by Nina
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| Apples by Paul Cezanne (also not health insurance) |
Okay, I admit it: The fight over health care is making me discouraged and depressed—again. So I decided to revise and rerun a post I wrote several years ago about this motto I had seen circulating in the yoga community:
Yoga is My Health Insurance
I believe that promoting this idea—that you don’t need health insurance if you practice yoga—that yoga is a replacement for western medicine—is both irresponsible and delusional.
On the staff of Yoga for Healthy Aging, we have a medical doctor, two medical researchers, and a physical therapist. And every one of these people not only has their own health insurance, but all would assure you that yoga cannot solve all your health problems. And thinking that it can is both foolish and dangerous.
Because modern yoga has been popular in the US for decades now, we now have a large number of people—particularly yoga teachers—who have been practicing yoga for 30, 40, or even more years. And I’ve been watching them struggling with some of the same major health concerns we all must face, from cancer and Parkinson’s disease to serious and lasting injuries due to car accidents and arthritis that necessitates joint replacements. (I’m thinking of people I know here—it’s likely you know other yoga teachers with other serious conditions.) Of course, yoga can help someone with serious illnesses or injuries, providing improved quality of life and possibly ameliorating certain troublesome symptoms, but it cannot prevent or cure those diseases. Would we really want any of these people to go without the help—sometimes lifesaving help—that could be provided by western medicine?
Obviously, we wouldn’t have started this blog if we didn’t all believe that yoga was a powerful tool for fostering healthy aging. And we continue to believe that is true. But we don’t for a second believe that yoga is our health insurance, or that it should be yours.
This rant was approved by Dr. Baxter Bell and Dr. Brad Gibson.
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I'm a yoga teacher with allergies, alignment issues (one leg longer than the other), and PTSD. I occasionally see an allergist, chiropractor, and a psychiatrist. Yoga helps minimize the symptoms of my mental and physical issues but I know when to visit a doctor.
I'm a yoga teacher and an Ayurveda practitioner (and an insurance broker) and I totally agree with this article. Ayurveda can help you to achieve optimal health if you're willing to do the work and yoga is part of the program. But Ayurveda can't fix everything and Ayurveda works with western medicine. It's important to have health insurance. Not only do we get illnesses and or diseases that Ayurveda can't treat (it's not an acceptable medicine system in most parts of the US) but accidents happen too. Insurance is there to indemnify you become injured or ill.
Yoga(movement, breathing and meditation) is a tool for staying comfortable in our aging body. It is important as food, relaxation, laughter, safe/clean environment. No one thing is the answer to a complex issue like health. I too am a health care professional (NP). Clearly, Western medicine does not have all the answers to all of life's complex events (disease, accidents, etc). It is nice to have a powerful tool, such as yoga, that empowers us to stay connected to our own health and well-being.
I am yoga teacher.I have been passionate about understanding the scientific basis for the yoga practices.
As a yoga, meditation, and tai chi teacher, these modalities, along with eating a healthy diet, massage, exercise, etc. are all part of my health plan – not to be confused with health insurance.
I'm a yoga teacher, too; and a psychotherapist. After practicing yoga, meditation, pranayama (well, the 8 Limbs) for over 40 years, I still have medical insurance. Allopathic medicine is irreplaceable thus far for trauma, surgery, and diagnosis. It can't replace yoga, sattvic diet, meditation, chiropractic and naturopathy, but it certainly is a powerful modality for physical injury and identifying disease.
I agree with this sentiment wholeheartedly. However, as a yoga teacher and yoga therapist, I cannot afford health insurance (the available plans in my state's marketplace are laughably unaffordable). If we reject the statement the "yoga is my health insurance," we must clarify what we are rejecting: not the potency of yoga, but rather the system that does not adequately provide health insurance for every person. Yoga is my health insurance (as is eating well, sleeping well, etc), but only because actual health insurance is a precious commodity that I cannot afford on my income (that I earn by teaching wellness). Yoga is my health insurance, but it shouldn't be.
You make a really good point! And I'm sorry that you cannot have the health insurance that you surely deserve. Yoga teachers/therapists do such wonderful work, yet the vast majority of them make very little money.
I have said this to myself many times! I know yoga cannot answer all medical ailments, but I have refused to buy insurance because I do not see how the profit-taking of the insurance industry contributes to our health. I don't see it moving towards healing of individuals, communities or the planet. It gleans money from taking advantage of weakness. Mind you my position is easier to maintain in Australia where we still enjoy some universal public health cover.
Since you enjoy universal public health care, it's probably easier for you to reject health insurance than those of us in the US. If we get ill, we can lose everything to pay for medical care without insurance. It doesn't even have to be a serious illness. I spent one night in the hospital after an ER visit and the bill was over $23,000. Imagine if you had a heart attack or cancer. We have no safety net here, health insurance is a necessity.