Maggie Gyllenhaal (left) and Hugh Dancy star in "Hysteria," a smart romantic comedy about the invention of the vibrator as a medical device in Victorian England.

When we heard about Hysteria, a film about the invention of the vibrator in Victorian England, we giggled and were immediately intrigued. Tanya Wexler had the same reaction when she got the pitch seven years ago. “It made me laugh so hard I said, ‘I have to do it!’” says the director, 41, whose delightful “thinking woman’s romantic comedy” opens in New York City and Los Angeles on May 18 and expands to more cities over the next few weeks.

Starring Maggie Gyllenhaal and Hugh Dancy, the movie is set in 1880s London at a time when a wide variety of women’s complaints were given the catchall diagnosis of “hysteria,” treated by physicians with digital manipulation. (Yep, women went to the doctor for the “big O.”) Dancy’s Dr. Mortimer Granville joins the booming practice of an older doctor (Jonathan Pryce) and encounters his two daughters: prim-and-proper Emily (Felicity Jones) and Charlotte (Gyllenhaal), a feisty firebrand of a social activist who fights for women’s suffrage and works with the poor at a settlement house. When Granville’s eccentric, wealthy inventor friend (Rupert Everett) comes up with a motorized feather duster, Granville sees the value in it as a way to relieve his aching right hand.

While the story is a fictionalized account, it’s based on the real Granville and his medical invention. “Yes, the vibrator was invented as a labor-saving device,” laughs Wexler, who did considerable research about medicine, vibrators, society and women’s roles at the time. Women like Chicago’s Hull House founder Jane Addams inspired the reform-minded Charlotte. “We said, ‘Let’s make the character who we would have wanted to be had we lived back then,’” says Wexler, calling her “the beating heart” of the movie. “She had to have that fire, power and accessibility.” Casting was crucial. “It was a very short list and we got very lucky,” she says, in getting Gyllenhaal — who gave birth to her second daughter April 30 — to sign on.

“I knew that the script had to be pretty much perfect or they wouldn’t let me make the movie,” explains Wexler, who thought the subject was a no-brainer, but would-be investors were risk-averse. “Movies are really hard to get made and are expensive and you really have to make your case. Few were willing to stick their necks out.”

Now developing two projects (including one with actor Paula Patton), Wexler, a New York City-based mother of four, calls Hysteria “an amazingly cool experience,” one with which she aimed to entertain and “not whack people over the head with a message,” but nevertheless points out several themes in the movie that she hopes audiences will think about. “There’s an empowerment message,” she says. “You’re in charge of your own happiness. And it doesn’t take a doctor to get it!”

But are some women still misinformed about sexual health and medicine? We see some parallels in Hysteria to the recent documentary Orgasm Inc., about the pharmaceutical race to cure Female Sexual Dysfunction (FDS).

Do you think there are still a lot of misconceptions about female sexual health?

Photo credit: Liam Daniel/Sony Pictures Classics

Iowa farmer Andrew Dunham, who runs the Grinnell Heritage Farm, talks in "The Weight of the Nation" about the obstacles he and other farmers face in delivering organic vegetables to market.

We caught a preview last week of HBO’s upcoming four-part documentary The Weight of the Nation and we have a spoiler alert for you: A lot of us Americans are fat! OK, so the obesity crisis isn’t breaking news, but this well-intentioned documentary, which airs tonight and tomorrow at 8 p.m. ET/PT on the cable channel and its website, does have some surprises up its sleeve.

One of the most startling things about Weight is simply that it’s a cooperative effort of HBO Documentary Films, the Institute of Medicine (an independent federal agency), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health, with underwriting coming from Kaiser Permanente and the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation. (Anyone who has ever tried to plan a girls’ night out can recognize how exhausting that group effort — which involved three government agencies — must have been.)

