WHO Researching Yoga's Role for a Healthier World

The World Health Organization is researching how to integrate yoga with universal health care needs, noted Nata Menabde, the agency's executive director at the UN office. It was a struggle to standardise yoga for use around the world as part of health care systems because of its many different schools of practice, but the World Health Organisation (WHO) has been working with centres in India and elsewhere to find ways to do this, she told reporters at a briefing.Calling yoga the "ancient Vedic gift to the world", she stressed on its ability to bring together body, soul and mind for a holistic approach to health. Yoga is an ideal medium to deal with lifestyle disorders, she said, citing an example of dealing with cardiovascular diseases in Russia. It can also help in coping with stress and treating mental disorders by helping people develop "inner resilience", Menabde said.In Goa, yoga was being combined with other therapies to treat mental illness and it was showing results, she said. She said she saw a growing role for yoga as the world's proportion of ageing population is on a rise. Ageing becomes healthier with the practice of yoga and with the ease of practice that has a positive impact on both body and mind. It has also been shown to help with arthritis and various other illnesses.India's Permanent Representative Asoke Kumar Mukerji said that the International Day of Yoga celebrations would connect the UN with the world outside by linking the observances inside the headquarter's open plaza with the rest of the world.Every year a yoga event is organised at the Times Square on the summer solstice day by the city's yoga community and the Times Square Alliance. This year it will be a part of the International Day of Yoga and is expected to draw close to 30,000 people, he said.The celebrations in 256 cities across 192 cities would reach close two billion people, Mukerji. The only country not to participate would be Yemen, he said. Mukerji said yoga assumed a special meaning this year because of the focus on climate change and the international conference in Paris in December. The General Assembly's resolution creating yoga day, he said, spoke of its role in "building better individual lifestyles devoid of excesses of all kinds".Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is to give the keynote address at the yoga day UN celebrations. In his message about the celebrations, Ban said that he had tried the Vrksasana -- the tree pose -- and "appreciated the simple sense of satisfaction that yoga can bring".