Penn State University studying yoga-based program to cut cancer risk

A research at Pennsylvania State University is reportedly undertaking a yoga-focused mind and body intervention that uses stretching, breathing, prayer and relaxation strategies to increase physical activity, reduce sedentary time, and reduce stress among adults in Pennsylvania’s Centre County.

This faith-based, mindbody intervention named as “Harmony & Health”, and lead by assistant professor of kinesiology Scherezade K. Mama seeks to increase physical activity and reduce health disparities, including cancer risks, among those who reside in rural areas; reports suggest.

Fifty men and 50 women, over 18 years of age and overweight or obese, will participate in “Harmony & Health” for 14 weeks.

Meanwhile, Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada today, called this Penn State study looking into the possible reduction of cancer risk by a yoga-based program “a step in the positive direction.” Zed urged all major world universities to explore various benefits yoga offered.

Yoga, referred as “a living fossil,” was a mental and physical discipline, for everybody to share and benefit from, whose traces went back to around 2,000 BCE to Indus Valley civilization, Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, noted.

Rajan Zed further said that yoga, although introduced and nourished by Hinduism, was a world heritage and liberation powerhouse to be utilized by all. According to Patanjali who codified it in Yoga Sutra, yoga was a methodical effort to attain perfection, through the control of the different elements of human nature, physical and psychical.