Yoga as Medicine: The Yogic Prescription for Health and Healing

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Random House Publishing Group, Jul 31, 2007 - Health & Fitness - 592 pages
The definitive book of yoga therapy, this groundbreaking work comes to you from the medical editor of the country’s premier yoga magazine, who is both a practicing yogi and a Western-trained physician.

Beginning with an overview of the history and science of yoga, Dr. McCall describes the many different techniques in the yoga tool kit; explains what yoga does and who can benefit from it (virtually everyone!); and provides lavishly illustrated and minutely detailed instructions on starting a yoga practice geared to your fitness level and your health status. Yoga as Medicine offers a wealth of practical information, including how to:

•Utilize yogic tools, including postures, breathing techniques, and meditation, for both prevention and healing of illness
•Master the art of becoming more in tune with your body
•Communicate more effectively with your doctor
•Adopt therapeutic yoga practices as either an alternative or a complement to surgery and to expensive, sometimes dangerous medications
•Practice safely

Find an instructor and a style of yoga that are right for you. With twenty chapters devoted to the work of individual master teachers, including such well-known figures as Patricia Walden, John Friend, and Rodney Yee, Yoga as Medicine shows how these experts have applied the wisdom of this ancient holistic practice to twenty different conditions, ranging from arthritis to chronic fatigue, depression, heart disease, HIV/AIDS, infertility, insomnia, multiple sclerosis, and obesity. Defining yoga as “a systematic technology to improve the body, understand the mind, and free the spirit,” Dr. McCall shows the way to a path that can truly alter your life.

An indispensable guide for the millions who now practice yoga or would like to begin, as well as for yoga teachers, body workers, doctors, nurses, and other health professionals.
 

Contents

YOGA AS MEDICINE
1
Yoga as Medicine
3
The Science of Yoga
26
Yoga for Stress Relief
48
Bringing a Yogic Perspective to Your Health Care
71
THE PRACTICE OF YOGA
87
Doing Yoga Safely
89
Choosing a Style of Yoga and a Teacher
102
Arthritis
151
Asthma
169
Fibromyalgia
299
Heart Disease
335
High Blood Pressure
359
Irritable Bowel Syndrome
427
The Future of Yoga as Medicine
493
Sources of Further Information
506

Getting Started and Keeping It Going
121
YOGA THERAPY IN ACTION
131
Anxiety and Panic Attacks
133
Sanskrit Words in Asana Names
515
Acknowledgments
543
Copyright

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About the author (2007)

Timothy McCall, M.D., is a specialist in primary care who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. As a board-certified, Western-trained physician who has traveled to India and throughout the United States observing, training with, and interviewing the world’s leading yoga teachers and therapists, he is uniquely qualified to reconcile the medical findings and techniques of East and West. Yoga Journal is the premier yoga magazine in the country.

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