Surprisingly, one of the villains in the series is the government itself, in the form of federal farm subsidies that keep American corn and soybeans (and their derivatives, high-fructose corn syrup and soybean oil) unnaturally cheap. If you can draw the connections between that fact and obesity, you’re onto the point of the documentary. As the companion book of the same name notes in its opening chapter, “As much as we wish there were one thing in the fight against fat we could point to and eliminate, there isn’t…the cause is complex.”

Complex issues don’t always make for good TV, but if you really want to understand the big picture on how America got so fat, it’s worth investing the time to watch. The statistics fly thick and fast in this series, but you also see the human toll: how agribusiness has turned individual farmers from food growers into commodity producers and how children in low-income communities are hit disproportionately with the double whammy of no safe place to exercise and an onslaught of cheap junk food.

Consciousness-raising is clearly the agenda here, since the producers believe that informed people will make smarter choices. In fact, HBO is offering individual kits stocked with discussion guides and DVDs to encourage people to organize their own screenings. Given that peer behavior has been shown in recent research to be a significant driver in weight gain, the reverse approach makes sense. Whether it will work remains to be seen, but with the prospect of the nation’s obesity-related healthcare costs swelling to $344 billion (21 percent of total healthcare costs) by 2018, there’s a lot of dollars — and lives — at stake.

What steps do you think should be taken to fight the obesity crisis in the United States?

Photo credit: Courtesy HBO

Clothing that uses InsectShield technology, such as this ExOfficio BugsAway Baja Shirt, repels mosquitoes in tropical climes (shown) as well as deer ticks in North America.

Along with warmer weather, gardening, hiking and camping come the insects. We’ve told you about the dangers of contracting Lyme disease from deer ticks before, but experts say this year will be a bad one thanks to the mild winter we had in the Northeastern and Midwestern states. That allowed more ticks to survive than usual and to hatch — and young ticks (called larvae and nymphs) are small, hard to see and as ferociously hungry as teenage boys, says Paul G. Auwaerter, M.D., M.B.A., clinical director of infectious diseases at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

About 40,000 cases of Lyme disease are reported to the Centers for Disease Control yearly, an infection caused by the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi that is carried and transmitted by deer ticks. These tiny ticks hang out in wooded areas, in high grasses and brush, and spots that are shady with moist leaves. Ticks usually hitch a ride on deer and rodents, but will gladly crawl (they don’t fly or jump) onto a dog, cat or human to feed.

Auwaerter says that ticks are more active in spring than summer and fall, so most people get bitten in May or June, but deer tick nymphs will be hatching early this year, so now is the time to be alert. To protect yourself, follow these guidelines:

• When you go into tick-infested areas, wear socks, long pants and long-sleeved shirts. Light-colored clothing makes it easier to see them.
• Stick to cleared trails and don’t sit on the ground or stone walls.
• Use a 20–30 percent DEET insect repellant on your skin or clothing. It’s highly effective, but use it only according to product instructions, as it can be dangerous in high concentrations.
• Purchase permethrin insecticide at hunting and outdoor stores to spray on your clothes, shoes, and camping gear. It lasts eight to 10 washings and repels mosquitoes and ticks. You can also purchase permethrin-treated clothing, which uses Insect Shield technology to repel ticks, mosquitoes, fleas and flies for 70 washings.
• Do tick checks of yourself, your clothes and your animals when you come in from outdoors. “Deer ticks like warm, moist areas, so on women you might find them in the armpits, behind the knees, in the groin area or abdomen, and under the breasts,” says Auwaerter. Other favorite areas: in and around the ears, inside the belly button, and in and around body hair.
• If you find a tick, remove it immediately. Use fine-pointed tweezers to pull it straight out — don’t twist, just pull firmly. Place it in a jar of alcohol to kill it and clean the bite with antiseptic. If the tick has been attached for less than 48 hours, it’s unlikely to have transmitted Lyme disease. If it’s been on longer than that and/or is engorged with blood, remove it and see your doctor; some doctors will give you a single dose of the antibiotic doxycycline to prevent the disease. (By the way, Auwaerter says you don’t need to bring the tick with you — most doctors can’t tell one tick type from another and tick testing for bacteria isn’t recommended.)
• Monitor the bite area for the next month. If you fall ill within two weeks of removing a tick — you get a fever or you develop a bull’s-eye rash around the bite — see a physician. “Contrary to what you read on the Internet, tick-borne diseases are generally easily treatable with doxycycline for 10 days for early disease and 28 days for more established disease,” Auwaerter says.

