Daylong conference focuses on medical benefits of yoga - Ocala

<p>Right in the middle of the sportsman's haven of Salt Springs are six acres dedicated to the healing of mind, body and soul.</p><p>On Saturday, the Amrit Yoga Institute hosted a daylong conference entitled: “Medical Understanding of Yoga.”</p><p>Several speakers from across the country, and one who used Skype to broadcast her presentation from India, discussed the medical benefits of yoga while citing various studies.</p><p>“There is a perception about yoga being from left field. This was put together as a way of promoting the idea that yoga has been studied from a scientific perspective in India for a long, long time. And how different aspects of yoga have been used in the medical arena with people with various types of diseases,” said Liam Gillen, CEO of the institute.</p><p>While yoga has become a popular method of exercise, the traditional practice of yoga goes deeper than exercise. There is a meditation component and a nutritional aspect. The goal of yoga is to bring balance to all aspects of life and achieve contentment.</p><p>The journey to contentment by reducing stress and quieting the mind has shown benefits for people with certain diseases, Gillen said.</p><p>“The center of mass of yoga's benefit is its ability to cope with stress and emotion, because most diseases have stress as a complicating factor and in many cases as a precipitating factor,” Gillen said.</p><p>“Stress is known as a high-risk factor for development of depression and anxiety,” said Sat Bir Singh Khalsa, an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.</p><p>But it's not just mental and emotional problems that yoga reportedly helps.</p><p>“Stress has a big role in the severity of diabetes, as it does in asthma,” Singh Khalsa said.</p><p>Among the several dozen attendees at the conference were several nurses and doctors.</p><p>“I would say 50 percent of the people here would not normally come, but have come because of the subject matter and the medical component,” Gillen said.</p><p>Rajan Narayanan helped organize the conference. The executive director for the Life in Yoga Institute in Maryland was also a speaker. He does research on the benefits of yoga on people who suffer from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, sleep apnea, arthritis and HIV.</p><p>“Yoga can help with practically any disease, but people don't know about it. That's what we try to help others understand,” Narayanan said.</p><p>The Life in Yoga Institute is the first to establish a continuing medical education course for doctors and others in the medical field. Licensed medical workers are required to take continuing education courses throughout their career.</p><p>The Amrit Yoga Institute was established in Salt Springs in 2002 by Yogi Amrit Desai. He began teaching yoga in the United States in the 1960s and emphasizes the spiritual aspect of yoga.</p><p>Students from around the world come to the institute located on the banks of Lake Kerr to learn the discipline and become certified instructors.</p>