From arthritis, asthma and heart disease to insomnia, infertility and weight loss, this groundbreaking book of yoga therapy provides the postures, breathing techniques and meditation exercises to relieve stress, prevent illness, and heal you when you’re sick. With a wealth of practical information, a comprehensive review of the scientific research, and in-depth coverage of injury prevention and contraindications to safe practice, this book is an indispensable guide for the millions who now do yoga or would like to learn, as well as for yoga teachers, body workers, doctors, nurses, and other health care professionals.
Yoga as Medicine features twenty chapters devoted to the work of individual master teachers such as Patricia Walden, John Friend, Gary Kraftsow, Nischala Joy Devi, and Rodney Yee, and shows how these experts have applied their knowledge of this revered ancient practice to heal people in need. Dr. Timothy McCall, Yoga Journal’s medical editor, outlines the yogic approach to each condition and shows how to safely integrate yoga into both Western medicine and alternative health care to create a prescription for health and healing whose time has come.
Illustrated with more than 300 photos, drawings and charts throughout. 568 pages, $20 ($13.60 at Amazon.com).
Reviews of Yoga as Medicine
"This is a landmark book. Yoga as Medicine provides a remarkable perspective on the breadth and depth of Yoga therapy, and many leading practitioners, both in the West and India, in a uniquely educational, engaging, and inspiring way."
“If you care about your body and want to learn to listen more carefully to its messages, and to take good care of it over the long haul, you will find this book a godsend, whether you are young or old, firm or infirm, a new-comer to yoga or an old-timer. It is the first comprehensive medical look at the benefits of yoga and its therapeutic uses. Timothy McCall has done a great service to the field of mind/body medicine”.
Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D., Professor of Medicine emeritus,
University of Massachusetts Medical School, author of Coming to Our Senses
and Arriving at Your Own Door
“Yoga as Medicine is a powerfully clear, accessible and practical guide to creating a vibrantly healthy body, mind, and spirit. What a tremendous contribution to healing and human potential!
Joan Borysenko, PhD, author of Minding the Body,
Mending the Mind
“Yoga is medicine. Dr. McCall shows us, step by step, with helpful pictures, clear prescriptions, and up-to-date references, how it’s practiced, and how it can help us to heal in body, mind, and spirit.”
James S. Gordon, MD, Founder and Director, The Center for
Mind-Body Medicine, Former Chairman of the White House Commission on
Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy, and author of Manifesto for a
New Medicine
“Yoga as Medicine is beautifully organized and presented, making it instantly readable and practical for anyone desiring better health or immediate help with a particular problem.”
Christiane Northrup, MD, author of Mother-Daughter
Wisdom, The Wisdom of Menopause, and Women’s Bodies, Women’s
Wisdom
“Timothy McCall skillfully introduces us into the vast universe of yogic healing, affording access to compelling new models of balance and wholeness for body, mind and spirit.”
Pandit David Frawley, author of Yoga and Ayurveda
and Ayurveda and the Mind
“…the next best thing to having the doctor right there beside you. An instant classic.”
Richard Rosen, author of The Yoga of Breath and Pranayama
Beyond the Fundamentals
Mehmet Oz, MD, Professor and Vice Chairman, NY
Presbyterian/ Columbia University Hospital and author of You: The Owner's
Manual and Healing from the Heart
Arkansas Online
Publishers Weekly:
Starred Review. Western-trained internist and Yoga Journal medical editor McCall has practiced Iyengar yoga for a decade. In 2002, he traveled to India, where most scientific research on yoga's medical benefits has been conducted. The results of that visit and McCall's subsequent study of yoga therapy and ayurveda (India's ancient medical system) are presented here, translated into Western medical terms. For example, McCall demystifies such concepts as samskaras (unconscious patterns that negatively affect behavior and health); scientists, McCall says, explain these patterns as repeated firings of neurons that change the brain's wiring. Although McCall's focus is on yoga therapy, he includes material that will be helpful to most students. For readers challenged by illness, he provides an overview of popular yoga styles and their suitability for various degrees of fitness; steps to finding a yoga therapist; and what to expect from a session. Twenty chapters feature noted yoga instructors describing their approaches to specific conditions—panic attacks, carpal tunnel syndrome, depression, infertility, cancer, etc. They offer advice, rather than fixed protocols, based on their tradition and experience. This might frustrate readers seeking a formula, but those willing to experiment have access to many diverse tools and practices. No doubt McCall's fine articulation of yoga's healing potential will appeal to a large audience of instructors, students, physicians and their patients. (July)
McCall, Timothy, M.D. Yoga as Medicine: The Yogic Prescription for Health and Healing. Bantam. Jul. 2007. c.576p. photogs. index. ISBN 978-0-553-38406-2. pap. $17. HEALTH
McCall (Examining Your Doctor: A Patient's Guide to Avoiding Harmful Medical Care) details yoga's health benefits and offers therapeutic techniques from a variety of traditions (e.g., iyengar, viniyoga, anusara) for relieving such chronic conditions as anxiety, cancer, diabetes, and obesity. He successfully outlines the reasons yoga can benefit chronic disease sufferers, referencing scientific research and empirical evidence as well as drawing on his own years of experience practicing yoga. At the same time, he stresses safety, encouraging students to talk to their doctors and noting that the information he provides is not prescriptive. In chapters organized by chronic disease, the many poses are illustrated and accompanied by contraindications, considerations, and modifications for those with medical problems. Also included are a reference list and print and online sources for additional information, e.g., directory information for yoga props, clothing, teachers, and centers. Some of the poses may prove too difficult for novices, who may first want to consult a beginner's guide or take a beginner's course, but the yoga therapy he suggests for each chronic disease, along with the modifications and safety tips, makes this an excellent resource. For public and consumer health libraries.—Dana Ladd, Community Health Education Ctr., Virginia Commonwealth Univ. Libs. & Health Syst., Richmond