For more information on preventing tick bites and Lyme disease, visit the American Lyme Disease Foundation website, and find out more about symptoms and treatments by reading “Boost Your Lyme Disease IQ.” Are you concerned about tick bites?

Photo credit: Courtesy ExOfficio

Melora Hardin was among the entertainers at the 20th Anniversary Alzheimer's Association's A Night at Sardi's.

Every 68 seconds, someone in the United States is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, and by 2050, that frequency will increase to every 33 seconds. These sad statistics have already struck close to home for many of us, and that’s why we support fundraisers such as the Alzheimer’s Association’s A Night at Sardi’s held recently at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, CA. Each year, top film and television stars lend their voices to the cause.

Laurie Burrows Grad first staged the event 20 years ago in honor of her late father, Broadway playwright/director Abe Burrows, and has since raised more than $20 million for research, awareness and support for patients and caregivers. “Alzheimer’s is much more in the forefront today,” Grad says. “People are much more aware of it. And the Obama administration has given us much more money to put towards it, so we’re very grateful,” she adds, referring to the National Alzheimer’s Project Act (NAPA), that mandates a federal strategy to address Alzheimer’s and the coordination of the nation’s research, treatment and caregiving efforts. This year’s event, which has a “Show Stoppers” theme, raised $1.3 million.

Former VIVmag cover model Melora Hardin, who spent five months in Chicago on Broadway, performed “Roxie Hart,” her character’s eponymous song. “I’m just glad to be here to help support,” she says. If you missed the glimpses of Hardin’s vocal talent as Jan Levinson on The Office, you can hear her in the upcoming TBS summer comedy series Wedding Band, playing an event planner and occasional performer, opposite Brian Austin Green and Harold Perrineau.

Marilu Henner attended to sing a fun medley of songs about body parts and present the Abe Burrows Entertainment Award to the producers of the CBS drama Unforgettable. Henner serves as a consultant to the TV show, as she has the same rare super-autobiographical-memory ability as the series’ central character. Her book about the subject, Total Memory Makeover: Uncover Your Past, Take Charge of Your Future (Gallery Books, 2012), comes out April 24.

Other show highlights included a duet between married Broadway vets Idina Menzel and Taye Diggs on “Ain’t Misbehavin’,” a medley from Hair by the cast of The Big Bang Theory, Scott Porter (Hart of Dixie) singing “Lost in the Wilderness,” Chuck star Zachary Levi’s “Oh, What a Beautiful Morning” and “Oklahoma,” and amusing numbers from Steven Weber (“Tchaikovsky”), Jon Lovitz (“The King of Broadway”) and host David Hyde Pierce (“You Won’t Succeed on Broadway”).

Also on hand were Jane Seymour and her husband, James Keach, who are making a feature documentary about country legend Glenn Campbell’s struggle with Alzheimer’s. “We’ve been following Glenn everywhere and talking to the doctors and scientists,” says Seymour. She can next be seen in the Hallmark movie Lake Effects (May 6), as well as in the film Austenland, playing the woman who runs a British destination for Jane Austen fans, and in ABC Family musical Elixir.

Former VIVmag cover model Eva LaRue (CSI: Miami) confided that even though Alzheimer’s hasn’t touched her personally yet, now that “my parents are getting older,” it’s a concern. One in eight older Americans currently has Alzheimer’s.

Do you support the recent signing of the National Alzheimer’s Project Act (NAPA)?

Photo credit: Jason Merritt/Getty Images for Alzheimer’s Association

Clinical psychologist Tamar E. Chanksy, Ph.D., provides four simple steps for reducing stress and anxious thoughts.

