Mission Statement

by Nina

Above the Fog by Brad Gibson

Recently I received a question from a reader asking two questions; the first question was yoga related. The second, which was not yoga related, asked which supplements we recommended for a certain condition. After letting our reader know we would be happy to address the first question (and in fact, an answer to her question will be coming this very week), I wrote:

But regarding the second question, we don't address nutrition and supplements on the blog. None of us are trained in that area, and recommending supplements is a very tricky issue for a number of reasons. So, from the beginning, we established a general policy against writing about anything except yoga and the science of aging. So we're going to have to decline to address that one. I hope you understand!

The reader graciously—we love our readers!—wrote back saying that she did understand. But as we have a number of new readers since we published our original mission statement (see In the Kitchen), I thought I’d take a moment to let you all know a little bit more about our mission. Of course, we’re blessed here at Yoga for Healthy Aging to have an extraordinary staff, including two MDs (Dr. Baxter Bell and Dr. Timothy McCall), two scientists who study aging (Dr. Bradford Gibson and Dr. Rammohan Rao) and a practicing physical therapist (Shari Ser, P.T.). Naturally with so much available expertise, you might assume that we’d be able and willing to address subjects other than yoga that know quite a bit about, especially if they are related to the aging. But even we were first discussing the blog, we understood that for differing reasons, some subjects needed to be off limits. So without further ado....

What we will take on: 

1. Yoga asana, meditation, pranayama, and other practices, especially as they relate to healthy aging.
2. Yoga philosophy and yoga history.
3. The science of aging and various theories of aging.
4. Scientific studies regarding yoga.
5. Medical conditions in general and how you can use yoga to address them.

What we won't take on:

1. Diet
2. Supplements.
3. Medical advice. (Yes, we have doctors here, but as with any doctor, our doctors cannot dispense medical advice without examining you in person. Besides, this is a yoga blog!)

Even after declaring those three topics off limits, we can assure you, we've still got an enormous wealth of useful and inspiring information to share with you. Plus, we've added three new regular contributors (Timothy, Ram, and Shari) since we first started the blog, who have even more ideas and new points of view. During the very first discussion Baxter, Brad and I had about the idea of the blog (we were in the kitchen, preparing a meal together), Baxter was initially concerned that we might not have enough material, but Brad said, "No way. We'll never run out of topics!"