For many years, I enjoyed periodic conversations with Dr. Timothy Mc Call, M.D., a board-certified specialist in internal medicine who developed a deep interest in yoga long after he began practicing medicine.

Along the way, Dr. McCall decided to write a book on yoga and medicine, and in between his many trips to India, interviewed a number of leading yoga exponents of various disciplines, including myself, on what they, as yoga teachers, did to help people with chronic illness and physical dysfunction.

I was honored to contribute my perspective on yoga's effect on chronic pain in several places throughout his book, and was pleased to contribute extensively for his chapter on fibromyalgia.

The result was his landmark book, Yoga as Medicine: The Yogic Prescription for Health and Healing, published in 2007 by Bantam Books in association with Yoga Journal. (Click here to purchase his book directly from Amazon.com).

"Yoga appears to be effective in the treatment of a wide variety of health conditions," writes Dr. McCall. At the very beginning of his book, Dr. McCall relates a survey published by the London-based Yoga Biomedical Trust showing yoga's efficacy for a wide range of medical conditions:

Source: The Yoga Biomedical Trust, London

McCall, MD, Timothy, YOGA AS MEDICINE (Bantam Dell) 2007, pp.4-5

(Click here to purchase his book directly from Amazon.com).