After a fitful night of worry punctuated with bits of nightmare-plagued sleep, we had to smile at the arrival of Freeing Yourself From Anxiety: 4 Simple Steps to Overcome Worry and Create the Life You Want (Da Capo Lifelong Books, 2012) by Tamar E. Chansky, Ph.D. The new book aims to help those with clinical depression, anxiety disorders and anyone who wants to see problems in a more rational light and find productive solutions, and it seemed like exactly what we needed.

In the first portion of the book, Chansky, a clinical psychologist who specializes in the treatment of anxiety, provides an explanation of anxiety and the brain, as well as ways to handle doubt and uncertainty. Anxiety as a first reaction to danger was helpful in fight-or-flight response, especially when our ancestors had to escape tigers or other dangers in the wild. “But today, with our best interests in mind, anxiety sometimes makes mistakes, overshooting and overpreparing,” she notes.

The good news? “Not only are anxiety and depression the most treatable mental health conditions, they can be effectively prevented,” says Chanksy. Each of her four suggested steps is outlined with simple, easy-to-follow instruction and real-life examples, from the first step of recognizing initial catastrophic thoughts, then demoting their significance and relabeling them, to the final step of addressing the situation and moving on.

“Anxious and negative thinking is not how you solve problems,” Chanksy says. “That is the obstacle you need to navigate around so you can think clearly to solve problems.” After the steps become second nature, Chanksy predicts you’ll have more energy and feel happier. “You’re not going from one imagined overwhelming situation to the next — just barely catching your breath in between.”

The third section of the book looks at how negative emotions work and how to identify strengths and have realistic expectations, while the final section examines natural reactions such as jealousy, anger, hurt, disappointment and shame, as well as working your way out of patterns of perfectionism, procrastination and difficulty with criticism.

Illustrations throughout the book make points easy to understand; Chansky says they provide some levity to help readers learn calmly and quickly. The visual of a “brain train” with a “worry track” and “calmer track,” for example, provides an easy-to-remember mental picture. Each chapter also has “Try This” exercises, such as this example from chapter two: Create a first-case scenario and ask yourself “What am I most afraid will happen?” and a second-case scenario of “What do I really believe will happen?” Then note the differences and how you feel. Every chapter also ends with a “You and Beyond” suggestion, so that changing negative thinking spills out in positive ways to those around you as well.

As we previously reported, a recent American Psychological Association survey found that though stress has dropped slightly in the United States for the first time in five years, women are more stressed than men — yet more likely to take action. We think picking up this book just might be the helpful first step we can take, changing what Chansky calls our “worry story” to the life story we want.

How do you cope when feeling overwhelmed by anxiety?

When Tom Shadyac, executive producer of the film, read an article in The New York Times that ranked the United States 23rd in happiness, he enlisted Belic, director of Academy Award-nominated Genghis Blues, to find out why. The documentary addresses the nature of happiness and balancing the allure of money, power and social status with the need for social relationships, health and personal fulfillment.

Experts in the new field of positive psychology featured in the film include Ed Diener, aka “Dr. Happiness,” Sonja Lyubomirsky, professor of psychology at the University of California and author of The How of Happiness (Penguin, 2008), and neuroscientists Richard Davidson, Ph.D., and Read Montague, Ph.D. Compelling real-life tales illustrate the research — such as that of Melissa Moody, mother of three, who had a self-described “perfect life” until she was disabled and disfigured after being run over by an SUV. However, she says she’s happier now than she was before the accident. And rickshaw puller Manoj Singh lives in a hut made of plastic bags with his family in the slums of Kolkata, India — yet he is found to be as happy as the average American.

Research shows that almost everyone can become a bit happier, though there’s no one-size-fits-all formula. “The desire for happiness is universal,” says Belic. “The sources are much more common and attainable than many of us believe.”

