“Role of Yoga for Patients with Type II Diabetes” and Lack of Methodological Rigour in Yoga Research

If you have a copy of “Light on Yoga” by Iyengar, in it you will find a whole index of asana and pranayama suggestions for a wide range of ailments. For example, if you are suffering from diabetes, Iyengar suggests that you do inversions, seated and standing forward folds, backbends, and twists (Yes, that’s right! All kinds of yoga poses)*. The point is that traditional notion assumes yoga practice is healing for “obvious” reasons. Exciting as it may sound, I would say that unless such claims are supported by solid scientific evidence, they should be taken with a large dose of scepticism.

What is ‘cool’?

I recently read an interview with someone who just came back from India*. The interview had a long account of the differences between the Yoga in India and the Yoga in the West. One of the differences mentioned was the habits to do with where people do yoga and what they wear whilst doing it. Needless to say, yogis in India do yoga whereever they like and in what ever they feel comfortable, in stark opposition to where we, in the West do yoga and in what we do yoga.

Do that headstand, you’ll feel good!

I believe respecting yoga tradition and conventions is usually a good thing but sometimes the conventions that we are supposed to follow have no foundation in modern science. That’s when someone like me gets a mind-bend. Should I ignore my rational side and go with the flow or is it OK to question and be critical, maybe in the end reject what I am asked to do?