Yoga as Medicine: The Yogic Prescription for Health and Healing

195 Pages·2007·1.22 MB·English

by  Timothy McCall

CONTENTS
Title Page
Dedication
Epigraph
Author’s Note
How to Use This Book
Introduction: A Leap of Faith
PART ONE: YOGA AS MEDICINE
1. Yoga as Medicine
2. The Science of Yoga
3. Yoga for Stress Relief
4. Bringing a Yogic Perspective to Your Health Care
PART TWO: THE PRACTICE OF YOGA
5. Doing Yoga Safely
6. Choosing a Style of Yoga and a Teacher
7. Getting Started and Keeping It Going
PART THREE: YOGA THERAPY IN ACTION
8. Anxiety and Panic Attacks
9. Arthritis
10. Asthma
11. Back Pain
12. Cancer
13. Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
14. Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
15. Depression
16. Diabetes
17. Fibromyalgia
18. Headaches
19. Heart Disease
20. High Blood Pressure
21. HIV/AIDS
22. Infertility
23. Insomnia
24. Irritable Bowel Syndrome
25. Menopause
26. Multiple Sclerosis (MS)
27. Overweight and Obesity
Afterword: The Future of Yoga as Medicine
Appendix 1. Avoiding Common Yoga Injuries
Appendix 2. Sources of Further Information
Appendix 3. Sanskrit Glossary
Appendix 4. Sanskrit Words in Asana Names
Notes
Acknowledgments
Teacher Photo Credits
Copyright
For my mother,
Mary Elizabeth (Betty) McCall,
who didn’t get to name me
but who named this book
Words fail to convey the total value of yoga.
It has to be experienced.
—B. K. S. IYENGAR
The book contains general information about the healing potential of yoga and is
for informational purposes only. As each individual situation is unique, you
should use proper discretion, in consultation with a health care practitioner,
before undertaking any of the exercises and techniques described in this book.
The author and publisher expressly disclaim responsibility for any adverse
effects that may result from the use or application of the information contained
in this book.
HOW TO USE THIS BOOK
THIS BOOK IS DIVIDED INTO THREE PARTS. The four chapters that make
up part 1 provide an overview of yoga as medicine, the science behind it, the
relationship of stress to health and healing, and a yogic approach to health care.
Reading chapter 2, on the science of yoga, is not essential to getting the full
benefit of this book. But for those who are skeptical or intellectually curious,
chapter 2’s reviews of the scientific studies that investigate yoga’s healing
powers will be of interest. That chapter also provides possible explanations for
yoga’s benefits that are compatible with Western science, and discusses how
science and yoga provide complementary perspectives.
Part 2 contains material that many readers will find useful. Most would
benefit from reading chapter 5, “Doing Yoga Safely.” Readers wanting more
information on this topic, including more details on anatomy, should look at
appendix 1, “Avoiding Common Yoga Injuries.” Chapter 6 compares different
systems of yoga and provides guidelines on finding a good teacher. Chapter 7
details a step-by-step plan for starting and maintaining a yoga practice.
Part 1 of the book also contains a number of Experiential Exercises, in which
you can try specific yoga practices and judge the effects for yourself. You’ll get
much more out of the book if you do these exercises as you read, especially if
you’re new to yoga. Yoga is more about practice than theory. To understand it,
you must do it, and these exercises provide a gentle—yet quite palpable—
introduction to the effects of yoga on the body and mind.
Part 3 of the book contains twenty chapters on specific health conditions and
concerns, from anxiety to weight loss. Although you may be tempted to go
directly to the chapter or chapters that describe conditions you are dealing with,
this material will have more meaning to you if you’ve read all or most of parts 1
and 2. For each of the chapters in part 3, a seasoned yoga teacher describes his or
her approach with a specific student who had the condition in question. If you
follow yoga, you may recognize many of these teachers as some of yoga’s
leading lights in the United States. I’ve chosen a few, however, who are not
household names, even in the yoga world. I think you’ll find they, too, have very
interesting things to say.
Keep in mind that many of the experts could have just as easily been the
authority for another condition. For example, just because Shanti Shanti Kaur
Khalsa, a teacher in the Kundalini yoga tradition, is the consultant for HIV and
AIDS does not imply that her approach is the best for this condition, or that
Kundalini yoga might work less well for a different problem. I simply hope to
show you over the course of these twenty chapters how some of the top teachers
from different traditions work. So even if you don’t have chronic fatigue
syndrome (CFS), you may be interested in the Viniyoga approach taken by Gary
Kraftsow in chapter 14. If you want to know about the traditional Indian medical
system of Ayurveda, you might look at Sandra Summerfield Kozak’s approach
to diabetes in chapter 16.
Keep in mind that the chapters in part 3 are descriptive, not prescriptive.
Judith Hanson Lasater, for example, outlines in the back pain chapter the
approach she took with one student who had sciatica and describes why she
recommended what she did. This is not necessarily what she would recommend
for another student with back pain, and might be quite different from what
another teacher might have suggested for the same student. Still, with these
caveats in mind, I believe anyone with back pain will find helpful information in
the chapter.
You may also benefit from looking at chapters in part 3 that discuss
conditions other than your major concern. Depression, for example, can affect
your recovery from many conditions, from heart disease to cancer, so many
readers will benefit from reading chapter 15. People with fibromyalgia syndrome
or CFS may want to read the chapter on insomnia, since poor sleep is often a
prominent component of those conditions. People with diabetes, especially the
more common adult onset variety (type 2), may want to look at the chapter on
weight loss, since overweight plays a big role in that disease.
In addition to the perspectives of the yoga teacher consultants, in each chapter
of part 3 I’ll provide an overview of the condition in question from my