East meets west

Since my major interest in yoga is in it's healing properties, I am very interested when we discuss how yoga parallels modern western medicine. Apart from strengthening and toning your muscles which is the sort of common knowledge, the vibrations generated during chanting stimulate various glands in the body which in turn causes them to sucrete hormones that are calming and nurturing to the the body. (side note: now that I have some experience with Mantra and chanting - I will likely never practice without it again). Certain sounds, which resonate in the chest, stimulate the Thymus Gland which boosts the immune system. What's crazy about this is that, when these chants came into existence THOUSANDS of years ago, they didn't know what the Thymus Gland was. They just knew that if you sent the vibrations to your chest (or your heart chakra), you would stay healthy. But that ancient principle can be translated today into something that makes sense (stimulate the Thymus, boot the immune system). Another example, when you do twists (simply twisting your body), it wrings out your organs as if you were wringing out a sponge. Allowing the older, "used" blood to be drained out making room for the newer, oxygen carrying blood to flow in! And of course oxygen rich blood helps us to function. I've just been so amazed by the realization that while they didn't use the same vocabulary, the rishis who passed down the yogic traditions were aware of the benefits of a regular practice in a very "modern" scientific way.