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I first became acquainted with yoga back in the late 1960s when rock musicians and Hollywood starlets began making highly publicized sojourns to India to live in ashrams and learn the latest fad in the healing arts. Although it sounded like a brand-new, super-hip idea to my teenage girlfriends and me, it was actually as old as the hills, dating as far back as 3000 B.C.

Yoga, a system of physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual development, is aimed at joining the body, mind, emotions, and spirit in a harmonious union. There are many different branches of yoga, but the one most often practiced here in North America is raja, a system that involves postures, deep breathing, and progressive relaxation. One of the primary aims of yoga is restoration of the prana, or life energy, the vital force that flows through the bodies of every living thing.

The special yoga postures or poses (called asanas) are great for increasing flexibility, releasing muscle tension, revving up circulation, toning muscles, and encouraging relaxation. The breathing exercises (called pranayama) expand the capacity of the lungs, improve respiration, and slow the breathing, while restoring the prana and keeping it moving freely throughout the body. And the progressive relaxation exercises relieve stress and muscle tension, improve immune system function, balance the nervous system, lower the blood pressure, and just generally make you feel great.

Yoga is a health-enhancer for just about anybody, but for those with asthma or allergies it can be a real boon. Because stress, nervous tension, and emotional upsets can increase or even cause asthmatic or allergic reactions, it makes sense that yoga, with its relaxing, stress-relieving effects, can be a big help in calming them down. The pranayama are particularly therapeutic for asthmatics. By encouraging slower, deeper, more controlled breathing, they increase lung capacity, strengthen the respiratory system as a whole, and help reduce both the frequency and severity of asthma attacks.

The postures are usually done slowly and are combined with the breathing: the pose is usually held for several counts while slowly inhaling, holding the breath for a few counts, and then exhaling. There are different types of poses. The child pose will increase spinal flexibility, the knee to chest pose will increase the flexibility of the hip joints, buttock muscles, and lower back, the body twist will increase flexibility of the hips, spine, upper chest, and neck muscles, the pretzel will increase inner-thigh and hip flexibility, the cat will increase spinal flexibility and the snake will increase arm and upper-body strength and flexibility of the chest, stomach, and back muscles.

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