The Science of Yoga: The Risks and the Rewards

by William J Broad

  28 “The idea that”: Anonymous (but clearly J. G. Gune), “Physiological and Spiritual Values of Pranayama,” Yoga Mimansa, vol. 4, no. 4 (October 1933), p. 312.

  28 sent free copies: Interview, O. P. Tiwari, secretary of Kaivalyadhama Yoga Ashram, Lonavla, India, June 27, 2007.

  29 a hero of the nationalist intelligentsia: One tribute came in March 1930 from Motilal Nehru, founder of what would become India’s most powerful political dynasty. The family produced three prime ministers. In a letter, Nehru said Gune had shown that yoga could withstand “the fierce light of modern sciences” and—in a dig at colonialism—found it to be “well in advance of all that has so far been discovered in the West.” He said every Indian had a duty to support Gune “and afford him a full and fair opportunity to realize his ideals for the physical and cultural uplift of India.” See Anonymous (but clearly J. G. Gune), “Editorial Notes: Pandit Motilal Nehru’s Note,” Yoga Mimansa, vol. 4, no. 1 (July 1930), p. 3.

  29 recommended the calming effect: Gharote and Gharote, Kuvalayananda, pp. 57–58, 64–65, 96–99; Joseph S. Alter, Gandhi’s Body: Sex, Diet, and the Politics of Nationalism (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2000), pp. 18–19.

  29 yoga in classes of mass instruction: Gharote and Gharote, Kuvalayananda, pp. 21, 88–95.

  29 “peculiarly fitted”: Anonymous (but clearly J. G. Gune), “Kaivalyadhma—An Appeal,” Yoga Mimansa, vol. 2, no. 4 (October 1926), second impression, December 1932, p. 294.

  29 “probably had a more profound impact”: Alter, Gandhi’s Body, p. 68.

  29 played a skillful role: James Manor, Political Change in an Indian State: Mysore 1917–1955 (Columbia, MO: South Asia Books, 1978), pp. 1–27, 73–94; De Michelis, A History, pp. 196–97.

  30 practiced an eclectic style: Norman E. Sjoman, The Yoga Tradition of the Mysore Palace (New Delhi: Abhinav Publications, 1999), pp. 55–62. The palace referred to advertising yoga as “propaganda work,” see p. 50.

  30 hired a teacher: Ibid., pp. 50–52, 109–10; De Michelis, A History, pp. 195–96.

  30 spent his early life: Fernando Pagés Ruiz, “Krishnamacharya’s Legacy,” Yoga Journal, May–June 2001, pp. 96–101, 161–68.

  30 a style that drew: Sjoman, The Yoga Tradition, p. 55.

  30 a number of gifted students: They include T. K. V. Desikachar, Indra Devi, B. K. S. Iyengar, Pattabhi Jois, and Srivatsa Ramaswami. See Srivatsa Ramaswami, The Complete Book of Vinyasa Yoga (New York: Marlowe & Company, 2005), pp. xiii–xvi; Ruiz, “Krishnamacharya’s Legacy.”

  30 the maharajah asked Krishnamacharya: B. K. S. Iyengar, Iyengar: His Life and Work (Porthill, ID: Timeless Books, 1987), p. 8.

  30 Yoga Makaranda: T. N. Krishnamacariar, Yoga Makaranda (Mysore: Mysore Palace, 1935).

  30 “pains in the abdomen”: Quoted in Sjoman, The Yoga Tradition, p. 66.

  31 sickly all his life: B. K. S. Iyengar, Astadala Yogamala (New Delhi: Allied Publishers, 2006), vol. 1, pp. 15–16.

  31 afterward helped facilitate: Ibid., pp. 27–28; see also De Michelis, A History, pp. 197–98.

  31 a knowledgeable liaison: See Anne Cushman, “Iyengar Looks Back,” Yoga Journal, November–December 1997, pp. 85–91, 156–65.

