The Yoga rules

By Doug Bremner

Americans are increasingly looking for alternatives to prescription medications to promote health and prevent disease. I previously wrote about the effects of Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) on promoting mental health and reducing anxiety. What about other alternative approaches? Yoga is a discipline derived from India combining mental and physical exercises that is increasingly catching on in the U.S. Not really knowing how to describe it I looked up the handy online dictionary for a definition of the word.

Yoga (noun); the word yoga derives from the Sanskrit, literally, yoking, from yunakti ("he yokes").

1. a Hindu theistic philosophy teaching the suppression of all activity of body, mind, and will in order that the self may realize its distinction from them and attain liberation

2: a system of exercises for attaining bodily or mental control and well-being

Assuming that people were practicing yoga to promote their physical and/or mental health as well as sense of well being, I followed my tradition of relentless questioning, and asked, is there any evidence that this stuff actually works?

Studies comparing yoga to exercise such as swimming show that yoga reduces anger, depression, and fatigue to an equal degree as swimming (and better than doing nothing) and in some cases yoga is better than swimming. Controlled studies have shown that yoga is equally efficacious as exercise and better than doing nothing for reducing fatigue and promoting energy in patients with multiple sclerosis. Yoga has proven beneficial in promoting health in patients with asthma, diabetes, breast cancer and epilepsy.

Yoga has also been shown to be useful in the treatment of major depression, with one study showing a response rate of 67% in patients in yoga compared to 73% for patients treated for a month with an antidepressant drug. Other studies showed yoga to be effective for reducing anxiety, although studies in this area were not well controlled.

There is increasing evidence that interventions promoting mind-body relationships are a good alternative to prescription medications. So limber up and get those moves going!

J. Douglas Bremner, MD, is a researcher and physician and author of 'Before You Take That Pill: Why the Drug Industry May be Bad for Your Health: Risks and Side Effects You Won't Find on the Label of Commonly Prescribed Drugs, Vitamins and Supplements.' http://www.beforeyoutakethatpill.com