Stats for nerds
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3mentions
2people
2020–2025years
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Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- No, it is only when you try to interpret them in today's context and assumed models which are quite different from the context/models in which they were written/practiced that it seems like mumbo-jumbo. They are more of an empirical science and it is up to you to study, practice and interpret them carefully.
For example; Mel Robin was a research scientist who got interested in Hatha Yoga and in true researcher fashion set about collecting/studying research papers and trying to map them to his practice of traditional Hatha Yoga. He wrote an excellent book A Handbook for Yogasana Teachers: The Incorporation of Neuroscience, Physiology, and Anatomy into the Practice (the 1st edition was called A Physiological Handbook for Teachers of Yogasana) with a huge reference section of research papers from various journals.
Another example; the neuroscientist James Austin wrote a mammoth book Zen and the Brain: Toward an Understanding of Meditation and Consciousness where he tried to map his knowledge of neuroscience to his experiences from Zen meditation practice.
Empirical practices which have survived for centuries and across civilizations are usually "scientifically" valid and it is up to us to map them to modern scientific concepts.
- Are you just an ass or are you just trying to get a rise out of people? It is hard to have a conversation when your tone is combative rather than rational.
You are trying to employ the "Gish Gallop" and throw all sorts of irrelevant noise to muddy the waters. What do Gwyneth Paltrow, Alex Jones etc. have to do with Medicine?. If you think physicians are looking at Ayurveda/TCM/Yoga etc. only for the money/ego/fad then you really don't know what you are talking about. Don't waste my time with nonsense.
You are also cherry-picking articles with sensational headlines eg. your last link about usage of Turmeric is an article which is very clearly sheer stupidity and nothing to do with the medicine itself.
Here is something for your edification;
Efficacy of Curcumin(Turmeric) - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5664031/
Read the book "Herbal Medicine: Biomolecular and Clinical Aspects" for scientific research on a variety of traditional herbs. Centuries of "Empirical Data" is what is being put to test to identify efficacy. This is the proper scientific method and not the offhand dismissal that you seem to embrace.
You are also very wrong about "Yoga and Meditation" being merely "Exercise and Relaxation". Read the following;
* A Physiological Handbook for Teachers of Yogasana
* Zen & the Brain
That should hold you for a while.
- You have a point but don't throw the "baby out with the bathwater". The problem is that much of the ancient Yogic Pranayama techniques were discovered empirically but its explanation models do not quite match with our current Scientific Models (which is of course vastly more detailed and Complex). We do have the broad ideas covered and a lot of micro-details worked out but no one has as yet put everything together and explained it end-to-end using Modern Science. Hence all the charlatans/woo-woo peddlers having a field day with the gullible public. So it behooves us to study a little bit by ourselves to get at the facts/truth. With that in mind you might find the following useful;
- Movement of Oxygen and Carbon Dioxide in the Body: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMeG75wqsRc
- Blood Gases: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KudrLakBgeU
- Breath of Life: The Respiratory Vagal Stimulation Model of Contemplative Activity: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6189422/
- Benefits from one session of deep and slow breathing on Vagal tone and anxiety in young and older adults : https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-98736-9
- A Physiological Handbook for Teachers of Yogasana by Mel Robin (the 2nd edition is called A Handbook for Yogasana Teachers, The Incorporation of Neuroscience, Physiology and Anatomy into the Practice): This is a huge book where the author (himself a researcher) has tried to explain the ancient practice in terms of Modern Science. The bibliography is quite large and lists a lot of Studies/Papers on the subject.
So my suggestion is not to dismiss wholesale "Sciences" which were discovered empirically and practiced over generations but try to practice it and explain it using Modern Science as much as possible. That is how "Real Science" advances.
