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Yoga has been found to help angina and advanced coronary artery disease, research has revealed. A "yoga intervention" programme was given to 42 male patients between 32 and 72 years old with a history of heart disease.

The group was given an intensive programme involving relaxation, pranayama (breathing exercises), postures, meditation and a low fat vegetarian diet.

Participants were then split into two groups: one set was put on the yoga intervention programme while the other received conventional medical therapy.

While the latter group continued to deteriorate, the yoga group, whose normal medication was reduced in many cases, showed marked improvement in their angina symptoms. Their mental state, body weight and cholesterol levels also improved in many cases.

The results add to a growing weight of scientific evidence of the physical and psychological benefits that yoga practice, combined with a yogic lifestyle, can have.

The study was conducted by Dr Manchanda, head of the Department of Cardiology at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences

Best selling US magazine Yoga Journal is to increase the frequency of its issues from seven to eight a year from January. The news follows the announcement earlier this month that the title, which reaches over a million readers bimonthly, has been bought by media company Active Interest Media.

Since it launched in 1975 the title has become the widest read yoga magazine internationally, and its brand has expanded to include conferences, books, videos and DVDs.

Its website, www.yogajournal.com, has also been a runaway success story - it now has the largest yoga-based web presence in the US.

The success of Yoga Journal has gone hand-in-hand with the rising popularity of yoga in the US. The number of people practising yoga there has rocketed 136%, to 17 million, since 2001, according to a Spring 2006 study.

The decision by Yogabugs to appear on BB2's Dragon's Den a few weeks ago was not only an astute business move for the children's yoga company - it also served to alert the ordinary, non-yoga TV watcher to the multi-faceted benefits of kids doing yoga.

The trend is one to watch. Yogabugs estimates that at least 100,000 youngsters will be taking part in yoga lessons by 2007 and schools are gradually cottoning onto the idea that yoga and kids in fact mix pretty well (see http://www.yoga-abode.com/node/254).

The reasons why are not hard to fathom. Childhood obesity has ballooned - excuse the pun - to new levels (one in four children in England are now obese); conditions such as ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) are ever-more widespread; the internet and mobile phones mean it's harder than ever to switch off.

In many ways, yoga is the ultimate antithesis to modern life. As well as the obvious physical benefits, it forces you - the adult or the child - to slow down and focus on the present, far away from emails, texts and MSMs.

It's uncompetitive and calming, fostering a greater awareness not only of the needs of the self, but of other people. It also develops a child's sense of creativity and fun in an often one-dimensional world of instant gratification.

Ever one step ahead (in most things) the Americans twinned yoga with kids years ago. There are now yoga camps for children, yoga videos, yoga books - even yoga birthday parties, where the candle pose (shoulder stand, to you and me) is de rigeur.

Back in this country, doubters are sure to pore scorn on the latest moves to bring yoga to the nation's youngsters.

You can just hear the sceptics - who needs airy-fairy yoga, they cry, when kids need toughening up with a wet ten mile run on a freezing January afternoon? (And if the image of grim cross-country running days isn't enough to excite you about the prospect of the nation's kids relaxing into the dog pose instead, I don't know what is...).

But Yogabugs' presence on BB2 the other week underscores the fact that yoga for children is potentially Big Bucks. Given what it can do for body and soul, it's also an absolute no-brainer.

Lucia Cockcroft, editor

Picture source: www.calmforkids.com

Up to 200 countries participated in this year's inter-faith International Day of Peace (IPD) Vigil, held on September 21.

Last year around 350 community spiritual observations were held across 60 countries. One mass meditation in Sri Lanka involved 300,000 people, including the Prime Minister and opposition leaders.

The day aims to "encourage worldwide, 24-hour spiritual observation for peace, non-violence and global ceasefire... in every house of worship and place of spiritual practice, by all religious and spiritually based groups and individuals and by all men, women and children who seek peace in the world."

The United Nations General Assembly established the event in 1981, and the same date - September 21 - was fixed five years ago.

The goal this year is to have all 192 National States participating.

www.idpvigil.com

Yoga Journal, the US magazine that helped to bring yoga into the mainstream, has been bought by Active Interest Media. Over the last six years, the title's circulation tripled to 331,000, and its profile changed from a niche 'new age' title to one read avidly by mostly working women in their thirties and forties.

Over 16 million Americans practice yoga, according to a 2005 survey, many of whom aim to combat stress and long working hourse. The number of registered yoga instructors in the US has also rocketed - from 2,000 five years ago, to around 14,000 today.

Future plans for the magazine include building a platform to attract increasingly national advertisers, such as hybrid-car manufacturers and health brands. There are thought to be no plans to change the editorial focus.

Active Interest Media also owns Vegetarian Times and Southwest Art.