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Yoga as Medicine: The Yogic Prescription for Health and Healing Kindle Edition
by Timothy B. McCall (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
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The definitive book of yoga therapy, this groundbreaking work comes to you from the medical editor of the country’s premier yoga magazine, who is both a practicing yogi and a Western-trained physician.
Beginning with an overview of the history and science of yoga, Dr. McCall describes the many different techniques in the yoga tool kit; explains what yoga does and who can benefit from it (virtually everyone!); and provides lavishly illustrated and minutely detailed instructions on starting a yoga practice geared to your fitness level and your health status. Yoga as Medicine offers a wealth of practical information, including how to:
•Utilize yogic tools, including postures, breathing techniques, and meditation, for both prevention and healing of illness
•Master the art of becoming more in tune with your body
•Communicate more effectively with your doctor
•Adopt therapeutic yoga practices as either an alternative or a complement to surgery and to expensive, sometimes dangerous medications
•Practice safely
Find an instructor and a style of yoga that are right for you. With twenty chapters devoted to the work of individual master teachers, including such well-known figures as Patricia Walden, John Friend, and Rodney Yee, Yoga as Medicine shows how these experts have applied the wisdom of this ancient holistic practice to twenty different conditions, ranging from arthritis to chronic fatigue, depression, heart disease, HIV/AIDS, infertility, insomnia, multiple sclerosis, and obesity. Defining yoga as “a systematic technology to improve the body, understand the mind, and free the spirit,” Dr. McCall shows the way to a path that can truly alter your life.
An indispensable guide for the millions who now practice yoga or would like to begin, as well as for yoga teachers, body workers, doctors, nurses, and other health professionals.
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590 pages
Language
English
Sticky notes
On Kindle Scribe
Publisher
Bantam
Publication date
31 July 2007
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Product description
Review
"Yoga as Medicine is a powerfully clear, accessible and practical guide to creating a vibrantly healthy body, mind, and spirit. What a tremendous contribution to healing and human potential!"--Joan Borysenko, PhD, author of Minding the Body, Mending the Mind
"Read this to find out why we teach our patients YOGA."--Mehmet Oz, MD, author of YOU: The Owner's Manual and Professor and Vice Chairman, NY Presbyterian/ Columbia University Hospital
"Self-administered yoga therapy, taking your cues from a book or magazine, can be a tricky, even risky business. But Yoga as Medicine is the next best thing to having the doctor right there beside you. An instant classic."--Richard Rosen, Contributing Editor, Yoga Journal and Director, Piedmont Yoga Studio
"Yoga as Medicine is beautifully organized and presented, making it instantly readable and practical for anyone desiring better health or immediate help with a particular problem."--Christiane Northrup, MD, author of Mother-Daughter Wisdom, The Wisdom of Menopause, and Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom
--This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.
About the Author
Timothy McCall, M.D., is a specialist in primary care who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. As a board-certified, Western-trained physician who has traveled to India and throughout the United States observing, training with, and interviewing the world's leading yoga teachers and therapists, he is uniquely qualified to reconcile the medical findings and techniques of East and West. Yoga Journal is the premier yoga magazine in the country. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.
Book Description
--This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.
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Product details
ASIN : B000U9OVBK
Publisher : Bantam; 1st edition (31 July 2007)
Language : English
File size : 7554 KB
Text-to-Speech : Enabled
Screen Reader : Supported
Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
X-Ray : Enabled
Word Wise : Enabled
Sticky notes : On Kindle Scribe
Print length : 590 pagesBest Sellers Rank: 381,334 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)313 in Yoga (Kindle Store)
454 in Alternative Medicine Healing
895 in Yoga (Books)Customer Reviews:
4.6 out of 5 stars 538 ratings
==
Timothy B. McCall
Timothy McCall, M.D. is a board-certified internist, Yoga Journal's Medical Editor since 2002 and the bestselling author of Yoga as Medicine, and his latest, Saving My Neck: A Doctor's East/West Journey Through Cancer. He teaches yoga therapy seminars in the US and around the world. For dates and locations, see www.DrMcCall.com, where you can also access more than 100 archived articles, videos, and interviews.
Timothy is the co-editor of The Principles and Practice of Yoga in Health Care, a professional level medical textbook on yoga therapy, published in 2016. He is also the author of Examining Your Doctor, a critically-acclaimed consumer health guide. His articles have appeared in dozens of publications, including the New England Journal of Medicine, The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), Public Citizen's Health Letter, The Nation, American Health, Redbook (where he was a contributing editor), The Boston Globe, The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Los Angeles Times. From 1996-2001 his medical commentaries were featured on the public radio program Marketplace.
