Common Serious Health Problems that Yoga Can Help With

by Baxter

Falling Water by Melina Meza

Last week I shared with you my list of Common Minor Problems that Yoga Can Help With. Thanks to some of you who wrote in with your ideas. It turns out some of suggestions actually fit better into today’s category, common serious health problems that yoga can help with. For instance, one of our readers mentioned that two of her students with Parkinson’s disease have benefited from regular yoga practice. Due to the more serious consequences of Parkinson’s, I have that on today’s list of health conditions. And as with the minor health conditions, in some instances we are beginning to understand the underlying why and how that yoga influences these more serious conditions while in other cases, this remains an unsolved mystery. As an example of a condition where we are discovering yoga’s underlying effects, in the Dean Ornish study on Life Style Modification (which included yoga) and Prostate cancer, it was found that the treatment protocol turned on over 500 beneficial genes in study participants. In many other situations, we still need more research as to how the yoga is leading to improvement.

Without further ado, here is my list of common (and maybe a few less common) serious health conditions that yoga helps with (I've divided them into thirteen general categories to make the list more manageable.)

Common Serious Health Problems Yoga Can Help With

1. Cardiovascular Health Problems: Coronary heart disease, hypertension, heart arrhythmias such as atrial fibrillation, stroke prevention and rehabilitation, congestive heart failure, post-heart attack rehabilitation, post-heart surgery.
2. Cancer related Problems: Adjunct practices during cancer treatment and for post-treatment recovery, breast cancer, ovarian cancer, lymphoma.
3. Mental-Emotional Problems: Depression, anxiety, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, neurosis, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Schizophrenia, ADD/ADHD, eating disorders, Bipolar Disorder.
4. Respiratory Problems: Asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), smoking cessation, Pleural Effusions.
5. Central Nervous System/Neurologic Problems: Parkinson’s Disease, Multiple Sclerosis, some forms of dementia, including Alzheimer’s Disease, seizures, Post-Polio Syndrome, Cerebral Palsy, Guillain-Barré Syndrome, Muscular Dystrophy. 
6. Skeletal Problems: Degenerative Disc Disease (neck and low back), Herniated Disc Disease, Sciatica, significant Osteoarthritis, Rheumatoid Arthritis, significant Scoliosis, Osteopenia and Osteoporosis, post-joint replacement, fall prevention. 
7. Endocrine Problems: Diabetes, Metabolic Syndrome, Hypo- or Hyperthyroidism, obesity.
8. Addiction Problems: Alcoholism and other drug abuse, drug withdrawal.
9. Pain and Fatigue Problems: Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromyalgia, chronic pain, significant back and neck pain, significant tension and migraine headaches. 
10. Digestive Disorders: Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Inflammatory Bowel Disease (Crohn’s and Ulcerative Colitis), Reflux Disease (GERD). 
11. Kidney and Bladder Problems: kidney failure, Urinary Stress Incontinence, Urinary Bladder Dysfunction.
12. Immune Problems: HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis. 
13. Women’s Reproductive Problems: Menstrual disorders, Polycystic Ovary Syndrome, complicated pregnancy, infertility (for both Men and Women), pelvic floor pain, pelvic floor dysfunction, vagina prolapse. 

Some of these conditions we have written about here at YFHA, and I am certain I am forgetting a few. There are less common serious conditions we have written about that I have not included, such Ehler-Danlos Syndrome to keep our list to a moderate size. If there are any glaring deficiencies, please let us know and we will update our list. 

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