Health Sense: is there a slenic sense?

[Guest guest]

-Dear Dr Ananda,

The interesting letter mentions spleen in a lighter

vain,but there are times when in yoga you can become

conscious-of your healthy functioning marrow and sure

enough spleen too.

There is also a way to be conscious of your adrenals,

pancreas, and the vestigial part of the uterus in a

male body.

There may be no reference in any text or scripture

but it is possible for an earnest seeker with a

passion to find the way(There is strictly no money in

this either.)

It is the mind which is asking for the proof in

yoga.

Yoga will also show where the mind just becomes quiet

unable to comprehend what lies beyond it and money.

 

Narasimhan

" Yogacharya Dr.Ananda Balayogi Bhavanani "

<yognat2001 wrote:

 

Interesting reading for all of us--happy spleens!!

ananda

 

 

Health Sense: Is Yoga Just a Crock?

By Judy Foreman

I have been standing on my head, off and on, for about

35 years now,

as well as sitting cross-legged breathing through one

nostril at a

time, and -- my favorite -- lying flat on my back,

utterly relaxed,

in the so-called " corpse pose. " I am, in other words,

one of the 15

million Americans who, according to a Harris

Interactive Service Poll

done in 2003 for Yoga Journal, have fallen in love

with this ancient

Indian practice that's part meditation, part exercise.

To the

cognoscenti -- and our numbers grew by nearly 29

percent between 2002

and 2003, according to the poll -- yoga is a pleasant

practice that

seems to enhance physical and emotional strength,

flexibility and

balance.

But does it?

Well, to the extent that yoga overlaps with the

so-called " relaxation

response, " it's no leap at all to conclude that yoga

is good for you.

The " relaxation response, " a term coined years ago by

Dr. Herbert

Benson, president of the Mind/Body Medical Institute

in Boston,

Mass., consists basically of quieting the mind and

body through

prayer, contemplation or focusing on something simple,

like

breathing.

The relaxation response has been shown to lower blood

pressure, heart

rate and respiration; to reduce anxiety, anger,

hostility and mild-to-

moderate depression; to help alleviate insomnia,

premenstrual

syndrome, hot flashes and infertility; and some types

of pain, like

tension headaches.

But for yoga itself, there's not much scientific

evidence that the

practice confers its own specific health benefits --

though that

doesn't seem to dampen anyone's enthusiasm, including

my own.

" There is not enough really good research to draw

strong conclusions

about anything about yoga, " said California-based

health psychologist

and yoga teacher Roger Cole.

Take standing on your head. There is some data

suggesting that

inversion may slow heart rate and make people secrete

less of a

stress hormone, norepinephrine. " The question, " said

Cole, " is

whether that amounts to clinical benefits. " Some yoga

teachers say

that standing on your head increases blood flow to the

brain, a

supposedly good thing. That's nonsense, said Dr.

Timothy McCall, a

physician and yogi who writes a health column for Yoga

Journal.

" Blood flow to the brain is tightly regulated, " he

said, so going

upside down probably doesn't bathe the brain in extra

blood. And

standing on your head could worsen glaucoma (increased

pressure

within the eye) and or problems with the retina. That

said, McCall is

still convinced that headstands " have a profound

effect on slowing

the body down. " McCall, who perhaps more than anyone

else has tried

to assess the science of yoga, has visited research

institutes in

India, where most of the yoga studies are being done.

Though some of

the research -- both in India and in the West --is

methodologically

flawed, yoga has more than 50 documented effects,

including improved

strength, increased flexibility, better balance,

better cholesterol

levels and better mood.

Of five studies on asthma since 1985, three showed

statistically

significant benefits. One 1998 study on carpal tunnel

syndrome (pain

caused by pressure on a nerve in the wrist) found yoga

was associated

with reduced symptoms and improved grip strength. A

couple of small

studies suggested that yoga may lead to both

subjective and objective

improvements in or chronic obstructive pulmonary

disease, an ailment

in which the airways and air sacs in the lungs lose

their elasticity.

Another small study found that the slow, diaphragmatic

breathing of

yoga may increase oxygenation in some patients with

congestive heart

failure. Several studies suggest yoga may improve

symptoms of

coronary artery disease, though the patients also

made other changes -- like switching to low-fat diets.

One study of

severe depression found that the deep breathing

(pranayama) of yoga,

electric shock therapy and drugs all improved scores

somewhat on a

standard depression test.

At Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital, senior

neuroscientist Sat

Bir Singh Khalsa is studying yoga as a treatment for

insomnia.

At the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center

in Houston, Dr.

Lorenzo Cohen, director of the integrative medicine

program, recently

published a seven-week study of 39 men and women with

lymphoma. Cohen

randomized patients to receive instruction in Tibetan

yoga or no

special intervention.

Those who practiced yoga slept better than those who

didn't, though

there were no differences in other measures, such as

anxiety,

depression or fatigue.

Researchers at the UCLA Jonsson Cancer Center are

about to start a

study of yoga to combat fatigue in women with breast

cancer.

Put bluntly, yoga may indeed have more health benefits

than have been

documented so far. But the skimpiness of data so far

means: Buyer

beware. If you're in a class and the teacher makes

claims like a

certain pose will make your spleen happy -- smile

serenely and think

of the claim as a metaphor.

And choose your teacher with care. Unlike hairdressers

and

manicurists, yoga teachers are not licensed. A

national organization

called Yoga Alliance (www.yogaalliance.org) lists

teachers who have

completed various levels of training, but it provides

no real

evidence of competence. Some methods of yoga, like the

Iyengar

system, do have a rigorous, multitiered system of

certification, said

Patricia Walden, director of the BKS Iyengar Yogamala

of Cambridge,

Mass.

But it's still a crapshoot. So, good luck. And, as

they say in

Sanskrit, when one person puts her palms together and

offers a humble

greeting to another, Namaste.

Judy Foreman is a lecturer at Harvard Medical School.

© 2004, Judy Foreman. Distributed by Tribune Media

Services

International.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

" Health and Happiness are your birthright, claim them

through Rishiculture Ashtanga Yoga " -Yogamaharishi Dr

Swami Gitananda Giri