A high-ranking health official in India has some good news for all yoga aficionados out there. He recently announced that scientists at a Bangalore institute have found a yoga technique that can reportedly "cure" cancer.
During a medical conference in Goa over the weekend, India's Minister for Yoga and Traditional Medicine, Shripad Yasso Naik, revealed that the technique could be prescribed by doctors within a year. The ministry is still waiting for the scientists to procure a full version of the research, The Telegraph reported.
Dr. H.R. Nagendra, chancellor of the Bangalore-based Swami Vivekananda Yoga Anusandhana Samsthana and yoga instructor to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, also confirmed the study. However, he did not go into full detail on how the yoga technique would work.
Naik and Nagendra's revolutionary claim has received a fair amount of criticisms from their colleagues, most notably from Dr. Rajeev Sood of the Medical Council of India. Sood advised the pair to avoid using the word "cure" since it might create unrealistic expectations.
"Yoga is a great help and has many benefits. To claim it would cure cancer is premature and not proper," Sood argued. "This is not the outcome of controlled, randomised studies. These are observational studies. In our modern medicine we don't consider this proof. It needs further studies."
Naik countered by saying that the ministry will only endorse the study if it is proven to be 100 percent scientific. Nevertheless, he personally believes the study will be approved as he himself has seen its merits.
"It is a proven fact. We have visited the Bengaluru-based Swami Vivekananda Yoga Anusandhana Samsthana institute, where many people told us they have been cured of cancer by regular practice of yoga," said Naik, via The Indian Express. "The institute has found a technique of yoga for the prevention and cure of cancer."
