Favorite Articles
Western Science vs. Eastern Wisdom
This was the very first, and still my favorite, of my Yoga Journal articles. It describes my first trip to India, and my efforts to reconcile what I'd learned in medical school with what I was experiencing in my yoga practice. This is a slightly different version than the one which appeared in the magazine, correcting a couple of small errors that happened during editing.
75 Conditions Benefited by Yoga (as Shown in Scientific Studies)
For years I've been publishing a list of health conditions that have been demonstrated in scientific studies to be benefited by yoga. When I last did it a couple of years ago, it was up to 54 conditions, but when I recently compiled research through 2012, I was amazed to see it had increased to 75 conditions. This 16-page PDF includes the references, and for the first time hyperlinks to the abstracts and, where available, the free full-text articles. I publish these lists as a service, so please feel free to share the PDF on Facebook, your web site, or perhaps even with your doctor!
Yoga as a Technology for Life Transformation
How the millenia-old practice of yoga creates sustainable positive change. I wrote this article for the Kripalu catalog just before completing my year as a scholar-in-residence at the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in 2005.
Yoga, Truthiness and the New York Times
This article systematically takes apart New York Times writer William Broad's claims that yoga is responsible for hundreds of strokes per year, the emotional linchpin of his yoga-wrecks-your-body arguments.
The Good Doctor
Yoga International profiled my therapy work and the 5-day Yoga As Medicine seminars I teach around the world. The article includes a sidebar discussion on how I teach students to conduct comprehensive assessments of yoga therapy "patients" in order to plan treatment approaches. Here's a PDF of that article, written by YI's editor Linda Sparrowe.
The Language of Healing
This article, published in Yoga+, lays out the crucial difference between holism and reductionism. Failing to understand this distinction leads many well-meaning people to embrace sometimes dubious alternative treatments, which I lump into a category I call "alternative reductionism." I hope you'll find it both provocative and full of practical implications for how to keep yourself healthy.
50 Ways to Heal a Yogi
This is a version of the article published in Yoga Journal under the name "38 Ways Yoga Keeps You Fit." It's much more complete than the article that appeared in the magazine; it also groups the ways yoga improves health into categories like "Musculoskeletal," "Circulatory" and "Organ Function," which makes it a little more user-friendly.
Man Bites Downward-Facing Dog
I wrote this in response to William Broad's New York Times article, "Wounded Warrior Pose," and its inflammatory and inaccurate claims about the "remarkable" dangers of yoga. Broad and I have disagreed before, but given the alarmist assertions and flawed science of this article and previous articles, I felt it was time to address the matter directly, and speak up on behalf of yoga and its vast healing powers.
Stress, Your Health, and Yoga
I recently updated this article on yoga, stress, and health. Yoga isn't only about stress reduction, but it's a big part of how it heals. This article was published on the Yoga for Healthy Aging blog, where I am now a contributor.
Interview with IJYT
In this interview conducted by Kelly McGonigal, PhD, then Editor-in-Chief of The International Journal of Yoga Therapy, I discuss what Western medicine can learn from Yoga and Ayurveda, the risks, challenges, and rewards of conducting research on yoga therapy, etc.
WhenYour Experience Contradicts What Your Yoga Teacher Tells You…
How do you respond when your direct experience on your yoga mat contradicts what your yoga teachers and/or yoga texts say? Sometimes, what's true for them, may not be true for you...
Good Yoga Teachers "Read" Bodies Better Than Doctors Do
Despite having gone through medical school where I studied human anatomy, did a month-long rotation on the orthopedics service and another month on rheumatology, I had no idea my spine was anything other than normal until I started to attend yoga classes...
"The Inhalation Is Heating and The Exhalation Is Cooling." Is This Actually True?
How do you respond when your direct experience on your yoga mat contradicts what your yoga teachers and/or yoga texts say? Sometimes, what's true for them, may not be true for you...