For many years, I enjoyed periodic conversations with Dr. Timothy Mc Call, M.D., a board-certified specialist in internal medicine who developed a deep interest in yoga many years after he began practicing medicine.

Along the way, Dr. McCall decided to write a book on yoga and medicine, and in between his many trips to India, interviewed a number of leading yoga exponents of various disciplines, including myself, on what they, as yoga teachers, did to help people with chronic illness and physical dysfunction.

I was honored to contribute my perspective on yoga's effect on chronic pain in several places throughout his book, and was pleased to contribute extensively for his chapter on fibromyalgia.

The result was his landmark book, Yoga as Medicine: The Yogic Prescription for Health and Healing, published in 2007 by Bantam Books in association with Yoga Journal. (Click here to purchase his book directly from Amazon.com).

"Yoga appears to be effective in the treatment of a wide variety of health conditions," writes Dr. McCall. At the very beginning of his book, Dr. McCall relates a survey published by the London-based Yoga Biomedical Trust showing yoga's efficacy for a wide range of medical conditions:

Source: The Yoga Biomedical Trust, London

Authors Dava Sobel and Arthur Klein did an extensive survey on back pain and back pain resolution. Their findings were published in their book, Backache Relief,* showed that many traditional western medical practitioners, including doctors and back surgeons, are uninterested in non-high-tech modalities. Klein and Sobel also contend that certain surgical procedures have significant risks factors attached, and that chiropractic spinal manipulation can exacerbate conditions such as herniated disc.

Their book considers a wide range of non-medical practitioners, including physical therapy (physiotherapy), yoga, massage, shiatsu, dance, rolfing, kinesiology, Feldenkrais, Tai Chi, and an equally wide range of treatments. The results of their survey, shown below, was reprinted in my first book, ExTension Yoga, with generous permission from the publishers:

WHO WILL STOP THE PAIN?
by Arthur Klein and Dava Sobel