He practiced medicine in the Boston area for a dozen years before devoting himself in the late 1990s to yoga therapy. He has studied with many of the world's leading yoga teachers including BKS Iyengar and TKV Desikachar. His primary teachers have been Patricia Walden, Rod Stryker and Donald Moyer. In 2005, he began his studies with a traditional Ayurvedic doctor, Chandukutty Vaidyar, and spent more than a year at his clinic in Kerala, India.
Timothy lives in Burlington, Vermont and lectures and teaches yoga therapy workshops worldwide. DrMcCall.com
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From other countries
Anand Kumar
5.0 out of 5 stars Good
Reviewed in India 🇮🇳 on 14 March 2023
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Good
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Does the job
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 8 May 2023
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Very nice book. Does the job. Nicely illustrated and full of information.
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Jules97
5.0 out of 5 stars Great gift idea!
Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on 10 January 2023
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Purchased this a couple of years ago as a gift for my mom. She loved it and has been using it ever since! Would definitely recommend for anyone who is trying to maintain good health at an advanced age!
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G. A. BRAVO-CASAS
5.0 out of 5 stars A comprehensive medical approach to yoga
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 26 August 2007
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Dr. McCall is the medical editor of Yoga Journal and many readers are familiar with his excellent articles in that prestigious publication. In 2002, Yoga Journal asked Dr. McCall to write a book on yoga therapy, but he was already working on Yoga as Medicine for two years. The author is a board-certified specialist in internal medicine and was a practicing physician for more than 12 years in the Boston area. At the beginning, Dr. McCall says that he approached yoga "in the same spirit that I'd brought to salsa dancing and tai chi", but then, as he was deepening into his practice, he began to notice important changes in his posture, his breathing, and many other aspects of his daily life. In 2000, he decided to devote himself full-time to investigate the value of yoga as a therapeutic instrument. He has visited many yoga centres and ashrams in the United States and India, exploring, asking students and instructors about the therapeutic value of their yoga practice, and collecting valuable information that is very difficult to access.
The book consists of three parts. Part 1: "Yoga as Medicine", makes a succinct presentation of the scientific basis of yoga and its contributions to health care. Part 2: " The Practice of Yoga", has numerous tips on how to establish a safe practice, how to choose a safe yoga style, and how to select a teacher. Part 3 " Yoga Therapy in Action", has 20 chapters devoted to a large array of conditions (arthritis, asthma, back pain, cancer, depression, diabetes, HIV/AIDS, multiple sclerosis, and many others). Dr. McCall, with information provided by leading yoga therapists, offers a brief overview of each condition, discusses in detail the scientific evidence of the contribution made by yoga to the treatment of the condition, and concludes with a series of recommended exercises appropriate for each condition, highlighting the benefits and the contraindications of each exercise. An appendix is devoted to the prevention of yoga injuries.
This book offers an unusual view of yoga. Dr. McCall uses crisp and clear language, his book is lucid and easy to understand, and scientific proofs are fully documented. Being both a competent physician and a skilled yoga practitioner who has explored many yoga traditions, Dr. McCall has the authority to disregard false claims from both sides and insists that a correct perspective is to recognize the complementarities of both approaches. He insists that yoga therapy is not a "magic bullet", but asserts that the characteristics of such therapy (being holistic, with increased effects over time, positive side effects, requiring patient's participation, major emphasis on prevention, etc.) makes yoga therapy ideal for the treatment of some chronic problems, such as diabetes, or arthritis. Dr. McCall is not hesitant to use many of the classical yoga terms (asanas, Pranayama, nadis, etc.), but he alerts us by affirming: "If notions like chakras and prana turn you off, just think of them as metaphors. We use this kind of metaphorical thinking in the West all the time... Good metaphors can help us understand, as yogis put it, 'what is' ". Many people remember his sense of humour from the video, Yoga Unveiled, which has a section on "Yoga as Therapy"; he mentions that on one occasion he was asked: "Will smoke get in the way of yoga?" and he replied "No, but if you are a smoker, yoga might get in the way of smoking."
The book is a treasure of information. It contains photographs of the exercises recommended for each condition. It has a comprehensive index, a list of Sanskrit words and names for the asanas, and a comprehensive list of sources of information, including the web sites of yoga therapists and institutions. This work is the best of its kind and it is the principal source of reference for those interested in discovering the therapeutic value of yoga. On the front cover of the book you will see the opinion of Dr. Mehmet Oz, Director of the Cardiovascular Institute of the New York Presbyterian Hospital: "Read this to find out why we teach our patients YOGA".
