Books We Love: The Science of Yoga

February 28th, 2012 • BY

Yoga isn’t as good for us as we thought—or so author William J. Broad theorized in his contentious Jan. 5th Story, “How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body” in The New York Times Magazine. His concern? Few people realize that yoga, just like other athletic endeavors, has the power to seriously injure its practitioners. And some health claims—like yoga aiding weight loss—are bogus. (In fact, studies suggest yoga can lower the body’s metabolic rate.)

The story ignited a furor amongst devoted yogis and yoginis, but few realized that Broad (@WilliamJBroad), an avid practitioner himself, has plenty of good things to say about yoga, too. In his just-released book, The Science of Yoga: The Risks and the Rewards, the seasoned reporter takes a hard, scientific look at the ancient practice and comes up with some surprising good news.

New studies show that yoga can release natural substances in the brain that can act as effectively as antidepressants, and health benefits include reduced stress, better moods, improved balance, and higher levels of creativity. Perhaps most interesting: Certain poses can act as aphrodisiacs that spur the release of sex hormones, and recent studies suggest yoga improves both men’s and women’s sex lives, cultivating feelings of satisfaction and closeness. So do the rewards outweigh the risks? Broad says yes—and we have to agree.

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Kate Siber

About

Kate Siber has worked as a pastry cook, a small-time farmer, a ski-rental tech, and a thankless-accounting drone, among other distinctive vocations, but the career she tried on and kept was writing. For the last eight years, Siber, a freelance writer and correspondent for Outside magazine, has traipsed the globe in search of stories, shooting blowguns with Amazonian tribes in Ecuador, tracking rhinos in South Africa, and diving with— More about this author →