  32 misalignments that could restrict: For a description, see Robin, A Physiological Handbook, p. 249.

  32 turn the foot ninety degrees: Iyengar, Light on Yoga, pp. 63–64.

  33 saw Iyengar perform: Iyengar, Iyengar, p. 25.

  33 studied at his ashram: Indra Devi, Forever Young, Forever Healthy: Simplified Yoga for Modern Living (New York: Prentice Hall, 1953), pp. 15–17.

  33 “He said he had no classes”: Ibid., p. 18.

  34 experience with yogic supermen: Paramahansa Yogananda, Autobiography of a Yogi (Los Angeles: Self-Realization Fellowship, 1994).

  34 “Control over death”: Paramahansa Yogananda, Scientific Healing Affirmations: Theory and Practice of Concentration (Los Angeles: Self-Realization Fellowship, 1998), p. 29.

  34 “Yogis know how”: Swami Yogananda, Super Advanced Course Number 1, Lessons 1 to 12 (1930) (Whitefish, MT: Kessinger, 2003), p. 8.

  34 a close friendship with Yogananda: Swami Satyananda Giri, A Collection of Biographies of 4 Kriya Yoga Gurus (New York: iUniverse, 2004), pp. 184, 187–202, 220–32, 266–67; Laurel Elizabeth Keyes, Sundial (Denver: Gentle Living Publications, 1981), pp. 99–105.

  34 the second-in-command: “I am powerless,” Yogananda wrote in 1925, “to tell how greatly he has helped me.” Swami Yogananda, “Swami Dhirananda,” East West, vol. 1, no. 1 (November–December 1925), p. 29. Dhirananda was Bagchi’s monastic name.

  34 breaking his vow of celibacy: Ron Russell, “The Devotee’s Son,” New Times Los Angeles, July 5, 2001.

  35 a pioneer: Anonymous, “B. K. Bagchi: Memoir,” September Meeting 1965, Proceedings of the Board of Regents: July 26, 1963–June 23, 1965 (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, n.d.), pp. 1016–17.

  35 his death reported: Anonymous, “Speaker Dies While Introducing Indian Ambassador at Dinner Here,” Los Angeles Times, March 8, 1952, p. 1.

  35 had taken to demonstrating: Ruiz, “Krishnamacharya’s Legacy”; Iyengar, Iyengar, pp. 15, 17.

  35 the beat was still there: Today, doctors call what Krishnamacharya did the Valsalva maneuver. When a person breathes deeply and holds their breath, the strain creates pressure in the chest that traps blood in the venous system and slows its flow into the heart or blocks it altogether, diminishing the heartbeat. See William D. McArdle, Frank I. Katch, and Victor L. Katch, Exercise Physiology: Nutrition, Energy, and Human Performance, 6th ed. (Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2007), pp. 272–75.

  35 published their findings: M. A. Wenger, B. K. Bagchi, and B. K. Anand, “Experiments in India on ‘Voluntary’ Control of the Heart and Pulse,” Circulation, vol. 24 (December 1961), pp. 1319–25.

  35 “It was often reported”: Basu K. Bagchi, “Mysticism and Mist in India,” Journal of the American Society of Psychosomatic Dentistry and Medicine, vol. 16, no. 3 (1969), pp. 73–87.

  36 more than five weeks: Gharote and Gharote, Kuvalayananda, p. 77.

  36 measured six feet long: M. V. Bhole, P. V. Karambelkar, and S. L. Vinekar, “Underground Burial or Bhugarbha Samadhi (Part II),” Yoga Mimansa, vol. 10, no. 2 (October 1967), pp. 1–16.

  36 an itinerant showman: Arthur Koestler, The Lotus and the Robot (London: Hutchinson, 1960), pp. 116–19. Koestler here recounts an early phase of the experiment before the pit walls were tightly sealed, though the showman participated in all stages of the study.

  36 Twice in 1962: Bhole et al., “Underground Burial.” In the table, the subject, Ramandana Yogi, is referred to by the initials RN.