Screenings of the 78-minute film are scheduled throughout the world, including theaters, community centers, schools and more throughout the United States, and in Nepal, India, Cambodia, the Philippines — even Antarctica. “Our goal is for people all around the world to come together, on the same day, start the conversation about happiness and begin to live healthier, happier, more fulfilling lives,” says Belic. The film is also available on iTunes ($9.99).

What do you think is the key to happiness?

When Sally Clayton (left) started to suffer from memory loss, her daughter, Lee Clayton Roper (right), decided they should collaborate on a cookbook.

We know there’s a special mother-daughter bond when one generation passes along kitchen wisdom and beloved family recipes to the next. When Lee Clayton Roper’s mother, Sally Clayton, started to suffer from osteoporosis and memory loss, the two embarked on a project to collect and publish their favorites in A Well-Seasoned Kitchen (MLC Publishing, 2009). Originally available only in the Claytons’ home state of Colorado, the book recently has become available in local bookstores stores across the country, and is also available through online retailers. A portion of all sales benefits the Alzheimer’s Association Colorado Chapter.

Within the collection of recipes, some of which are accompanied by favorite memories, readers get a glimpse into the personality of Sally, who saw the final phase of the book, but died shortly before it was published.

“In developing this cookbook, Mom and I concentrated on the type of dishes we like best — simple and delicious recipes for every day and easy entertaining,” says Roper in the book’s introduction. She describes her mother as a gracious hostess, always ready to welcome an impromptu guest at the table, not fazed when she had to quickly and discreetly turn corn on the cob and spare ribs into corn pudding and pork sandwiches for a last-minute guest with dental issues, or the time her son’s golden retriever joined the dinner party buffet line with his dish in his mouth.

The book starts with an array of appetizers such as Benedictine cheese canapés, smoked salmon on mini Cheddar-dill scones and pesto cheese wafers, and even a few recipes for cocktail hour, including “Genuine Derby Day Mint Juleps,” a nod to Sally’s Louisville, KY, origins. Chapters are devoted to soups, salads, sides and desserts, as well as main courses: poultry, meats, seafood, pasta and vegetarian dishes. Among those that caught our eye: lemon mustard grilled chicken with caramelized red onions, scallops with shallot butter and pine nuts, pesto chicken and eggplant fettuccine, pork and eggplant stir-fry, and roasted eggplant, zucchini and red pepper.

A chapter on brunch — an inexpensive and easy way to entertain, noted in the introduction — includes recipes for blueberry lemon muffins, deviled eggs in madras sauce and mixed berry smoothies. Clayton Roper notes that the photos in the book, shot by Laurie Smith, were taken in natural light without any doctoring. “When you make these recipes at home, you should feel confident that you’ll have stunning results,” she says.

The following recipe for cannellini bean dip can be made ahead of time and stored in the refrigerator — just don’t add the truffle oil until it’s ready to serve. We’re also on an olive-oil label-reading kick after reading Extra Virginity: The Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil (W.W. Norton & Co., 2011).

Cannellini Bean Dip With Truffle Oil
Makes 8 servings
2 15-ounce cans cannellini (or Great Northern) beans, drained and rinsed
2/3 cup lemon-flavored olive oil
1½–2 teaspoons minced garlic
¼ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
½ cup Italian parsley leaves, stems removed
2 tablespoons white truffle oil

Blend drained and rinsed beans, olive oil, garlic, lemon juice and parsley in a food processor until well blended but still slightly chunky. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Just before serving, swirl in truffle oil, without completely mixing it in. Delicious served with pita chips.

NUTRITION SCORE (per serving)
59 calories
Fat 22 g
 (3 g saturated)
Carbs 13 g
Protein 3 g
Fiber 3.4 g
Calcium 33 mg
Iron 1.6 mg
Sodium 73 mg

We think this book a touching tribute from a daughter to her mother. We’re glad our own mother and grandmother gathered our family’s favorite recipes and compiled them into a binder for us as a surprise gift years ago. Do you have a compilation of favorite family recipes?

Photo credit: Courtesy Lee Clayton Roper

Jewel hosts the new season of' "The Incurables," a Veria Living show about people who overcame diagnoses of chronic ailments with alternative treatments.

