There is an agency funded by the US government that looks at the usefulness and safety of complementary and alternative medicine and their roles in improving health and health care. Their list of scientific studies can be found at http://nccam.nih.gov/research/results/spotlight/ and the list of past studies is fascinating.
One of the studies that caught my eye related to Yoga and the fact that long term Yoga practice can be shown to cause physical changes that result in a healthier (lessor) response to stress as well as to improvements in mood - http://nccam.nih.gov/research/results/spotlight/051510.htm.
“Researchers at Ohio State University enrolled 25 women identified as yoga "experts" (practiced yoga regularly once or twice weekly for at least 2 years and at least twice weekly during the past year) and 25 novices (participated in yoga classes or home practice with yoga videos for 6 to 12 sessions). The researchers assessed participants' cardiovascular, inflammatory, and endocrine responses before and after they took part in three activities: yoga practice, slow walking on a treadmill, and passively watching a video. They also measured participants' physiologic responses before and after certain stress events.
Although differences in inflammatory or endocrine responses were not unique to the yoga sessions, the researchers found that the novices' blood had 41 percent higher levels of the cytokine interleukin-6 (IL-6) than those of the experts. IL-6 is a stress-related compound that is thought to play a role in certain conditions such as cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes. In addition, the novices' levels of C-reactive protein, which serves as a general marker for inflammation, were nearly five times that of the yoga experts. Experts had lower heart rates in response to stress events than novices. Yoga also boosted mood in both groups, while the other two interventions (walking, video) did not.”
The study results page also has a link to the study publication itself as while as other related studies and publications and some interesting diagrams from the study showing details of some of the differences found between yoga novices and long time practitioners.
I knew that some HMOs in the use were using forms of complementary and alternative medicine post surgery because they have found it reduced costs, but I am heartened to see that there is an entire agency studying this question scientifically.
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The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medecine is funded by the US government, with the following mission ‘The mission of NCCAM is to define, through rigorous scientific investigation, the usefulness and safety of complementary and alternative medicine interventions and their roles in improving health and health care.’.
Fascinating, and their website is well worth a browse.