Inexperienced yoga teachers could be a danger to your health, one Pulitzer Prize-winning science author says. According to the Daily Telegraph, William J. Broad believes that some poses can even trigger lethal strokes if yoga followers are not given proper instruction by their teacher.
Broad discovered the danger while researcher with a long-time yogi for his new book, “The Science of Yoga: The Risks and Rewards.” He says that while yoga has been shown to improve sex and even lengthen lives, it also carries hidden risks that many people don’t think about.
“There are some poses, which have a very low risk of happening, but if they do, have extremely high consequences,” Broad told BBC Radio 4. “The number one danger in my book has to do with the neck.”
According to Broad, some poses—such as the plough and shoulder stand—require participants to “crank your head around a lot.” If these are practiced incorrectly, yoga followers could tear the linings of the arteries that run through the spine and into the neck. This could trigger a blood clot, which becomes and ischeamic stroke if lodged in the brain.
“This is not anecdotal and it is not freak accidents,” Broad continued, emphasizing that his book draws on medical literature that proves “extreme bending of the neck” has been shown to trigger stroke.
