Yoga Therapy to Manage Disease By--Dr Swami Shankardev Saraswati Swami Shankardev is an eminent yoga teacher, author, medical doctor and yoga therapist. After meeting his Guru, Swami Satyananda Saraswati in 1974 in India, he lived with him for 10 years and has taught yoga, meditation and tantra for 30 years. Swami Shankardev is an Acharya (authority) in the Satyananda lineage and he teaches throughout the world. Yoga and meditation techniques have been the foundation of his yoga thereapy, medical and psychotherapy practice for over 25 years. He is a compassionate, illuminating guide, dedicated to relieving the suffering of his fellow beings. (Author can be contacted on www.bigshakti.com) Reproduced with permission from www.bigshakti.com		Print This Page
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Yoga therapy is most commonly used to manage a broad range of chronic disease conditions. Chronic conditions are those that are long lasting and that do not heal quickly or of their own accord. Yoga is rarely used in acute illnesses, such as coughs and cold, as the best thing for these is bed rest and soup. The body will usually heal itself in time.

In the west the most common chronic conditions are:

Psychosomatic illnesses - in which psychological and social factors, such as stress play a major role in physical illness, for example, in diseases such as coronary artery disease, high blood pressure, asthma, eczema, diabetes, and multiple sclerosis.

Chronic degenerative diseases - illnesses in which body organs deteriorate over time, often due to poor diet and lifestyle, for example, heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, cancer. The body organs affected begin to breakdown and may eventually fail. Other body systems which rely on those organs are detrimentally affected.

Yoga therapy is extremely good at managing both these types of chronic diseases and there can be an overlap between these two forms, for example, a psychosomatic disease can lead to chronic degeneration over time, and many degenerative illnesses have strong psychological factors associated with them.

Yoga therapy is sometimes useful as an adjunct to modern medical treatment and in some cases can be the primary therapeutic modality.
Yoga therapy has been found to be effective in the treatment and management of the following problems and diseases:

• Heart disease, such as coronary artery disease
• High blood pressure
• Back pain
• Arthritis
• Asthma
• Sinusitis and hay fever
• Headache
• Certain endocrine diseases
• Digestive disorders, such as heartburn and ulcers, constipation, colitis,
• diabetes and many other conditions.

--Dr. Shankardev Saraswati

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