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crying with anginal pain. Deep yogic relaxation techniques can bring about great rehabilitation. We have had scores of people with angina and post-myocardial infarction cases who have been beautifully rehabilitated. Medication has been reduced by 70% in just a few weeks of yoga practice, while the systolic and
tolic pressures also have been reduced considerably. In hypertension as well, we see similar results. We had not only mild hypertensives, but also moderate and very severe hypertensives, with long histories of hypertension. There has been a very drastic improvement. After a month or two they start reducing their medication, which is reflected here in the four weeks practice of yoga, with about three percent reduction in the drug score. But gradually after six to eight months of practice, they have been able to improve greatly. So today it is well known that yoga can be very effective with such problems as arteriosclerosis and cardiovascular ailments.
For a long time people believed that diabetes was essentially an organic disorder. However, today it is well known that the stress hormones that are produced in a demanding situation, like glucagon, adrenalin, cortisone, thyroxine, the growth hormones, will all increase the sugar metabolism, and insulin becomes a lone fighter to reduce the sugar metabolism. As we go on stressing ourselves more and more and continue in the state of stress, then naturally there is going to be a sugar increase and you are declared a diabetic. Once a diabetic, ever a diabetic has been the belief of many people, but with yoga the short term results have shown there is a decrease in medication of nearly 20% in just four weeks and later on when they continue, there has been nearly an 85% reduction in medication. Today of all these diabetics, nearly 80% of them who came to us have been completely normalized. They take no medicines today, they practice yoga and, not only that, they even take normal food. They go to the festivals, they take even sweets, but the next day they know how to reduce their sugar level by the use of practices such as sarvangasana, matsyasana, vaman dhauti, shankaprakshalana and deep relaxation.
Next we have a detailed study of the mechanisms carried out in the Royal Free Hospital with Dr. Bandona. The pilot study was in 1988. He measured. the glycosylated hemoglobin which has improved considerably in just two weeks of yoga practice. Later on, being very surprised at such research, he
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