128 people found this helpful
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Just Theo
2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointed most things I look up are not included
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 20 November 2022
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Neck pain, nope. Pelvic floor dysfunction, nope. Only thing in pelvic floor category is for infertility. Stress incontinence or anything to do with bladder, nope. My biggest complaint about not having anything on the pelvic floor is 50% of women have some sort of prolapse in their life. A lot of them can be remedied with simple pelvic floor exercises. The major issue is prolapse can be made worse with certain types of exercises. Deep squats, goddess pose. Boat pose, planks.... all can be bad if not modified.
When 50% of women suffer from something at some point in their life, I would expect it to be included when they can easily get relief with yoga poses OR injure themselves with the wrong yoga poses.
Also, a lot of people suffer from neck pain, find it weird that is not included. Back pain is..... but it talks about strengthening your abs to help spine issues for the back.
Incontinence. again something that can be made better or worse with yoga poses.
I have had this book for 15 years and still waiting to find a condition that I have had issues with to be listed in this book.
I find yoga very helpful, but this book was outdated before it was written.
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Joseph J. Truncale
TOP 500 REVIEWER
5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent reference book for anyone teaching Yoga.
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 26 May 2018
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I have been teaching a class at a senior retirement place (Chair/Seated Tai Chi, Qigong and Yoga for seniors and the physically challenged) for many years and I am always looking for material to increase my overall knowledge. I recently purchased this giant 569 page soft cover book (Yoga as medicine: The yogic prescription for health and healing by Timothy McCall, M.D.) from Amazon for a bargain price. Unlike most other books on yoga this one was written by a medical doctor and he approaches the subject from a unique and interesting perspective.
This book does not just cover one system of yoga but presents material from several yoga methods. The book is organized into three parts. The first part explains using yoga as a part of overall health and medicine. The second part focuses on the practice of yoga including safety factors and choosing a style of yoga. The final part is the longest and covers yoga therapy in action and using the asana (postures) for a wide range of issues such as the following: Anxiety and panic attacks, arthritis, asthma, back pain, cancer, depression, diabetes, headaches, insomnia, irritable bowel syndrome and many more health and medical issues.
This excellent book has so much information and detail that it should be considered a reference source for anyone teaching yoga. A very informative volume on yoga.
Rating: 5 Stars. (Author: Training alone in Combatives and self-defense)
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Katie
2.0 out of 5 stars HRT info out of date
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 18 March 2023
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The HRT information is out of date (that it increases stroke etc which it doesn’t). Perimenopause/menopause affects half the population so this is something I would expect a book like this to get right. I hope the publishers update it.
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De Lay
5.0 out of 5 stars Very informative book.
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 8 January 2022
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Rather than just saying my back hurts, this book helped me define three areas of my back that were hindering my activities and comfort, so I could better define them to my physician, and recently to a very helpful physical therapist. The physical therapist is now helping me combine my yoga moves with other exercises she suggests and massaging some areas to help improve my range of motion. This has made a world of difference and improvement in about 10 days.
The book contains so much information it will become a welcomed reference source in my library. As an 80-year-old woman with osteopenia who wants to stay agile and moving, I welcome all the help I can gather in my camp. I do recommend the book to others.
5 people found this helpful
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Annie MacKenzie
5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful reference book for teachers and practitioners
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 13 May 2009
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As a massage therapist and a yoga teacher I was extremely well pleased with this manual. Yoga as medicine makes a wonderful reference book to have in the studio or at home, Jam packed with excellent information from the author (a board certified Physician and yoga practitioner) and many Excellent leading yoga practitioners who each address a different chapter on subjects such as arthritis, Asthma, back pain, menopause, fibromyalgia, multiple sclerosis, heart disease, cancer and many other conditions and diseases. There are passages on how to address the individual physically, mentally, and emotionally. The author approaches healing from both western and eastern philosophies, blending the two beautifully in this brilliant book.
What I really love is that each illness, condition or disease is divided into sections and addressed by different leading practitioners and Philosophers. All sections have a sequence to follow with good clear black and white photos (even portrait photos of the different authors of each chapter and short Bio's), advice, tips, contraindications, breathing techniques, visualizations and scientific and yogic perspectives and statistics.
