Yoga

Over recent years, yoga has been purported to be beneficial in alleviating symptoms of many chronic illnesses and injuries. In some cases, people claim that yoga can replace conventional treatments for certain conditions, including the use of drugs, and therefore it has become widely considered an alternative medicine or therapy. Select components of yoga practice, such as relaxation and mediation, are also thought of as alternative medicine in their own right. Though the physical exercises of yoga have been shown to provide relief from specific ailments, it is most often in conjunction with relaxation that improvement is observed. Additionally, despite the traditional forms of yoga that incorporate a mystic or religious quality, benefits have been reported even without attention to or belief in the spiritual aspect.