Integrated Health Yoga Therapy: Merging Science with the Subtle

Modern medicine is increasingly moving toward a more holistic view of health and well-being. Integrated Health Therapy is wonderfully poised to play a vital role within this movement.

Evidence-based scientific studies are coming out regularly supporting yoga’s health benefits, and many health professionals are increasingly willing to recommend yoga therapy to their patients. Examples of chronic conditions benefited by yoga therapy include cancer, high blood pressure, heart disease, low back or musculoskeletal pain, osteoarthritis, anxiety, depression, obesity, diabetes, trauma, addiction, and grief. There are a number of links exploring the use of yoga therapy with these conditions on the IHYT Web site.

Neal Pearson, founding Chair of the Canadian Physiotherapy Pain Science Division, recalls at some point in his own yoga therapy reading the statement: “Yoga is the science of one.” It had a profound effect on making him aware of the possibilities of yoga therapy.

“This can be considered very different from Western science that typically looks at what works best for most, and then generally applies that to everyone.”

“Pain is individual,” he says. “Yoga is individual. Thus it made sense to look at yoga as more of a clinical intervention.”

Pearson’s initial contact with yoga therapy stemmed from his own issues with back pain. It should be noted that recommendations by the American College of Physicians and American Pain Society point to yoga as a possible non-drug treatment for lower back pain. In addition, a recent meta-analysis by Cramer at the University of Duisberg-Essen in Germany concluded that yoga should be recommended as a complementary therapy to deal with chronic lower back pain.

Integrated Health Yoga Therapy is ‘the science of one’ on a whole other level. Whereas yoga is indeed therapeutic by nature, with IHYT comes the specific application of yoga’s various ancient traditions of yoga postures, breathing exercises, and meditation practices tailored to address specific health conditions. In addition, considerations such as diet, lifestyle, other physical limitations, and even personality type are combined with a comprehensive knowledge of modern physiotherapy practices to create a program absolutely tailored to ‘the one’.

Among the great BKS Iyengar’s many well-known quotes is the following: “Yoga, an ancient but perfect science, deals with the evolution of humanity. This evolution includes all aspects of one’s being, from bodily health to self-realization.”

It could be argued that health issues, too, include all aspects of one’s being. Integrated Health Yoga Therapy, with its emphasis on ‘the one’, and integration of the scientific with the subtle, attempts to honor that. The IHYT Web site offers more information about the evolution of modern medicine, equipping various health professionals with a unique skill-set and philosophy to meet the needs of so many suffering from chronic conditions.

About Integrated Health Yoga Therapy

IHYT is a yoga therapy school for a wide range of health professionals whose practices might benefit from the skill-sets and philosophy underlying therapeutic yoga. Yoga therapy is becoming more and more recognized and utilized by the medical-scientific community as a safe and effective complementary therapy and treatment in a wide range of conditions. IHYT offers a carefully selected curriculum of evidence-based educational programs taught by faculty who are leaders in their respective fields.