On this episode: I’m joined by Dr. Erica Sharpe to discuss our yoga research project that we’ve started at a hospital. Our goal is to bridge the gap between doctors, their patients and yoga teachers, by providing a tool for physicians to refer their patients to the most appropriate yoga class and effective teacher for their needs.

There is a huge variety of yoga styles and an even greater variety of teachers. Often, yoga students come to class after their doctor told them it was safe to practice yoga, when in reality, the doctor may have one idea of what yoga is, say a gentle, restorative class, while the patient may find themselves attending a vigorous, athletic, power yoga class, that may not be a good fit for someone who is, for example, experiencing severe wrist pain. For them, a gentle class or chair yoga practice would be more appropriate. 

Dr. Sharpe, myself and Dr. Steffany Moonaz, who is a previous guest on the show, worked together to develop a tool to help physicians, their patients and yoga teachers in this process. So that a patient can bring a prescriptive plan, in writing, that includes exactly what the doctor suggests they should avoid in a yoga class and what is safe for that particular individual, to their yoga teacher. Our hope is to ultimately help more people who can benefit from yoga find the right class and teacher and avoid being in the wrong class. 

Dr. Sharpe is a clinical human researcher and professor of chemistry at SUNY Empire, a research investigator at the National University of Natural Medicine and an adjunct professor, teaching yoga, chemistry, music, and botanical medicine at SUNY Canton. Erica specializes in Yoga Nidra  (yogic sleep), natural medicine and human research. 

Yoga Nidra has exploded in popularity as an accessible meditation practice, thanks in large part to very popular science podcasters. In that process, these very persuasive individuals, have re-branded  and re-named yoga nidra to call it a Non-Sleep Deep Rest Protocol. Which, on the surface, may seem harmless. However, Dr. Sharpe explains that those who have re-named yoga nidra, have also completely changed and diluted the practice. 

She talks to me about why this is problematic, and how it can, and in some cases, how it already has, turned a traditional practice that has promising, science-backed benefits that she has found in her work, for things like insomnia and anxiety, into a gimmick that is oversimplified and misused both online, and even in research. Dr. Sharpe explains why this trickle-down effect from podcasters to scientific research is something we should be concerned about. 

Link to Erica's Linked-In

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