Fall dashes deeply through Central Park. | | |
CLASS TODAY
YOGA FOR OSTEOPOROSIS
THE FIRST SERIES
OCTOBER 27th, 2026
5:30 - 6:30 (ET)
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Loren Fishman, MD, B.Phil.,(oxon.)
Liz Larson, MA, MS, RYT
1 HR CEU-IAYT
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PRECISE AND INTUITIVE
TEACHERS
| | The words 'true' and 'trust' come through old German from the Proto-Indo-European 'deru' meaning 'steadfast' and 'reliable' and also 'tree.' | | |
BRAND NEW SCOLIOSIS STUDY
JUST BEGUN
JUVENILE IDIOPATHIC SCOLIOSIS
In reviewing the hundreds of patients we've seen with scoliosis, it appeared that the younger they are, the more and the more quickly and completely they improve. Six studies over the past 15 years show that we can nip scoliosis in the bud without medicines, braces, injections or anything but one or two yoga poses.
FREE STUDY
CONDITIONS:
Participants must be:
- Between the ages of 8-12 years old.
- Have a lumbar curve between 10-45 degrees.
- No neuromuscular conditions (e.g., cerebral palsy).
Participants will receive:
- At least 1 office or virtual teaching visit at the beginning and optionally more as needed throughout the 4-8 month study.
- Each pose must be done daily.
- 2 or 3 x-rays over the course of the study at prescribed time intervals. We'll reimburse $100/X-ray payable after the last X-ray is done.
Please note: You can fully join the study by Zoom.
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Yoga for the Hip Health, Shoulder and Rotator Cuff
October 30
6-8 PM (ET)
Online
HIP
Hip dyfunction is dominated by two conditions: arthritis and piriformis syndrome
Arthritis:
The hallmark of arthritic hips is loss of range of motion. Careful work with poses that gradually extend range of motion are the key to yoga's beneficial effect. we'll go over them with poitention nters, contraindications and workarounds.
Piriformis syndrome:
Due to attention in the lay press, we have seen more than 10,000 people with piriformis syndrome - with that experience and generous suport from the therapeutic community, we've learned something about treating it.
ROTATOR CUFF AND SHOULDER
Shoulder
In general, the shoulder is so mobile and so active that it suffers many types of pathology. We'll take you through the biggest ones, and what yoga can contribute to recovery from them.
Rotator Cuff
The rotator cuff syndrome is the most common of them all. We completed an NIH-funded study conclusively demonstrating that the yoga maneuvers we'll teach you in this course are, in terms of range-of-motion and relief of pain, equal to or better than current forms of surgery for partial or complete tears.
Now that's quite a claim, and we're also finding that other yoga poses and yoga-like maneuvers for other shoulder maladies are effective too.(no studies yet).
2 CEU IAYT
Also YA Credit through Prema
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COMBINED TEACHING
IYENGAR YOGA THERAPEUTICS
AND
DR. FISHMAN'S METHOD
LOWER BACK PAIN
February 27, 28 and March 6, 7, 2027.
ONLINE COURSE
10 HOURS IN TOTO
This is what I do most in my "professional" life. After seeing more than 30,000 people with low back pain I found that 90% of the time it's due to 10 causes
that fit neatly into 3 categories:
Neurological
Herniated disc
Spinal Stenosis
Musculoskeletal
Quadratus Lumborum Spasm . Sacroiliac Dysfunction
Facet Syndrome
Arthritis
A combination of both Musculoskeletal and Neurological
Piriformis Syndrome
Scoliosis
Mr. B.K.S. Iyengar had extensive experience and profound understanding of the human body, teaching and doing yoga therapy for 60 years.
This workshop combines his wisdom and the empirical results of our medically informed work.
In this webinar/workshop you'll learn how to recognize these causes and distinguish one from another, teach the yoga that has been shown, (often in published research), to help each condition, and what to avoid in teaching yoga to people with that condition.
This course is in conjunction with
Iyengar Yoga Therapeutics
Liz Larson
Lisa Walford
February 27, 28 and March 6, 7, 2027.
ONLINE COURSE
10 HOURS CEU - IAYT
No website is available yet.
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"Shedding New Light on Yoga"
First Series OF YOGA vs OSTEOPOROSIS
at
Kripalu Institute
Lenox, MA:
March 19 - 21, 2027.
Liz and I are deeply grateful for the patience and wisdom of those who follow Yoga vs Osteoporosis.
We are frequently changing the regimen and refining the yoga that helps.
The truths of yoga may be eternal, but our knowledge of how to reverse osteoporosis is just past infancy.
Well, eternity is a long time, and osteoporosis is a chronic, progressive condition; we don't have all day!
Now we're ready to present the 12 poses proven to build bone along with what we've learned since last summer, when we split the practice in two.
The scientific world is focusing on osteoporosis more than before. New information from the literature and from our own work make for updates in our practice.
Seeing pracititioners adapting our yoga to the newest confirmed research is truly gratifying.
We're doing it again this spring.
This course is dedicated to practice.
It is not a certification course.
