In recent years, I have discovered a joy in examining the many ‘old wives’ tales’ that tend to spread like wildfire through the yoga community. Does practicing Headstand stimulate the thyroid gland? Does twisting the abdomen help the liver detoxify?
While not everything has to be evidence-based or quantified, I believe in the importance of trying to separate theory from fact, particularly when making bold claims about how yoga can improve our health or even help us to recover from illness and injury.
Here, I examine three specific claims about yoga’s impact on our physiology using insights from scientific research: yoga inversions bring more blood to the brain; heavy