  37 locked volunteers into the samadhi pit: Yoga turned out to confer no advantage. The experiments showed that a person in the pit tended to breathe less oxygen. But the cause, the scientists found, was simply the body’s natural response to rising levels of carbon dioxide as exhaled air accumulated. The high levels lowered the body’s overall metabolism and thus the need for oxygen. Their observations jibed with what Paul had described a century earlier. The cooling of the body’s fires, they wrote, “is neither voluntary in nature” nor “controlled by Yogic methods.” A fervent skeptic could have hardly said it more firmly. See Bhole et al., “Underground Burial.”

  37 “We’re still ready”: Interview, Makrand Gore, Kaivalyadhama Yoga Ashram, Lonavla, India, June 28, 2007.

  37 “I can drink acid”: Iyengar, Light on Yoga, p. 13.

  37 “relieves pain”: Ibid., p. 100.

  38 “makes healthy pure blood”: Ibid., p. 190.

  38 the possibility of placebo effects: For how they combine with poor experimental design to produce false conclusions, see R. Barker Bausell, Snake Oil Science: The Truth About Complementary and Alternative Medicine (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007).

  38 At the book’s end: Iyengar, Light on Yoga, pp. 487–506.

  39 “sexual retentive
power”: Ibid., p. 438.

  40 investigators at the University of Pennsylvania: Debbie L. Cohen, LeAnne T. Bloedon, Rand L. Rothman, et al., “Iyengar Yoga versus Enhanced Usual Care on Blood Pressure in Patients with Prehypertension to Stage I Hypertension: A Randomized Controlled Trial,” eCAM, Oxford University Press, September 4, 2009, pp. 1–8.

  40 dozens conducted everywhere: Kim E. Innes, Cheryl Bourguignon, and Ann Gill Taylor, “Risk Indices Associated with the Insulin Resistance Syndrome, Cardiovascular Disease, and Possible Protection with Yoga: A Systematic Review,” Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine, vol. 18, no. 6 (November–December 2005), pp. 491–519.

  40 “safe and cost-effective”: Ibid., p. 492.

  41 Consider a 2011 study: Kathleen K. Zettergren, Jennifer M. Lubeski, and Jcenter1yn M. Viverito, “Effects of a Yoga Program on Postural Control, Mobility, and Gait Speed in Community-Living Older Adults: A Pilot Study,” Journal of Geriatric Physical Therapy, vol. 34, no. 2 (April–June 2011), pp. 88–94.

  41 counteract the deterioration of the disks: Robin, A Handbook, pp. 279–80.

  41 With normal aging: Michel Benoist, “Natural History of the Aging Spine,” European Spine Journal, vol. 12, supplement 2 (2003), pp. S86–S89.

  41 a study of thirty-six people: Chin-Ming Jeng, Tzu-Chieh Cheng, Ching-Huei Kung, et al., “Yoga and Disc Degenerative Disease in Cervical and Lumbar Spine: An MR Imaging-based Case Control Study,” European Spine Journal, vol. 20, no. 3 (March 2011), pp. 408–13.

  42 reported that the vagus: Kevin J. Tracey, “The Inflammatory Reflex,” Nature, vol. 420, no. 6917 (December 19–26, 2002), pp. 853–59.

  42 two hundred thousand lives: Roni Caryn Rabin, “Awareness: Killer of 200,000 Americans, Hardly Noticed,” New York Times, October 4, 2010, Section D, p. 6.

  42 discussed the topic: Stacey L. Oke and Kevin J. Tracey, “The Inflammatory Reflex and the Role of Complementary and Alternative Medical Therapies,” in William C. Bushell, Erin L. Olivo, and Neil D. Theise, eds., Longevity, Regeneration, and Optimal Health: Integrating Eastern and Western Perspectives (New York: Blackwell for the New York Academy of Sciences, 2009), pp. 172–80.

