energy" is absorbed into the body through the breath, and can treat a wide variety of illnesses and complaints. [4]   The researchers have found significant evidence of the benefits of yoga, both as a treatment and as a preventative form of medicine.  Studies have found therapeutic yoga practice can treat chronic health conditions; relieve stress; lower breathing and heart rate; reduce blood pressure; anxiety; obsessive-compulsive disorder; major depression; insomnia; and improve quality of life.  Many integrative and holistically minded doctors are already including yoga therapy as part of their treatment plans.

Benefits of Yoga

The physical benefits of yoga are apparent to anyone who has attempted the discipline or observed someone else doing it.

Yoga poses take a body through a range of motions, including sitting, standing forward and backward, inversions, and lying down.  The stretching, bending and twisting in yoga increases flexibility, and massages internal organs and glands.  It increases heart and lung capacity and improves the immune system.  Yoga also provides calmness, clarity, stamina, and mental peace.