We’re always fascinated by real-life medical mysteries and stories of survivors who beat the odds. So we’re not surprised that singer-songwriter Jewel wanted to host The Incurables, Veria Living’s TV series that delves into the real-life journeys of patients dealing with chronic — and often life-threatening — illnesses, especially since she has dealt with a few health problems of her own.

“Since I was about 16, I’ve had kidney problems and began researching and getting hold of experts in the field, and was lucky enough to come across some really great doctors in my life,” Jewel says. “When this show came along, I was really excited to be a part of helping and sharing information that I think will be helpful for people. It’s something I’m really passionate about.”

The show tells the stories of people who were told there was no cure for their illness, and how these patients, determined to find solutions, turned to alternative methods. Jewel recalls that a doctor she visited for a hair-loss problem told her to change shampoos. “It ended up being a thyroid issue,” says Jewel, emphasizing the importance of being a tenacious self-advocate. “If you think something is wrong with you, keep digging and finding solutions even if somebody tells you nothing is wrong, even if your blood work comes back normal. You’ve got to be dogged about it. I think The Incurables shows that,” she says of the series, which has its third season premiere tonight at 9 p.m. ET.

Jewel was able to tape her segments for the series at her Texas home, where she’s been sticking close since the birth of her son, Kase, last July. She recorded her children’s album, The Merry Goes ’Round, in her studio there, and wrote a children’s book that she expects to be out this later year.

She also devotes time to the charity she founded, Project Clean Water, which was inspired by her kidney illness; as a homeless teenager, she couldn’t buy the bottled water necessary for her condition. The nonprofit aims to bring safe water to those in need nationally and internationally.

Having enjoyed mentoring songwriters on Bravo’s Platinum Hit last year, she eagerly signed on to play a similar role on NBC’s The Voice this season, guiding Christina Aguilera’s contestants — especially since she was able to tape all her parts in a single day. “I got to do something I love, without being away from the baby — the best of both worlds!” she says.

While life off the road is new for the singer, she’s enjoyed being in mommy mode and tells husband Ty Murray that their son is “the best present that will take the rest of our lives to unwrap.” At 37, she’s not sure if she’ll have another child. “If it happens, it happens, we won’t go to any great lengths to make it happen,” she says. But she’s less laid back about making her marriage work. “I sort of tackle it like an art project, something you have to put creativity into every day for it to live and thrive and do well,” she confides. “It’s a living thing. You can’t just put it on autopilot and expect it to do well.”

We’re looking forward to the inspiring stories in the 13 new episodes of The Incurables. Do you have your own story of patient advocacy to share?

Photo credit: Courtesy Veria Living

Anna Deavere Smith's one-woman show about health and human resilience airs on PBS.

We’re familiar with Anna Deavere Smith from her work on The West Wing and as hospital administrator Gloria Akalitus in Showtime’s Nurse Jackie, and were aware of her accomplishments as a playwright (Fires in the Mirror and Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992). So we were excited to hear that she’s bringing her acclaimed one-woman play Let Me Down Easy — an exploration of the modern healthcare system and the way we deal with illness — to Great Performances on PBS Jan. 13 at 9 p.m. ET.

Smith plays 19 characters based on conversations with real people about their experiences with the healthcare system, including patients, caregivers, and a few celebrities, among them cyclist Lance Armstrong, Texas governor Ann Richards, supermodel Lauren Hutton and the late journalist Joel Siegel. It’s the end result of 320 interviews on three continents, numerous revisions and workshops and four productions, including six months at New York’s Public Theater and nine months on the road. The project began in the late ’90s, when Smith was a visiting professor at the Yale School of Medicine, “long before healthcare became part of the so-called national conversation,” she says.

