From childhood through his late thirties, Robin Munro, Ph.D., of Cambridge, England, struggled to cope with chronic asthma and bronchitis. Then he discovered yoga, the 4,000-year-old Indian exercise discipline. As he practiced the gentle stretches and postures, his respiratory symptoms diminished and eventually disappeared. He hasn’t had an asthma attack or bout of bronchitis since he became a yoga devotee.
Dr. Munro’s experience led him to found the Yoga Biomedical Trust. The Trust polled 3,000 British yoga students, asking if yoga had helped them with any health problems. Indeed it had: In varying numbers, students reported that yoga had relieved arthritis, back pain, and migraines; minimized premenstrual and menopausal discomforts; lowered blood pressure; and supported weight loss and smoking cessation. like Dr. Munro, some of the students noticed that their respiratory problems subsided, producing fewer asthma attacks and bronchitis flare-ups.
Of course, the participants were very subjective in reporting yoga’s benefits, so the findings of the survey aren’t scientific. But they do confirm what many practitioners have also observed: Yoga can be amazingly therapeutic.
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