title: [Yoga and the promotion of health].
abstract: The scope of this paper is to analyze the self-declared symptoms and state of well-being of participants in the "Yoga and Promotion of Health" program, which consisted of hatha yoga lessons. It includes body exercises and breathing techniques, as well as ethical and philosophical content, administered to two groups of lecturers, workers and students of a public university in the State of São Paulo from August to December 2011 and March to June 2012. The participants filled out the adapted version of the Measure Yourself Medical Outcome Profile form at the beginning and end of the program. Of the 20 participants in Group 1, eight filled out the form and half of them reported the improvement of self-declared symptoms; as regards the state of well being, three of them felt they had improved. In Group 2, which also had 20 participants, nine completed the program and all of them reported improvements of self-declared symptoms and well-being. In conclusion, yoga is a mind-body practice which exerts an important therapeutic effect on most practitioners and also promotes health for the majority of them, expanding their capacity of self perception and self care. However, it should be noted that it doesn't achieve the same positive effect for all practitioners as some yoga traditions advocate.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Saúde Coletiva, Faculdade de Ciências Médicas, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Campinas, SP, Brasil, nelfel@uol.com.br.
authors.forename: Nelson Filice
authors.initials: NF
authors.lastname: de Barros
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Saúde Coletiva, Faculdade de Ciências Médicas, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Campinas, SP, Brasil, nelfel@uol.com.br.
authors.forename: Pamela
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Siegel
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Saúde Coletiva, Faculdade de Ciências Médicas, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Campinas, SP, Brasil, nelfel@uol.com.br.
authors.forename: Soraia Maria
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: de Moura
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Saúde Coletiva, Faculdade de Ciências Médicas, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Campinas, SP, Brasil, nelfel@uol.com.br.
authors.forename: Thaís Adriana
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Cavalari
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Saúde Coletiva, Faculdade de Ciências Médicas, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Campinas, SP, Brasil, nelfel@uol.com.br.
authors.forename: Luis Geraldo
authors.initials: LG
authors.lastname: da Silva
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Saúde Coletiva, Faculdade de Ciências Médicas, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Campinas, SP, Brasil, nelfel@uol.com.br.
authors.forename: Maria Renata
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Furlanetti
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Saúde Coletiva, Faculdade de Ciências Médicas, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Campinas, SP, Brasil, nelfel@uol.com.br.
authors.forename: Andrea Vasconcelos
authors.initials: AV
authors.lastname: Gonçalves
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D059026:Diagnostic Self Evaluation; D005260:Female; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D012648:Self Care; D015013:Yoga; D055815:Young Adult