Smith was commissioned “to make a piece about doctors and patients and perform it at medical grand rounds,” where actors or patients present medical issues to an audience of students, residents and doctors as a teaching tool. As she performed at Yale and other medical schools, the piece evolved as she met and interviewed people like a young New Orleans doctor relating her desperate experiences during Hurricane Katrina and a woman who runs a South African orphanage for AIDS babies. All the stories she describes as having a common thread of “compassion, kindness and grace.”

In contrast to the all-consuming focus and energy that creating, writing and performing a play like Let Me Down Easy requires, Smith often doesn’t know what’s going to happen on Nurse Jackie “until the table read,” or know her shooting schedule till the night before, and she’s fine with that. “I can go to work in my pajamas,” she explains, noting that the series’ fourth season will premiere this spring.

Down the line, she says she’d love to write the book for a musical or an opera libretto, and find more time for activities like working out, meditation, and enjoying the ocean. “I like water,” she says. “That’s my way of getting away.”

Will you tune in to PBS to watch?

Photo credit: Mary Ellen Mark

While yoga can cause injury, a recent book excerpt in "The New York Times Magazine" has received a lot of attention for its assertion that "yoga can wreck your body."

The yoga community has been abuzz since an article called “How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body” was published Jan. 5 in The New York Times Magazine. The excerpt is from an upcoming book called The Science of Yoga: The Risks and Rewards (Simon & Schuster, 2012), by William J. Broad. The section that ran in the Times looked at the risk and severity of yoga injuries. What stuck with us were the gruesome anecdotes: yoga-induced popped ribs, hip replacements, nerve damage and strokes.

Broad, a yoga student himself, related how, after rupturing a disc in his back several years ago, he turned to yoga for therapy. But his faith in yoga’s healing powers was shaken after his back gave out during a pose. Broad cites medical journals and speaks to several yoga instructors about injuries, including yoga instructor Glenn Black, who links injuries to insufficient teacher training and the recent phenomenon of modern-day, largely sedentary people practicing the traditional asanas of Indian yogis. Broad then spoke to Black a year later, after the instructor had undergone surgery for spinal degeneration he attributed to yoga.

After reading the article, as we went into our first backbend in our Bikram yoga class (singled out in the article for its own types of risks), we were suddenly crippled — with nagging doubt. Were we going too far? To relax students, some of instructors joke that if your head falls off during the first backbend, you get free yoga for life. Suddenly, the vision haunted us: Is yoga inherently dangerous?

Then a yoga instructor pointed us to a blog titled “How the NYT Can Wreck Yoga” by respected teacher Eddie Stern, director of Ashtanga Yoga New York. While courteous about Broad’s perspective — as most yogis’ responses have been — Stern contradicts many of Broad’s claims, noting that the article is “heavy on anecdote and slim on science,” and leans toward the sensational.

With Stern’s post are responses from Marshall Hagins, Ph.D., P.T.,  a professor in the Department of Physical Therapy at Long Island University, and Rick Bartz, a New York chiropractor, both of whom noted an error in the article that the cervical spine can rotate only 50 degrees. While Broad says the yoga-related emergency room visits have gone from 13 to 46 in two years, Hagins put things in perspective when he observes that the number of people doing yoga has increased by 15 million in 10 years, as well as noting that yoga injuries are far fewer than in most sports (especially contact sports, such as football).

What everyone seems to agree upon is that yoga does pose some risk for injury. Stern says that some are due to overzealousness on the part of the student. And he agrees there’s often a lack of thorough teacher training — the byproduct of yoga becoming a booming industry. “Yoga has been McDona-fied,” he notes.

As for Broad’s book, we’re tempted to dismiss it based this one chapter, but we’re intrigued by Simon & Schuster’s description, which promises the work cuts through mysticism, hype and superstition and “celebrates what’s real and shows what’s illusory, describes what’s uplifting and beneficial and what’s flaky and dangerous — and why.” And Priscilla Warner, author of Learning to Breathe (Free Press, 2011), which we told you about recently, is quoted on the book’s jacket that it is a motivation to practice yoga.

What do you think about this recent discussion of yoga’s benefits and risks?

Photo credit: Lise Gagne