Let's say you're trying to find some solid information about a serious health problem that concerns you, high blood pressure, diabetes.

Yet everywhere you look, someone's trying to sell you something like vitamins, yoga math, blenders, drugs.

Well, breathe a sigh relief because all we bring you are the facts.

Welcome to the nutrition facts podcast. I'm your host

Michael Greger. Today we continue with part two of our series on yoga and we start

with the question which of the 50 yoga styles have been shown to be best.

Should doctors recommend their patients do yoga?

The difficulties associated with recommending yoga stem from the low quality of scientific evidence

available regarding its effects.

Oddly, this lack of evidence is partly due to a common failure among researchers to define what they actually study.

They just say yoga without defining what they mean.

And different types of yoga differ greatly in what they demand in terms of physical strength, depth of meditation, breathing control,

and spiritual component.

Yet it's very common for reports of studies not to define which type they used.

This not only makes it hard to compare results between studies,

it also makes it very hard to translate any findings to the bedside when counseling patients.

Yoga is broadly defined as a mind-body practice composed of physical postures, breathing techniques, and meditation.

And so if researchers say they put yoga to the test, you'd assume all three components would be present.

However, some studies use meditation only and call it yoga, with no postures or breathing.

Others only examined breathing exercises and call it yoga. Others consider

yoga only postures and still others say they're studying forms of yoga without any of the three

components. And so if a study shows no benefit,

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