Inside Yoga 53 (3/5/12)

This week the Guardian newspaper had an interesting article about yoga. The headline read: “Yoga: it’s never too late to reap the benefits”

It explained that yoga can help fight stiffness, hardening of the arteries, hormonal fluctuations, depression and loss of bone density. This is all very positive stuff and points that I do agree with; and after recent articles that accused yoga of harming our health it is good to see something more helpful.

It explained: “There is certainly evidence that yoga can help fight all manner of challenges that ageing bodies (not to mention minds) face: loss of bone density, stiffness, hardening of the arteries, hormonal fluctuations, mild depression … If yoga’s starting to sound like a universal panacea – well, there are plenty of yoga teachers who’d argue it is indeed just that.”

It mentioned scientific experiments to see how yoga can help older folk, including a study of 21 folk aged over 60 years. They attended yoga classes once a week for 12 weeks and after this time pweriod the team reported positive changes in the participants, in terms of the physical bodies. This was reported in the American Journal of Public Health.

Another experiment noted that after two years of yoga practice a group who suffered from osteoporosis saw an improvement in bone density in the spine and hip. Dr Loren Fishman, who carried out the study, was shocked at the results. She said: “By putting tremendous pressure on the bones, without harming the joints, yoga may be the answer to osteoporosis.”

To read the article, copy and paste this link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2012/may/01/yoga-benefits-never-too-late