Leotards Never Lie

The crunch-time continues, with Brexit, Catalonia, Spain’s forthcoming elections and Francisco Franco’s imminent trip by helicopter to his new resting place. All four of these items are subject to spin, lies, truths, inventions and facts (in no particular order or composition). We have, nevertheless, already made up our minds, and whatever is written or reported will not change them.

With this is mind, we thought we’d write about Yoga this week.

From El País (and ignoring the influence of both the medical profession and Big Pharma) we wonder, is yoga a fake? Amazing question! According to the Spanish Govt, the answer is 'maybe': 

'Last February the Ministry of Health launched the 'coNprueba' campaign (here) with the aim of informing citizens about pseudo-therapies and pseudo-sciences. 73 of the 193 techniques analysed have now been categorized within the category of pseudo-therapies, since they do not have any scientific support, while 66 more are still under evaluation. Among them we can find yoga. But, how could this ancestral discipline have sneaked into this list? The Department of Health gives a brief answer: "It is currently being evaluated to see if it has provable value in scientific knowledge or evidence to support its effectiveness and safety."...'.

The article speaks of ‘sects’ and ‘charlatans’ (and, Goodness, there are quite a few of these knocking about here in Spain), but, yoga?

Here’s a short video from the Ministry of Science, together with the Ministry of Health. The various pseudo-therapies admitted by coNprueba (so far) follow (in Spanish, we’ve no idea what half of them are in any language): 

Análisis somatoemocional, análisis transaccional, ángeles de Atlantis, armónicos, arolo tifar, ataraxia, aura soma, biocibernética, breema, cirugía energética, coaching transformacional, constelaciones sistemáticas, cristales de cuarzo, cromopuntura, cuencos de cuarzo, cuencos tibetanos, diafreoterapia, diapasones, digitopuntura, esencias marinas, espinología, fascioterapia, feng shui, flores del alba, frutoterapia, gemoterapia, geobiología, geocromoterapia, geoterapia, grafoterapia, hidroterapia del colon, hipnosis ericksoniana, homeosynthesis, iridología, lama-fera, masaje babandi, masaje californiano, masaje en la energía de los chacras, masaje metamórfico, masaje tibetano, medicina antroposófica, medicina de los mapuches, medicina ortomolecular, metaloterapia, método de orientación corporal Kidoc, método Grinberg, numerología, oligoterapia, orinoterapia, oxigenación biocatalítica, piedras calientes, pirámide vastu, plasma marino, posturología, pranoterapia, psicohomeopatía, psychic healing, quinton, radioestesia, rebirthing, sincronización core, sofronización, sotai, tantra, técnica fosfénica, técnica metamórfica, técnica nimmo de masaje, terapia bioenergética, terapia biomagnética, terapia de renovación de memoria celular (cmrt), terapia floral de California, terapia floral orquídeas, terapia regresiva.
Among the therapies still under investigation we find acupuncture, hippotherapy, Thai massage, osteopathy, meditation and yoga.

And after a gruelling bout with Franco, Catalonia, elections and Brexit, a half-hour of yoga is decidedly efficacious.