Some yoga practioners claim benefits where medicines failed.
International Yoga Day, which is coming up on June 21, has underscored the modern-day appeal of this Vedic-era practice. In Bhubneshwar, yoga has come to the rescue of some for whom medicines failed to bring solace from ailments.
NR Behera, 47, started taking yoga therapy as a last hope after medicines offered him little relief from back pain forced him to spend sleepless nights for more than one year. The results, he says, were instant. Not just him, his son Anurag, 18, too benefitted from yoga. Acute throat allergies had forced him to give up 64 food items that he is now once again relishing, after four months of yoga.
"Due to irritation, my coughing used to create a lot of noise. My class teacher had once even asked me not to come to school. For the last six years, I used to take a lot of medicines. But the magic of yoga has cured me in just four months," says Anurag.
Doctors say growing awareness about yoga is a healthy sign. "If we understand the basic scientific principle, it requires a calm mind, controlled body, strong physical body with good circulation, good oxygenation and yoga provides all the ingredients for good health," says Dr Ashok Kumar Mohapatra, director of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Bhubaneswar.
Doctors however caution against relying only on yoga to address ailments. "Yoga is only a form of therapy which helps in attaining the goal in any form of medicine. It is not anybody's game. So, it has to be done under expert supervision and again you have to balance your need and the abilities," says Dr Niroj Mishra, medicine specialist.