Why yoga is on the list of the Ministry of possible pseudotherapies

[Inkriql]

Last February, the Ministry of Health launched the CoNprueba campaign with the aim of informing citizens about pseudo-therapies and pseudosciences. 73 of the 193 techniques analyzed have been categorized within the category of pseudotherapies, since they do not have any scientific support. The remaining 66 are still under evaluation. Among them we can find yoga. But, why this ancestral discipline has sneaked into this list? Given this question, the Department of Health gives a brief answer: "It is being evaluated to see if it has support in scientific knowledge or evidence to support its effectiveness and safety."

The truth is that this practice has some support in the scientific literature. The prestigious Harvard University aims to "promote physical health in different ways. Some even lead to better stress management." Among its benefits already corroborated are the improvement of back pain or the reduction of discomfort related to arthritis. There are also many others that are still being studied, such as helping migraines, osteoporosis, balance or mobility (these investigations are in preliminary stages). However, the website of the Ministry of Health indicates about the techniques under evaluation that although there may be publications related to these practices does not imply that they are supported by scientific knowledge or that their efficacy and safety are guaranteed.
A fishing ground of pseudoscientific therapies

"Yoga - like music or secondary treatments with animals - provides well-being. It is a complementary therapy and has evidence that supports its results as a form of muscle relaxation with asanas and to reduce stress with meditation," acknowledges Gerónimo Fernández Torrente , coordinator of the Observatory of Pseudosciences of the Medical Association of Spain, where they have also developed a list of pseudoscientific therapies on which the Ministry's campaign has been based. "Whenever it is good to use we have no problem," says the expert.

The problem seems to be behind some of the places where yoga classes are taught. The alert arises from the frequency with which yoga centers or instructors offer or advertise pseudotherapies, explains Elena Campos, president of the Association to Defend the Sick from Pseudoscientific Therapies. "As long as they remain in the field of relaxation, well-being or exercise, there is no problem, but sometimes they become access routes to different pseudotherapies and they try to attribute abilities that they do not have or have not been shown," He says.
A hiding place for charlatans

The most common of these pseudoscientific therapies that are taught in yoga centers are - as the expert explains - "Ayurveda [name by which it is called the traditional 'Indian medicine'] that is offered as therapy through the consumption of certain types of food, macrobiotics, which is also a type of diet, or osteopathy [technique of mani[CENSORED]tion of muscle and bone tissue], which can end up causing problems, if the person doing it has no health training. "

Beyond those mentioned by the expert, a simple Google search with the words "yoga, therapies and Madrid" gives us various results of centers in the capital where other pseudotherapies included in the Ministry's blacklist are put into practice. Among them are the metamorphic technique, which is a type of massage that ensures the resolution of different health problems, or the aura soma, a technique that ensures the cure of diseases through light and colors.

 

On the other hand, the exoticism of yoga and the fact that it is in fashion make it be used several times by charlatans and tricksters, as they have been able to observe from the Collegiate Medical Organization of Spain. So, although they do not include this discipline as a pseudoscientific therapy, they do launch an alert: behind some centers you can find sectarian movements that use yoga as a form of uptake or even a psychological mani[CENSORED]tion tool. A clear example is that of Baba Ramdev, a Hindu of humble origin who has become a multimillionaire ensuring that yoga cured a severe paralysis suffered as a child.
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Meditation, a magnet for sects

And yoga is not the only practice where tricksters hide. Meditation, which is also on the list of therapies under evaluation despite having scientific studies that support it - as one from the University of Melbourne that points out that this practice can be useful to help with psychological problems such as anxiety, depression and stress— it is another discipline behind which quacks and scammers hide. There are classes of mindfulness that can hide scams in the form of courses, retreats and "healing therapies" for exorbitant prices that exceed several hundred euros.

In short, if in the center we are going to try to make us believe that this discipline has magical qualities, our alerts should jump. Replacing major disease treatments with yoga sessions or curing cancer through meditation are not on the list of properties of yoga that have been proven by science.