The Science of Yoga: The Risks and the Rewards

William J. Broad has been a yogi (male practitioner of yoga) since 1970. That makes 43 years immersion in yoga as of August 2013. He is also a Pulitzer prize winning science writer for the New York TIMES. See his home page athttp://williamjbroad.com/ *** In 2012 journalist William Broad issued THE SCIENCE OF YOGA: THE MYTHS AND THE REWARDS. Of it Broad writes: "The Science of Yoga, my newest book, ,,, shows how a century and a half of careful research has been ignored. Millions of people do yoga. But few realize what science has learned about its risks and rewards. My hope is that the book will help practitioners avoid the bad and integrate the good." ***This book has something for everyone, for yoga novices such as myself, and also for more advanced yogis and yoginis, their teachers and for the growing number of scientists and health professionals now laboring to find out what makes for good health in yoga, what is neutral and what is positively harmful. There is much history, much biography, much travel by the author, much interviewing in THE SCIENCE OF YOGA. *** From Broad's pages emerge a handful of heroes of scientific yoga: in alphabetical order, (1) Kenneth H. Cooper (1931 - ), coiner of "aerobics"; (2) Loren Fishman (1940), "Wrote books on yoga for arthritis, back pain, and other afflictions"; (3) Jagannath G. Gune (1883 - 1966), who in 1924 south of Bombay founded "world's first major experimental study of yoga"; (4) B.K.S. Iyengar (1918 - ), Southwest Indian Hindu Brahman, early student and popularizer of reasonably science-friendly and "safe" yoga; (5) N.C. Paul (c. 1820 - 1880), an early western-trained East Indian M.D. Paul performed "world's first scientific study of yoga." See his 1851 A TREATISE ON THE YOGA PHILOSOPHY; (6) Aurel von Toeroek (1842 - 1912), led 1896 Budapest "study of yogis claiming to go into deathlike trances" -- and a few more standout heroes. *** What stays with me from THE SCIENCE OF YOGA are a few of Broad's views, e.g., (1) Since Paul's 1851 TREATISE ON THE YOGA PHILOSOPHY, scientists have increasingly detached "the yogas" (so called from their many almost unconnected varieties) from yoga's misty origins in Hindu religion, Sanskrit language and from wildly exaggerated claims by older yogis to be able to stop and start their hearts, their breathing, etc. at will. (2) At its core, yoga is non-aerboic, stretching, relaxing. Admittedly, yoga styles have of late been created emphasizing hyperventilation and very fast repetitions of movements like Salute to the Sun, in 105 degree heat, etc., but even these are low level aerobic, at best. They are no match for swimming, basketball, tennis, etc. (3) Increasingly some postures are seen by scientists as almost intrinsically dangerous (head stands, Cobra, Wheel (Upward Bow, etc.). (4) Yoga or the Yogas remain decentralized, diverse and barely if at all regulated by governments. -OOO-