Kripalu Institute
Lenox, MA:
March 19 - 21, 2027
9 hrs. CEU - IAYT
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DIRECTLY BELOW are the poses of all three series for osteoporosis, divided into two sessions, to be done at least 6-8 hours apart. We recommend dong the yoga this way because. The osteobasts and osteocytes can only be stimulated for about 90 seconds. After that they will not respond for 6-8 hours.
Each pose in blue (hip), red (femoral neck) and green (spine) can be interchanged for another one of the same color, but all three bones should receive two poses at each session.
Our last study indicates that the Second Series works almost exactly as well as the First Series.
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FIRST SERIES:
MIX AND MATCH
AM:
Hip
Vriksasana(Tree)
Trikonasana (Triangle).
Femur
Virabhadrasana II (Warrior II).
Parivrtta Trikonasana (Twisted Triangle)
Spine
Marichyasana (Twist)
Ardha Matsyendrasana (Twist)
Savasana (Corpse)
PM:
Hip
Parsvakonasana (Side Angle)
Parivrtta Trikonasana (Twisted Triangle)
Femur
Supta Padangusthasana I (Hand to toe)
Supta Padangusthasana II (Hand to toe)
Spine
Salabhasana (Locust)
Setubandhasana (Bridge)
Savasana (Corpse )
| We've repeated Parivrtta Trikonasana, the Twisted Triangle since it builds the spine's bones more effectively than any other pose according to our statistical analyses. | | |
SECOND SERIES:
MIX AND MATCH
AM:
Tadasana (Mountain pose)
Virabhadrasana I (Warrior I)
Ustrasana (Camel pose)
Vasisthasana (Side plank)
Urdhva Mukha Paschimottanasana (Upward-facing hamstring stretch)
Bharadvajasana (Seated twist)
Savasana
PM:
Ardha Chandrasana (Half moon pose)
Utkatasana (Chair pose)
Wrist twist
Dandasana (Staff pose)
Jathara Parivartanasana (Revolved abdomen pose)
Bharadvajasana (Seated twist)
Savasana
We've repeated Bharadvajasana to complete the evening work with a good twist. This is one I suspect is better for the bones in the Beginner form than in the classic pose. Preliminary data looks that way, but we'll see more definitively in a while.
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THIRD SERIES:
MIX AND MATCH
AM
1.Partial Parsvottanasana (Pyramid)
2.Parivrtta Ardha Chandrasana (Twisted Half-Moon)
(Hips)
3.Virabhadrasana III (Warrior III)
4. Natarajasana (Dancer)
(Femur)
5. Parivrtta Parsvakonasana (Twisted Side-Angle)
6. Rajakapotasana (King of the Pigeons)
(Spine)
7. Savasana (Corpse)
PM:
1. Phalakasana (Plank)
2. Gomukhasana (Cow-Faced)
(Hips)
3. Supta Padangusthasana I (Supine leg-stretch)
4. Supta Padangusthasana II (Supine leg-stretch)
(Femur)
5. Ardha Purvottanasana (Reverse Table top)
6. Parivrttra Parsvakonasana (Twisted Side-Angle)
(Spine)
7. Savasana
We've repeated the difficult and rewarding Parivrtta Parsvakonasana. It's both in the morning and the evening. The same color-coded mixing-and-matching applies here as it does to Series I and Series II. YOU can replace same-color poses between series.
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The Options
TWO TREATMENTS
FOR OSTEOPOROSIS
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YOGA.......vs.......MEDICINES
COMPARE THEM
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YOGA
Improves Balance
Straightens Posture
Enlarges Range of Motion
Increases Strength
Refines Coordination
Lowers Anxiety
Extremely low cost
No environmental harm
Can be done lifelong
Spiritual if you want it
Can give you companions
Can be done on your own
More than 300,000 hours without serious injury
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MEDICATIONS
Can cause imbalance
No effect on posture
Same Range of Motion
Strength doesn't change
Unaltered coordination
Side effects raise anxiety
Some are $19,000 annually
Factories make drugs
Limited to 1-10 years
Nothing spiritual about it
No community
Can be taken on your own, possibly injected
Many adverse side effects
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Yoga and Longevity:
In a 55,000 patient study over 10 year, Yoga and Pilates showed strong correlation with longer life expectancy. The group studied 21 different alternative medical modalities, such as chiropractic and acupuncture, but none of them showed statistically significant beneficial effects.
Yoga lowered the risk of death 27%, Pilates 36%. Pilates practitioners were younger and had a higher standard of living, possibly accounting for the discrepancy.
In an interview, authors of the study said ... "I think yoga and Pilates also have something extra going for them: They build strength and balance, improve cardiovascular fitness and emphasize breath work and stress reduction, which have documented effects on inflammation and heart function.
"And when taken in a class, there's a social component. We know that social connection is enormously protective for longevity. So you're potentially getting physical activity, stress management and community all wrapped into one practice."
- Sheehan C, Cha H, Espinoza P. Complementary and Alternative Medicine Use and All-Cause Mortality Among U.S. Adults: A National Prospective Cohort Study American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 2026; 72
Coming ssoon to a physician near you:
Exercise (e.g., yoga) appears to raise the extracellular vesicle microRNA-29 in cartilage. When exercise produces this molecular gem, it frees up a gene that keeps cartilage younger. So activities like yoga stand at the headwaters of the fountain of youth.