AAdil Palkhivala writes about High blood pressure in Chapter 20. Roger Cole (my personal hero (unbeknown to him), I eat up all his anatomy articles on yoga)writes about how to deal with Insomnia in chapter 23. Judith Hanson lassater writes about Back Pain in Chapter 11. Richard Freeman writes the section on overeweight and obesity chapter 27. Elise Browning Miller covers Menopause in Chapter 25. Nischalla Joy Devi discusses heart disease. Rodney Yee talks about headaches in chapter 18. Gary Kraftsow's contribution is about Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. There are many more contributors, Shakta Shanti Kaur Khalsa, John Friend,Michael Lee, Sam Dworkis and many others.
I think this is definitely a book every yoga teacher should own and any Massage therapist who is serious about empowering their clients to help themselves on the path to healing, educating them and guiding them to to make healthy lifestyle changes. Get this book!
8 people found this helpful
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TDS
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 14 February 2015
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Dr. Timothy McCall is a Western-trained physician and medical editor of Yoga Journal. In this book, he has put together an excellent book detailing the use of yoga as part of a holistic approach towards health and wellness. While his enthusiasm about the positive benefits which can be derived from yoga is strongly persuasive, and given his medical training, he makes a real effort to lay a scientific foundation for the efficacy of yoga.
The heart of Yoga as Medicine lies in Part 3, "Yoga Therapy in Action." In this section, Dr. McCall addresses twenty specific health conditions and concerns, ranging from Anxiety and Panic Attacks to Overweight and Obesity. For each chapter, Dr. McCall has chosen a yoga expert to present a potential approach to that condition. Many of the teachers he has selected are well-known names, including Judith Hanson Lasatar for Back Pain, Gary Kraftsow for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and Rodney Yee for Headaches. In addition to the featured instructor, every chapter also includes "Other Yogic Ideas," which range from insights by other yoga instructors to supplementary yoga tools, and "A Holistic Approach," a boxed and bulleted segment which talks about combining yoga practice with various other factors in managing the conditions.
3 people found this helpful
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Laura Venecia Rodriguez
4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent yoga reference book!
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 8 June 2011
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With over 500 pages, this comprehensive resource explains
the many medical conditions that the practice of yoga can
alleviate. Part 3 of the book, "Yoga Therapy in Action" offers
detailed information about how yoga can help with anxiety and
panic attacks, arthritis, asthma, back pain, cancer, carpal tunnel
syndrome, chronic fatigue syndrome, multiple sclerosis, excess
weight and many more conditions!
McCall, a Western-trained physician, decided to try yoga
because he thought it would be "interesting." At first, McCall
practiced off and on. However, once he began regular practice,
"inserting yoga into the cracks in my day," he noticed amazing
results. His chest started to open and his posture improved. Most
important, he says, were the mental and psychological benefits
he gained. He worried less and problems that in the past would
have had him caused him to blurt out profanities, no longer
fazed him. He eventually studied with yoga teacher Patricia
Walden.
The only area in which I disagree with McCall is that he
doesn't recommend learning on your own at first. Other than
that, I love this book - it's a wealth of research and information
about the health benefits of yoga.
Laura Venecia Rodriguez
Yoga at Home: Gain Energy, Flexibility, and Serenity in 20-30 Minutes a Day
6 people found this helpful
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Shakti
5.0 out of 5 stars Very inspirational book
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 23 May 2017
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I love this book! I am only about 40% through it on my kindle so far. The author goes into all the good reasons for doing yoga. He's quite egalitarian and gives benefits for many styles of yoga. He does recommend getting a yoga therapist, if possible, to teach correct alignment for each individual body type and/or health challenge. He is a medical doctor and has studied yoga in India. He is a real enthusiast so he inspires me to do some yoga each day. I'm 66 and it's time I got serious about this to preserve my good health. I have done Iyengar-style yoga most of my adult life sporadically with teachers, and without on my own, and I KNOW it makes a difference in my health and feelings of peace and well-being. It's subtle but builds over time. I have many yoga books and I think this one is my favorite because it inspires me to do more. It is in layman's terms so very easy to understand.
18 people found this helpful
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Amazon customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 26 February 2022
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Buy it!
Such a Lovely book for anyone interested in yoga.
He writes with eloquence, honesty and wisdom.
So so helpful for any serious yoga student or yoga teacher who wants to prevent problems and recuperate from any issues.
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Kate
4.0 out of 5 stars Thorough and Detailed; Grab Your Highlighter for Note-Taking
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 13 April 2017
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Good book - worth the money - you may find it dry at times unless you're an anatomy + physiology nerd like me, in which case, it's fascinating. I particularly like that it's very thorough and covers several different health concerns and common ailments which can be alleviated with yoga. I'm glad I bought it in paperback rather than kindle because I've already highlighted and sticky-noted it all over the place. The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars is because I'm skeptical of some of the material. I could get down with about 90% of what I read, but I'm not too sure about how sound the science behind the rest of it really is, so there's that. Is it an absolute must-have? No. But Im happy I bought it.
