Prevention & Symptom Relief

Baxter Bell MD explains that yoga serves a preventative role in two ways:

Overall healthcare – Because yoga is a powerful antidote to stress and has a positive impact on strength, flexibility, balance and agility, it naturally serves a preventative role in conditions caused by a sedentary lifestyle and/or stress — conditions such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes, osteoporosis, balance issues, and so on.
Particular condition – Yoga is adaptable to all sorts of needs. A person at risk for osteoporosis, for example, can emphasize practices to build bone and muscle strength.

Yoga is very effective at relieving symptoms. Dr. Bell observes that:

Sometimes yoga promotes symptomatic relief without impacting the underlying cause, such as low back pain caused by a ruptured disk, for example.
Other times, yoga addresses the symptoms and also leads to a cure of the condition, such as stress-related headaches or digestive problems, for example.

Based on an extensive and ever-growing body of research and on qualitative reports, we can say that:

Yoga has a very long list of symptoms it addresses, from low back pain to depression, headaches, chronic pain and much more.
Yoga provides relief for a wide range of conditions that cause chronic pain (e.g. migraines, osteoarthritis, fibromyalgia, and cancer).