Health & Fitness

WELLNESS I ON THE COVER

On The Cutting Edge

Yoga therapy makes bid for medical respect.

Left: Many hospitals now offer

both community and thera-

peutic yoga classes, such as

this one at Providence Park

Hospital Assarian Cancer

Center, Novi.

Below: "We have had a pro-

gram of yoga therapy for four

years," says William Beaumont

Hospital cardiologist Dr. Pamela

Marcovitz.

Judith Doner Berne
Special to the Jewish News

T

he ancient practice of yoga is
slowly wending its way into mod-
em medicine.
"Yoga therapy — tailoring a custom
yoga regimen to treat a client's specific
psychological and physical health con-
cerns — is increasing in popularity and
acceptance," according to a recent Wayne
State University study.
Although healthy backs have long been
a focus of yoga classes, yoga therapy for
conditions as diverse as addiction, brain
injury, heart problems, multiple sclerosis
and cancer is coming into play.
A movement to train yoga teach-
ers to become yoga therapists is gain-
ing traction. Indeed, the mission of
the International Association of Yoga
Therapists is "to establish yoga as a recog-
nized and respected therapy"
At the same time, yoga studios are
becoming de rigueur at hospitals, where
classes may be prescribed for patients and
offered to the community.

Arbor. "It's the wave of the future she says.
Meanwhile, the medical and yoga corn-
At Yoga Therapy of Michigan in West
munities await results of the year-long
Bloomfield, Suzanna Ran is one of the
experiment under way on a cancer treat-
growing number of Metro Detroit-based
ment floor of Beth Israel Medical Center
yoga therapists who is both training new
in New York.
therapists and offering treatments specific
There, designer Donna Karan's chari-
table foundation has donated $850,000 "to to clients' ailments.
"You always have to have some medi-
turn a hospital into a testing ground for
cal person involved:' cautions Ran, who
a trendy, medically controversial notion:
has completed 650 hours of yoga therapy
that yoga, meditation and aromatherapy
beyond her training as a yoga teacher and
can enhance regimens of chemotherapy
and radiation:' according to a
story published last year in the
New York Times.
"I refer a double-digit number
of patients each week to yoga ther-
apy" says Dr. Pamela Marcovitz,
M.D., medical director of the
Ministrelli Women's Heart Center
at William Beaumont Hospital,
Royal Oak.
"There have been a lot of stud-
ies proving that yoga and similar
techniques improve cardiovascu-
"We're a yoga-based program," says Beverly
lar outcomes:' says Marcovitz, a
Price, who helps people explore their relationship
University of Michigan-educated
to food.
cardiologist who lives in Ann

has a degree in exercise physiology from
U-M.
"My back was so sore I couldn't walk:'
says Shiela Cuscutis of Farmington Hills,
one of Ran's clients. "I had done some
physical therapy and that didn't do any-
thine
"I noted her stiffness, her weakness, her
imbalance through watching, touching
and talking with her:' says Ran of West
Bloomfield. "I slowly took her through a
series that was designed specifically for
her."
"I'm amazed at how much better I fee,'
Cuscutis says. "Now I can get down on the
floor and get up. I have a lot more stamina.
It keeps improving"

Proven Evidence
The medical community is coming around
to yoga because doctors are seeing clear
evidence of what works, says Sarah Fink,
co-founder with Yoga Shelter owner Steve
Feldman of YogaMedics in Farmington Hills.
Still, insurance lags behind. By docu-

On The Cutting Edge on page 34

November 5 c 2009

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