12 people found this helpful
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Elisabeth A. Hughes
4.0 out of 5 stars This is a good descriptive yoga book
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 8 February 2013
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I bought this because I thought I would stop going to regular classes for a while and become a solo at my yoga practice, at home. It has a lot to offer, it really targets specific conditions and challenges that you can use yoga to aid. It also has poses you can challenge yourself with and, hopefully with some yoga background, you can practice on your own in your own time. It's so useful. Nothing on the book, I went back to my weekly class after a short time just because it turned out I missed the community of it. That's all on me. This book is a huge yoga help on a personal level, and my new understanding when I returned to class certainly didn't go unnoticed! It will change you. Like yoga itself, you just have to immerse and let go to it.
12 people found this helpful
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john baynard
5.0 out of 5 stars 10 Stars ⭐️
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 8 March 2022
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Wow! Just wow!! As a certified holistic registered nurse… I feel this book down to my soul! Beautiful.
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Marie Boyum
4.0 out of 5 stars Proof Any Body Can Do Yoga
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 17 November 2009
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Different from the standard yoga books that instruct on basic or common poses and sequences, this book allows everyone to do yoga. There are poses to aid people who suffer from various health issues, from headaches to AIDS; the diversity of ages, body sizes and ethnic backgrounds reinforces the assurance that yoga can be for everybody.
Although the poses may be basic or known to those whom practice, understanding which poses assist for what health issue and the particular sequence is important to helping the problem being addressed. There is much written information, but the layout of the book makes it easy to go directly to the ailment you wish to deal with; by following the pictures one can quickly asses the poses that can help.
A great reference for yoga instructors, personal trainers, physical therapists and those that have practiced yoga. It may be a bit confusing and overwhelming for those that are beginners or have previously not tried yoga.
23 people found this helpful
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G. Miller
5.0 out of 5 stars A great addition to any practice
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 10 March 2008
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I have really enjoyed this book. It provides a very thoughtful view at using yoga as a part of a long term health program. I think most of us who practice view yoga in this way, but the book helped me see that I need to consciously think about how yoga fits in and what specific components in my practice are helping me reach my goals. It also helped me to see that my "good for me" yoga may sometimes get in the way of my goals.
The book is accessible to a large range of people, though I think it would be best for someone who has established a practice already as they will have an experience basis that will allow an appreciation of the items discussed (could be wrong, but I think I get it a lot better now than I would have before beginnig practice). But I don't think you need to be in teacher training or anything like that to benefit from it (I am not any where near that in my practice).
5 people found this helpful
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Cleopatra Rosioreanu
5.0 out of 5 stars In his book, Dr. McCall comes across as if he is taking directly to me, as a friend that I haven't had the chance to meet.
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 11 September 2013
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In his book, Dr. McCall comes across as if he is taking directly to me, as a friend that I haven't had the chance to meet.
I discovered yoga many years ago after I was diagnosed with a disc hernia. An inspired therapist created a personalized exercises program for me using a series of yoga postures. He also directed me read two books: "Do-In: Eastern massage and yoga techniques" and "Yoga - Source of Health". So, following the instructions, I started a long, challenging journey in yoga and eastern medical techniques. The result - I was able so far to avoid surgery.
"Yoga as Medicine" confirmed to me that I am on the right path. Now, retired and facing aging problems, I feel encouraged to "insert yoga into cracks of my day" adding relaxation and meditation to my daily exercises in order to control and enhance my life.
Thank you, Dr. McCall.
Cleopatra Rosioreanu
4 people found this helpful
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Diane M.
5.0 out of 5 stars Great way to tie in medicine with yoga
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 8 August 2015
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After paying over $20 for the paperback at a book store a few years ago, it quickly became my favorite yoga book. I wanted to tie in medical and health concerns with poses and this did it. But, it was so comprehensive that it was too heavy to carry around all of the time, so I broke down 2-3 years ago and got the Kindle version at $18 (now it's much lower and a great bargain). With the Kindle version, I can do a Kindle search for any word in the entire book and it takes me right there. By doing so, I've found answers to my questions about thyroid, breathing, Ayurveda, psoas and piriformis poses and more. From one medical professional to another, THANK YOU Dr. McCall!
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