For thousands of years the yogis have been clear about the benefits of yoga. The practice of yoga seems to provide human beings with the fundamental 'technology' to develop deep health in mind, body and spirit. For a few decades here in the west, science has been striving to learn more about human beings, and in the process, many researchers are beginning to 'connect the dots' between the ancient practice of yoga and modern medical understanding about what nurtures well-being. Much of this research lives in the western 'medical' paradigm, so much of the research focuses on 'fixing' disease and 'comes from' a place of health care rather than health. My purpose in developing this lens is to gather this research and put it into a context that will serve yoga practicitioners, the 'yoga curious', yoga teachers who have an interest in this emerging 'detente' between the eastern and western approach to health, and the more scientifically minded who are willing to explore this ancient technology in an effort to serve our overall health as a culture and society.
Cancer Research
- MD Anderson Collaborates with Indian Research Center
- The University of Texas M D Anderson Cancer Center and the Swami Vivekananda Yoga Anusandhana Samsthana (Research Foundation), Bangalore, India, announced a collaboration to scientifically validate the age-old belief that mind-body interventions have a beneficial impact on the health of cancer patients.
- Yoga and Cancer - Julie Friedeberger Shares Her Approach
- Judy Friedeberger teaches at the Yoga Therapy Centre in Central London.
Yoga and Heart Health
- Reducing the Risk of Heart Attack with Mantra
- Mehmet C. Oz, M.D., a cardiac surgeon at New York Presbyterian Hospital and the director of the Heart Institute at Columbia University has researched the benefit of mantra recited in a single 10-second breath cycle, corresponding to six breaths per minute, in contrast, the average person's breath rate of 16 to 20 breaths per minute, "When your internal metronome slows, you get a variety of beneficial effects," he says (quoted from a Yoga Journal article from 2002), "and you also lessen the risk of catastrophic events like heart attacks and strokes."
The State of Yoga Research
- Interview with Sat Bir on Yoga as 'Mental Hygiene'
- Sat Bir is a Harvard based researcher who has alot to say abot the possibility of our society adopting yoga in a preventive, healthful way.
