The Science of Yoga

they are a great antidote to big cities.
    Payne, citing no evidence, declared that the physical truth lay precisely in the opposite direction. Yoga breathing, he stated, “steps up your metabolism.” He felt so confident about the claim that later in the book he generalized the energizing effect to the discipline as a whole. Practicing yoga, he asserted, will “boost your metabolism” and “helps you step up a flagging metabolism.”
    His misinformation helped pave the way for credulous authors to come, including Tara Stiles, the former model who authored Slim Calm Sexy Yoga. He gave the myth new energy.
    Dummies took the muddled thinking about physiology and, like Stiles, applied it to a sensitive issue of personal appearance. The metabolic rise, Payne assured his readers, could aid their realization of one of the obsessive goals of modern life—maintaining a slim figure. The heightened metabolic state, he declared, was “the best manager of weight increase.” His claim was remarkable. By implication, the word “best” put yoga above dieting, exercise, walking, general fitness, and wise nutrition as a means of burning calories and controlling weight. And, lest readers forget, he reiterated the slimming claim. Yoga postures, he said, “keep the rolls off your midriff.” The discipline, Dummies stressed, “helps you shed surplus pounds.”
    That said, the pseudoscience of Payne on oxygen and metabolism comprised only a smallpart of his book. Most of his advice lay in standard postures and tips, anecdotes and encouragement. Photo after photo showed him—athletic and good-looking—going through the poses and helping students. Interestingly, he devoted the majority of the book to what he called “Health Maintenance and Restoration” but made few direct claims for healing.
    It sold. Starting in 1999, Yoga for Dummies went through at least fourteen printings—far more than most yoga books. It became a standard reference for beginners. And, almost magically over the years, the point size of the font on the cover that announced Payne’s Ph.D. grew larger.
    In 2000, he traveled to Davos, Switzerland, and the World Economic Forum. He was, as a Samata news release put it, the first yoga teacher to address the group—a gathering of more than two thousand world leaders. The notables included Bill Clinton and Tony Blair, Bill Gates and the novelist Umberto Eco. Sunday morning at Davos is usually reserved for relaxation and sports. Many participants ski the nearby slopes. But not that Sunday—not with its driving snow, high winds, and zero visibility. Payne found his session packed.
    He had arrived.
    Around this time, Payne met a medical doctor with whom he formed a close relationship. The doctor, Richard Usatine, had practiced at the Venice Family Clinic and gone on to help run the program in family medicine at the University of California at Los Angeles School of Medicine—one of the world’s top medical schools, located just a few miles from Payne’s yoga center. The two met after Usatine walked away from a car accident but suffered serious back pain. He tried the usual treatments but got no relief. Soon he was referred to Payne and began a yoga routine that quickly ended his anguish.
    The men bonded over backs, healing, and a deep belief in the body’s hidden powers of recuperation. The two began discussing how to give medical students a sense of yoga’s benefits and soon founded an elective course. A medical-school first in the United States, the UCLA class gave an overview of yoga and yoga therapy. The popular course became a regular part of the school’s elective curriculum.
    Encouraged, Payne and Usatine joined forces to author Yoga Rx , published in 2002. Ittaught how yoga could treat everything from heartburn to asthma to back pain. In bold type, its cover featured not only Usatine’s M.D. but Payne’s Ph.D. The former ad executive was moving not only ahead but up.
    Significantly, Yoga Rx was more closely aligned to the science than Yoga for Dummies. The book, as it proclaimed from the start, reflected Usatine’s medical expertise “on every page.” In particular, it made none of Payne’s false claims about pumping up the metabolism and burning more calories as a method of weight control, even though it devoted a long section to fighting obesity. The account was plain but honest.
    As Payne moved ahead on his blur of projects, he managed to stay more closely aligned with the science. His