  42 ease trauma from rheumatoid arthritis: Shirley Telles, Kalkuni V. Naveen, Vaishali Gaur, et al., “Effect of One Week of Yoga on Function and Severity in Rheumatoid Arthritis,” BMC Research Notes, vol. 4 (2011), p. 118.

  43 reported that yogis could live: Eliade, Yoga, p. 275.

  43 no study that I know of: The closest thing I could find is a paper on the effects of Transcendental Meditation. See Robert H. Schneider, Charles N. Alexander, Frank Staggers, et al., “Long-Term Effects of Stress Reduction on Mortality in Persons > 55 Years of Age with Systemic Hypertension,” American Journal of Cardiology, vol. 95, no. 9 (May 1, 2005), pp. 1060–64.

  43 won the 2009 Nobel Prize: Nicholas Wade, “3 Americans Share Nobel for Medicine,” New York Times, October 5, 2009, Section A, p. 12.

  43 youthful telomeres of a thirty-year-old: Elizabeth H. Blackburn, “Telomeres and Telomerase: The Means to the End,” Nobel Lecture, December 7, 2009. Blackburn was one of three winners of the 2009 Nobel Prize.

  43 slow the biological clock: Thea Singer, Stress Less: The New Science That Shows Women How to Rejuvenate the Body and the Mind (New York: Hudson Street Press, 2010), pp. xviii–xix, 29–62. For a skeptical look at the science of Telomere evaluation; see Mitch Leslie, “Are Telomere Tests Ready for Prime Time?” Science, April 22, 2011, pp. 414–15.

  44 a longtime devotee of yoga: Judith Lasater, “Yoga and Your Heart,” Yoga Journal, September–October 1989, pp. 13–15.

  44 proclaiming them a first: Dean Ornish, Jue Lin, Jennifer Daubenmier, et al., “Increased Telomerase Activity and Comprehensive Lifestyle Changes: A Pilot Study,” Lancet Oncology, vol. 9, no. 11 (November 2008), pp. 1048–57.

  45 “live to be well over 100 years”: Joan Budilovsky and Eve Adamson, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Yoga, 3rd ed. (Indianapolis: Alpha Books, 2003), p. 10.

  45 “lent credibility”: Georg Feuerstein, Sacred Paths: Essays on Wisdom, Love, and Mystical Realization (Burdett, NY: Larson Publications, 1991), p. 50.

  II: Fit Perfection

  47 hundreds of yoga centers: Email, Ainslie Faust, director of communications, Bikram’s Yoga College of India, International Headquarters, Los Angeles, July 17, 2010. “About 500 and many more illegal,” she said of the number of studios globally. This is less than a third of the 1,700 studios that Bikram Choudhury claims on the jacket of his book Bikram Yoga: The Guru Behind Hot Yoga Shows the Way to Radiant Health and Personal Fulfillment (New York: HarperCollins, 2007). What accounts for the discrepancy is unclear.

  47 calls it his torture chamber: Ibid., pp. 67, 73–74, 76, 96, 215.

  47 “So many Americans”: Ibid., p. 45.

  48 “Bogus yoga”: Ibid., pp. 61–67.

  48 portrays his own style: Ibid., p. 5.

  50 “My classes are so hard”: Quoted in Nancy Keates, “Is Yoga Just Posing as a Good Workout?” Wall Street Journal, November 17, 2007, Section W, p. 1.

  50 was seen as urgent: Gina Kolata, Ultimate Fitness: The Quest for Truth About Exercise and Health (New York: Picador, 2004), pp. 36–39.

  50 vital capacity: Guy Montrose Whipple, Manual of Mental and Physical Tests (Baltimore: Warwick & York, 1910), pp. 70–74.

  51 “increasing the vital index”: Anonymous (but clearly J. G. Gune), “The Rationale of Yogic Poses,” Yoga Mimansa, vol. 3, no. 2 (April 1928), second impression, January 1931, pp. 121–26.

