Research shows that yoga interventions (particularly those that include meditation, relaxation, breathing practices, and a yogic diet) can benefit a wide range of emotional and physical illnesses.

Yoga can positively influence your health in a number of ways. Below are just some of the many ways that yoga can influence your well-being:

• Yoga can prevent and treat disorders/injuries of the muscular/skeletal systems (yoga as physical therapy).
• Yoga can help to prevent, postpone, slow down, or reverse stress-related diseases and suffering - which accounts for a huge proportion of human suffering (yoga as stress reduction).
• Yoga can help to keep the body and mind agile (yoga as the fountain of youth).
• Yoga can influence health-related behaviors (i.e. diet, sleep, exercise; yoga as preventive medicine).
• Yoga can influence how we think, feel about, and respond to our experiences (yoga as psychotherapy).
• Yoga can influence our social relationships and roles (yoga as social intervention).
• Yoga can help us cope with the physical and psychological pain associated
  with illness (yoga as complementary medicine).

*Kelly McGonigal, Ph.D.*