After practicing internal medicine for 10 years in Boston, Dr. Timothy McCall became a full-time writer, exploring the health benefits of yoga. As the medical editor of Yoga Journal and the author of Yoga as Medicine: The Yogic Prescription for Health and Healing, he says, “In the late 90s, the conveyor belt of patient care continued to speed up and I got frustrated. There was less time to form relationships with patients, which is essential to providing quality care without excessive tests and drugs.”

Initially, McCall found that most of the documented research on yoga was from India, and notes it was low in quality from a Western perspective (though it is now excellent). In the West, the first notable scientific yoga article was published in 1973 in The Lancet on combining yoga and biofeedback to manage hypertension. According to the International Journal of Yoga, the surge in yoga’s popularity here finally gained academic interest in 2007, and there are now more than 2,000 yoga titles in the National Institutes of Health PubMed.gov

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Five thousand years ago, most yoga teachers and students were men. Today, of the 15 million American practitioners, less than a third are males. However, this figure has increased in the past decade, with teachers in some areas reporting a balanced ratio of men and women in their classes.

Yet, even as professional athletes add yoga to their training regimen, Power Yoga founder Bryan Kest, in Santa Monica, California, points out, “To the mainstream man, yoga is not masculine. You see men in ballet performances, but it doesn’t mean men are attracted to ballet.”

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In classical yoga, teachers often sequence instruction toward reaching a pinnacle pose such as an inversion or arm balance. In restorative yoga, the peak pose is savasana—in which the practitioner fully relaxes while resting flat on their back. Leeann Carey, author of Restorative Yoga Therapy: The Yapana Way to Self-Care and Well-Being, explains, “This passive asana practice turns down the branch of the nervous system that keeps us in fight-or-flight mode and turns up the system allowing us to rest and digest. It feels like a massage for the nervous system and encourages self-inquiry, reflection and change, rather than perfection.”

The physical, mental and spiritual benefits are similar to those of active yoga, but because poses are held longer and supported by props such as bolsters, blankets, belts and blocks, “There’s no stress on the tissue and joints. Each pose gifts us with longer-lasting benefits, including more time for the mind to unwind,” advises Carey.

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As medical centers across the U.S. such as Cleveland Clinic and the University of Arizona Medical Center are incorporating yoga therapy into treatment plans, a pool of qualified yoga therapists are making this complementary care option available to Lower Alabama residents.

Daphne resident and co-owner of Kula Yoga Community Julie Wilkins had extensive spine fusion surgery for scoliosis 30 years ago. Working as an occupational therapist for 10 years before beginning her journey as a yoga instructor, Wilkins relies on the merging of her rehabilitation background with therapeutic yoga techniques to “keep my body and mind mobile, stable and happy,” she says.

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