For fitness, the practice of yoga promotes balance, flexibility and strength. America loves yoga, according to a survey conducted by the Yoga Journal. The top four reasons given for the interest in yoga were: flexibility, stress reduction, strength, fitness and conditioning. As yoga grows in popularity, it is also becoming Americanized, and there are a number of hybrid yoga practices springing up like: Acu-yoga, Yogilates, Disco Yoga, Hip-Hop Yoga, Punk Rock Yoga, Aqua Yoga, Doga (with your dog), Yoganetics, Soul FlowYoga, Freestyle Vinyasa Flow, Sonic Yoga, Yogic Arts (yoga combined with martial arts) and Nude Yoga -- which is a good thing, or a bad thing, depending on who you are asking.Of the survey participants who were asked , these were the top four good/bad statements made to the increasing popularity of yoga in this country:
- "Americans need to recognize that practicing yoga doesn't conflict with mainstream religious values."
- "The commercialization of yoga is a good thing. It attracts many more people to the practice who otherwise wouldn't know about it."
- "Innovation is good for yoga. The many different styles that are evolving make the practice accessible to everyone."
- "Yoga in America is becoming too commercialized."
According to M. D. Anderson researchers, cancer and its treatment are associated with considerable distress, impaired quality of life, poor mental health and reduced physical function. For thousands of years, Tibetans have been practicing a form of yoga that might help reduce treatment-related side effects that accumulate over time for cancer patients. As research continues, yoga may become an accepted alternative and complementary therapy incorporated into mainstream medical practice for the treatment of disease and improving health.
Realistically, I am not certain that some of the trendy hybrid forms of yoga will endure over time, but the yoga that has been around for thousands of years is here to stay.
1. Seems like a real waste of money. The recent small NCI pilot study
http://www.asco.org/portal/site/ASCO/menuitem.34d60f5624ba07fd506fe310ee37a01d/?vgnextoid=76f8201eb61a7010VgnVCM100000ed730ad1RCRD&vmview=abst_detail_view&confID=23&abstractID=103330
indicated but a 12% improvement in symptom management. Well, wouldn't any stretching exercise do that? Penn and Teller like to call yoga "stretching". That's basically all it is. My cats stretch all the time. It feels good to them and certainly feels good to the average American who sits for a living today instead of walking to get water or bending to tend the fields.
And, "within the Intervention group, a positive dose/response relationship emerged with more frequent attendance in the yoga intervention associated with better outcome in physical functioning and fatigue."
This could very well be an example of a wrong direction logical fallacy. More likely, a better outcome in physical functioning and fatigue resulted in more frequent yoga attendance. If I feel better, attend more.
Though I am not a fan of NICCAM, this study
http://medicine.osu.edu/mvimg/article.cfm?ID=2473
appears to be a bit more scientific in nature than the "Ancient Tibetan Healing Practice" "studies".
As one blogger noted, "it is when yoga claims to be more than the sum of its parts that problems arise. When it makes extraordinary claims of healing and wishes them to be scientifically (and politically) recognized, it must provide evidence commensurate with the claims. Otherwise, it is no more than positivity masquerading as medicine."
If you're a cancer patient and find it difficult to attend a class today, don't let the New Agers make you feel guilty about not attending. Turn on some nice music, put a mat on the floor, take a deep breath, and stretch, preferably with that soft bundle of joy, your purring cat.
Michele
Posted at 8:15AM on Aug 8th 2006 by Michelle