The Washington Post's blog called The Checkup has a post about The NIH and The Woo-Woo Thing, which really refers to the NIH Yoga Week events taking place in Bethesda this week:

"Yoga Week is chock full of lectures about yoga's role in medicine and hands-on-the-mat opportunities to practice asana (the Sanskrit term for yoga poses)."

The writer gets an interview with Dr. Timothy McCall who's the medical consultant for Yoga Journal and also recently published a book about Yoga as Medicine. He talks about the yoga practitioners being way ahead of the medical community in knowing the good that yoga does. Speaking from the personal experience of having just come from a vinyasa class at Thrive Yoga tonight, I could not have had a better tonic. I sweated out all the toxins of the daily grind and was left at peace on the mat for the final restorative pose (blessings to Dana for a great class).

I've heard that the activities are drawing "big crowds," but I can't be real sure since I am confined to a cubicle from 9 to 5:30 (except when I escape to run around the Mall in shorts). A tip of the hat to the organizers and sponsors, especially to Rachel Permuth-Levine, who worked her butt off to make this week possible. I wish I was there to soak up the wisdom.