Here’s some sensationalized reporting from the UK’s right-wing Telegraph. It’s worth remembering that most of the Telegraph’s readership are elderly right-wing supporters who are likely to be less active physically.

The thrust of the Telegraph article is allegedly that yoga is more dangerous than previously thought and causes as many injuries as other sports, according to a new study.

Source: Yoga more dangerous than previously thought, scientists say

I recommend reading the article and reflecting on the title – spot the spin word ‘dangerous’, it’s totally out of context and tries to grab readership from sensationalization.

From the Telegraph article we know nothing of the methodology deployed in the study nor on existing scientific evidence about Yoga’s health benefits (here’s a quick summary of the most cited  scientific literature). Google Scholar provides 80,000 hits on the health benefits of yoga. Why didn’t the Telegraph journalist do a two second search?

For my own part, I was recommended to yoga for my asthma – my consultant told me that there was strong scientific evidence that yoga improves our breathing capacity – my own evidence is my improveed capacity to swim front-crawl without triggering asthma. I joined a yoga class and the rest is history – every experienced yoga instructor asks about injuries and recommends caution on certain poses. Of course, there are risks with yoga, like any other sport, especially for the more elderly and less fit.

Shame on the Telegraph for sloppy and biased reporting, pandering to its elderly, right-wing and inactive readers.

It’s time for the yoga mat!