Medicine and chronic disease, so is there a place for yoga with Sat Bir Singh Khalsa-Harvard Medical

Six in ten Americans suffer from a chronic disease, over half of the population. These include preventable lifestyle diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, and obesity. This epidemic in society is consuming nearly 90% of all health care costs, much of which stems from high-cost pharmaceutical prescriptions and technology interventions that are focused more on symptom treatment and do not address the underlying causal factors.

Dr. Khalsa, a research scientist at Harvard Medical School, shows how yoga and meditation are an effective behavioral strategy that addresses the behavioral and lifestyle-related risk factors that contribute to these chronic non-communicable diseases and will lead to the promotion and maintenance of health and wellness, prevention of disease, and also as an adjunct therapeutic intervention.

Many patients, unfortunately, have struggled with behavior change. Khalsa describes how patients can practice the exercises and breathwork in yoga that easily facilitates effective meditation practice to improve healthy behaviors that can address the risk factors and behaviors underlying chronic diseases.