We can't do it yet, but it's possible that doing yoga before drawing blood for PRP and stem cell injection will make them more effective!
Kandarp, MD, Wang, K, D'Amico,E, et. al."Exercise enhances aged chondrocyte
health through microRNA-29-enriched
extracellular vesicles" Nature Aging. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43587-026-01225-9. September 29, 2026.
To the Contrary notwithstanding:
(From The Economist)
... Despite what the theory said, practice had other ideas. Three big trials of vitamin-D supplementation—the VITAL study in America, the D-Health trial in Australia and the ViDA study in New Zealand—followed tens of thousands of people over several years. None found any detectable benefits.
A summary editorial, published in 2022 in the New England Journal of Medicine, noted that vitamin D seemed to have no effect on cancer risk or heart health, another hoped-for benefit. It did not prevent falls, boost the brain or stave off the sniffles. Researchers found no beneficial effects even in people considered mildly deficient. Despite the link to rickets, the supplements also failed to reduce the risk of bone fractures.
The failure is a useful reminder that, despite centuries of research, the human body is sufficiently complicated that medics can at best make only educated guesses about exactly what a new drug or supplement will do to those who take it. Sometimes those guesses are wrong. There is still no substitute for just giving the drug in question to a lot of people and looking carefully at what happens.
These days, the conclusion is that a minimum amount of vitamin D is necessary, but that taking more is unlikely to do much good. If you live a long way north or south of the equator, if you have dark skin, if you spend most of your days indoors and if you don’t get much vitamin D from your diet (fish, eggs and red meat all contain at least some), then supplements might be a good idea, at least in winter. For everyone else, it is probably better to save your money.■
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Small Study, Big Possibilities:
In a first-in-human study published in Cell this month, researchers treated 10 women aged 51–72 with advanced osteoporosis and previous fragility fractures.
Bone marrow was collected from each patient’s hip, and their own mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) were given special treatment to create HCELL.
HCELL can bind on blood vessels within bone marrow, helping the infused cells reach bone tissue more efficiently. Each woman received a single intravenous infusion. During the first two years after treatment, the group’s fragility-fracture frequency fell by 94%, from roughly 8 fractures per year before treatment to about 0.5 per year afterward.
Bone biopsies taken four months after the infusion showed that mean bone tissue area had nearly doubled, while markers associated with bone formation remained elevated for more than six months.
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A Little-Known Receptor With a Major Role in Bone Health
GPR133 belongs to a group known as adhesion G protein-coupled receptors. These receptors sit on the surface of cells and help them respond to signals from their surroundings. Although this family of receptors is still not fully understood, the new findings suggest GPR133 is closely involved in the processes that build and maintain healthy bone.
"If this receptor is impaired by genetic changes, mice show signs of loss of bone density at an early age - similar to osteoporosis in humans. Using the substance AP503, which was only recently identified via a computer-assisted screen as a stimulator of GPR133, we were able to significantly increase bone strength in both healthy and osteoporotic mice," explains Professor Ines Liebscher, lead investigator of the study from the Rudolf Schönheimer Institute of Biochemistry at the Faculty of Medicine.(1)
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Yang Z, Ping YQ, Wang MW, et al. Identification, structure, and agonist design of an androgen membrane receptor. Cell. 2025;188(6):1589-1604.e24. doi:10.1016/j.cell.2025.01.006
| | PHILOSOPHY, POLITICS AND PEACE | |
“There is no belief, however foolish, that will not gather its faithful adherents who will defend it to the death.”
— Isaac Asimov (1920–1992), “The Stars in Their Courses”
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“That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons that history has to teach.”
— Aldous Huxley (1894–1963)
“A Case of Voluntary Ignorance”
*****************SUBSTACK OFFERING******************
"WHAT IS MANLY?"
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The greatest enemy of positive social change is cynicism
about what can be changed.
--- Robert Reich.
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"Enlightenment is the ego's greatest disappointment."
- Author unknown to me
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"I despise what you say, but I will give my life for your right to say it."
-Voltaire
| | By the way: You do NOT need to be a yoga teacher to attend any of Dr. Fishman's trainings. | | |
COMMENTS FROM OSTEOPOROSIS WEEKEND:
"It was the best online course I've taken."
"This has been the best run Zoom Teacher Training I have taken. It was great getting course manual in advance. All the presenters were very knowledgeable and patient and kind. The yoga we did made me feel better!"
"The course far exceeded my expectations. The presentation and course material was relevant, credentialed, lively, and keenly interesting."
"Dr Fishman is so interesting. all of the course leaders demonstrated passion..."
"Favorite course / certification ever."
ALSO:
"A Thomas Edison of Yoga." - William Broad, Pulitzer Prize winning author and journalist, New York Times.
"Everything was valuable in this program. It was the most interactive and valuable yoga teacher training I have taken online."
"If you only go to one more workshop in your life, this is it." - A.M., Baltimore, MD
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