Author: Yoga with Gail Pickens-Barger

As I am getting deeper and deeper into one of the books that we are to read for the YogaTherapy 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” book (excellent!)by Timothy McCall, M.D. http://www.drmccall.com/ ~Gail Pickens-Barger

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%

Source: The Yoga Biomedical Trust, London

Imagine how much you’d be hearing about a new drug that could accomplish even a fraction of this. Nevertheless, (it is Dr. Timothy McCall’s)it’s my experience that few in the medical community or the general public have any conception of what yoga has to offer. Part of the problem, (Dr. McCall) I’m convinced, is that many people who could benefit from yoga shy away due to misconceptions about what it is and isn’t, or who can do it and who shouldn’t.

Those subjects to be addressed in a different post.

Here is a NEW link about the 117 conditions benefited by Yoga by Dr. Timothy McCall!
117 Health Conditions Helped By Yoga!

Enjoy the updated info!