The Medicine of Yoga

The Incorporation of Yoga Into Modern Medicine

  Yoga is an essential part of health and wellness and is becoming recognized as such in the mainstreams of care on a global level.  Peer reviewed studies and publications worldwide cite the benefits of incorporating yoga into wellness practices and into the many traditional medicine disciplines such as mental health, orthopedics, cardiovascular, geriatrics and physical therapy.  Medical centers worldwide cite incorporation of yoga into their therapeutic toolboxes and their shared positive outcomes spurn more research and give reason for continuing to embrace yoga into healing arts.

  Several broad studies have explored the effects of regular yoga practice on the physical health of the students. A full assessment of the students before and after the studies cited significant improvement in overall health including physical attributes related to respiratory functions, improved flexibility and improved treadmill endurance. Also, studies indicate improved overall mental health and cognition. Many studies are completed in India where yoga is widely accepted. But expanding that knowledge and acceptance outside of countries friendly to the idea of yoga as an important part of health and wellness is becoming more popular.

  Two well established but very different medical specialties that frequently bring the practice of yoga into treatment plans are mental health and orthopedics.  Mental health modalities include the contemplative, mindfulness and meditative aspects of yoga whereas orthopedic medicine incorporates specific poses (asanas) into healing of specific body areas. Physical Therapy, closely related to orthopedics look to the asanas and movements of yoga as beneficial in the armament of treating chronic pain, post-surgical recovery and injury rehabilitation. 

  A literature review also finds yoga incorporated into cardiovascular and neurosurgical specialties. Yoga after a heart attack, combines the benefits of reducing stress per the mindfulness components and the cardiovascular rehabilitative aspects of movement at any level of physical effort. Of particular interest are the latest advances in neuroplasticity, the ability of the brain and neurons to change and learn through new experiences.  As research continues in this field the understanding that brain pathways can be repaired and/or restructured, gives hope to patients with physical force or stroke injures.  Included in the scope of neuroplasticity are the brain injuries associated with a gamete of psychological traumas including PTSD.

  History claims as a spoken practice, yoga dates to 2500 BCE and the first written yoga to be 3CE. It is described as an intuitive process of health whereby the student simply knows the practice is good for the mind and body.  Western medicine, a much younger science, relies on strictly controlled testing and results that can be replicated before acceptance and use in modern therapies and treatment plans. Over the last decades yoga has been subjected to those rigorous research and clinical trials resulting in wide acceptance by more western medical arenas and the addition yoga into mainstream medical specialties.

By: Carrie B. Bergener, RN, MHA