  51 an English physiologist: Anonymous, “Archibald V. Hill: Biography,” The Nobel Foundation, nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1922/hill-bio.html.

  52 an abiding personal interest: David R. Bassett, Jr., “Scientific Contributions of A. V. Hill: Exercise Physiology Pioneer,” Journal of Applied Physiology, vol. 93 (November 2002), pp. 1567–82.

  52 In pioneering reports: For a review, see David R. Bassett, Jr., and Edward T. Howley, “Limiting Factors for Maximum Oxygen Uptake and Determinants of Endurance Performance,” Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, vol. 32, no. 1 (January 2000), pp. 70–84.

  52 the single most important factor: Benjamin D. Levine, “VO2 Max: What Do We Know, and What Do We Still Need to Know,” Journal of Physiology, vol. 586, no. 1 (January 1, 2008), pp. 25–34.

  53 twice that of untrained individuals: Joe Warpeha, “Limitation of Maximal Oxygen Consumption: The Holy Grail of Exercise Physiology or Fool’s Gold?” Professionalization of Exercise Physiology—online, vol. 6, no. 9 (September 2003).

  53 could raise VO2max: Jay Hoffman, Physiological Aspects of Sport Training and Performance (Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics, 2002), p. 111.

  53 Cooper came along: Kolata, Ultimate Fitness, pp. 25–29, 45–46.

  53 the best cardiovascular workout: Kenneth H. Cooper, Aerobics (New York: Bantam, 1968), pp. 15–26.

  54 reduced the prevalence: Jane E. Brody, “You Name It, and Exercise Helps It,” New York Times, April 29, 2008, Section F, p. 7.

  54 “the single thing”: Quoted in Jonathan Shaw, “The Deadliest Sin,” Harvard Magazine, March–April 2004, pp. 36–43, 98–99.

  54 at least three vigorous exercise sessions: Lisa K. Lloyd, “Are You Ready to Exercise?” Fit Society Page, American College of Sports Medicine, Summer 2001, p. 1.

  54 at least five sessions: William L. Haskell, I-Min Lee, Russell R. Pate, et al., “Physical Activity and Public Health: Updated Recommendation for Adults from the American College of Sports Medicine and the American Heart Association,” Circulation, vol. 116, no. 9 (August 28, 2007), pp. 1081–93.

  54 the President’s Council: Anonymous, “Fitness Fundamentals: Guidelines for Personal Exercise Programs,” The President’s Council on Physical Fitness, undated, www.fitness.gov/fitness.htm.

  54 “reducing cardiovascular diseases”: Anonymous, “Diet, Nutrition and the Prevention of Chronic Diseases,” World Health Organization, WHO Technical Report No. 916, 2003, pp. 62
–63.

  55 quibble over the amounts: Kolata, Ultimate Fitness, pp. 51–72.

  55 carefully examined several activities: Cooper, Aerobics, pp. 15–26.

  56 published in 1989: James A. Blumenthal, Charles F. Emery, David J. Madden, et al., “Cardiovascular and Behavioral Effects of Aerobic Exercise Training in Healthy Older Men and Women,” Journal of Gerontology, vol. 44, no. 5 (September 1989), pp. M147–M157.

  58 makes no appearance: Kuvalayananda, Popular Yoga; Sri Swami Sivananda, Easy Steps to Yoga, reprint of 1939 edition (Tehri-Garhwal, Uttar Pradesh, India: Divine Life Society, 1999).

  58 The pose most likely arose: Sjoman, The Yoga Tradition, pp. 50, 54, 58; Anne Cushman, “New Light on Yoga,” Yoga Journal, July–August 1999, pp. 44–49; Joseph S. Alter, The Wrestler’s Body: Identity and Ideology in North India (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992), pp. 98–105; Vincent Giordano, The Physical Body: Indian Wrestling and Physical Culture, video disc, CustomFlix, 2006.