3 ways yoga will change your body

A yoga body isn’t just about bendy limbs, the ancient practice can improve memory, heart and bone health, says Anna Magee We’ve become a nation obsessed with downward dogs and cat cows. Brits are now spending a staggering £790 million a year on yoga classes. In fact, while on one hand yoga seems to get weirder by the day – new hybrids include rage or naked yoga, poses done on paddleboard or horseback (seriously) and even dog yoga – on the other its real benefits are being increasingly proven by science. UCLA researchers have found a three-month course of yoga and meditation was more effective than memory exercises for minimizing age-related brain impairment while another found it could improve sleep in breast cancer survivors. a three month course of yoga was more effective than memory exercises for minimising age-related brain changes When Lucy Edge, 53, a former advertising executive fell into a deep depression she opted for yoga instead of the anti-depressants she was prescribed. ‘I took a six month career break and travelled to India to learn yoga and though I failed to get the yoga goddess body I came back happier and with a sense of contentment I had never felt before,’ Edge remembers. She’s since written three books about yoga and founded Yoga Meds, a section of her website Yogaclicks.com that lists over 300 clinical trials for yoga’s benefits for everything from arthritis to insomnia and obesity. ‘Yoga was so beneficial for my depression, I wanted to tell the world about its joys. But as the daughter of a scientist [Lucy’s late father was Professor Gordon Edge, creator of the Cambridge Cluster] I didn’t want to make mad claims, I wanted evidence and found so much of it for yoga,’ Lucy remembers. Here are some ways […]

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