The Science of Yoga (2012) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit

Write a ridiculously simplified synopsis.

Quotes edit see section history

• “As Carl Jung put it, advanced yoga can, "let loose a flood of sufferings of which no sane person ever dreamed." Many yoga books cite Jung approvingly but always seem to miss that quote. Even so, it represented his considered opinion after two decades of study and reflection.”

• “The 2012 paper examined more than eighty studies that compared yoga and regular exercise. The analysis, by health specialists at the University of Maryland, found that yoga equaled or surpassed exercise in such things as improving balance, reducing fatigue, decreasing anxiety, cutting stress, lifting moods, improving sleep, reducing pain, lowering cholesterol, and more generally in raising the quality of life for yogis, both socially and on the job. The benefits were similar to those that had surprised the Duke team. In summary, the specialists reported that yoga excelled in dozens of examined areas. But the scientists also spoke of a conspicuous limitation for an activity that had long billed itself as a path to physical superiority. The authors noted that the benefits ran through all the categories-"except those involving physical fitness.”

• “<Yoga> ... excelled in such things as osteoporosis ... Yoga stretching ... worked beautifully to stimulate the rebuilding of the bone. It happened at a molecular level. Stress on a bone prompted it to grow denser and stronger in the way that best counteracted the stress.”

  Loren Fishman

• “Artists have no monopoly on imaginative solutions. The problems of living are "also amenable to insight, intuition, and creativity."”

  Elmer and Alyce Green

• “The right brain sees the flower as a lover would, the left brain as a florist.”

• “The free spirits are seen as embracing whatever comes their way, be it lovers, food, or intellectual passions.”

• “Physicians talk about breakthroughs in personalized medicine and pharmacogenetics--of using information from a person's genetic map to tailor medicine to his or her own particular needs. But yoga can already do that. It can turn our bodies into customized pharmaceutical plants that churn out tailored hormones and nerve impulses that heal, cure, raise moods, lower cholesterol, induce sleep, and do a million other things. Morevover yoga can do it at an extremely low cost with little or no risk of side effects. It has the potential to usher in a genuine new age, not one of wishful thinking.”

• “Headstands tend to excite the fight-or-flight response ... By contrast, ... the Shoulder Stand pressed the parasympathetic brake, soothing the spirit and making it one of the most relaxing postures in yoga. ... in the Shoulder Stand, the chin presses deeply into the neck and upper chest, clamping down on the carotids and making the local pressure very high. That rings alarm bells and the parasympathetic brakd flies into action. It assumes that the delicate tissues of the brain are reeling from too much blood and orders the heart and the circulatory system to compensate with pressure cuts. The main response signals go through the vagus--the large nerve that starts in the brain stem and wanders among the lungs, heart, stomach, and other abdoninal organs. ... Open the diameters. Vasodilate ...”

  Mel Robin

• “The right atrium ... bears a sensor that guages its fullness. When pressure is low, the sensor signals the heart to beat faster... When pressure is high, the heard slows down. ... inversions worked beautifully--as with carotid pressuer--to fool the heart into slowing. ... upending the body dramatically increased the flow to the right atrium.”

  Mel Robin

• “A good yoga practice ... involved poses that cycled through the accelerator and the brake so the autonomic system got a thorough workout. ... the resulting realization of energetic flexibility over the usual coditions of metabolic life resulted in new abilities to achieve states of inner balance and harmony. "A large part of the benefits resluts from going through a couple of cycles every time we practice."”

  Mel Robin

• “We practiced poses ... seeking to escite the sympathetic nerves. "Any kind of exercise, any kind of muscular work: will do it. ... "Anything you do to speed up your breath will speed up most parts of the sympathetic system."”

  Mel Robin

• “The shoulder is the most flexible joint of the hundred and fifty in the human body. It lets the arm achieve an astonishing range of motion ... through a clever but risky strategem that centers on a shallow ball-and-socket joint. ... The shallowness of the socket gives the humerus wide freedom of movement but also raises the risk of the ball popping out. The job of holding it in place goes mainly to the rotator cuff. Its four or five muscles ... originate on the scapula and fasten to the head of the humerus through the tough cords known as tendons.”

• “The right brain ... does its handiwork in parallel fashion--taking in many streams of information simultaneouslly from the senses anc creating an overall impression of smell and sound, apapearance and texture, feeling and sensation. ... By contrast, the left brain works in a sequential fashion. It excels at logic and language, math and science, reading and writing. ... Modern neuroscience holds that many aspects of creativity (like most complex tasks) require the contribution of both halves of the brain and their complementary skills.”

Setting & Locations edit see section history

• India
• United States
• Udupa
• New York City
• Punjab
• Wisconsin
• University Of California
• San Francisco
• Boston
• Pennsylvania
• Los Angeles
• Amsterdam
• Calcutta
• Manhattan
• Mysore
• Massachusetts
• Behanan
• Texas
• Bombay
• Krishnamacharya
• Europe
• Hinduism
• Berkshires
• Chicago
• Toronto
• Harvard
• Washington

First Sentence edit see section history

Table of Contents edit see section history

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. William J. Broad (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: RA781.7.B757 2012
• Dewey: 613.7046

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Health, Mind & Body › Exercise & Fitness › Yoga
• Books › Science › Biological Sciences

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Books Cited by This Book edit see section history