If you're new to yoga, welcome. Yoga can change your life. If you already practice yoga but want to learn more, you may already know about yoga's life-changing potential. If you're sick, it can help you feel better. If you suffer from depression or anxiety, feel constantly tired, are addicted to drugs, or are troubled by back pain, yoga can help you get on the right path to recovery. For those with chronic health conditions like osteoarthritis, diabetes, or multiple sclerosis, regular yoga practice can help you live better and, in all likelihood, live longer. And those who suffer from temporary symptoms, such as tension headaches, hot flashes, or sinusitis, can find relief in specific postures, breathing techniques, and other yoga practices.

Yoga is a powerful, but slow, medicine. Don't expect overnight cures from yoga (although many people begin to experience the benefits very quickly). One of the main differences between yoga and many other healing approaches is that yoga builds upon itself, becoming more effective over time. This isn't the case with most medicines or surgeries, as their effectiveness usually diminishes gradually. In this sense, yoga is like learning to play a musical instrument: the more committed you are to it and the more you practice, the better you will feel and the more prepared you will be. One conclusion that can be drawn from this is that yoga is not the appropriate treatment for serious problems such as broken bones, major infections, or surgical emergencies. These problems should be addressed in conventional medical settings, and the treatment of these serious problems should be done with the power of conventional medicine.

Yoga is generally lumped into the world of "complementary and alternative medicine," but the boundary between alternative and conventional medicine is artificial; some practices could be on both sides of the line. Historical causality and the politicization of science and medicine have created disadvantages in determining which types of healthcare were established as conventional and which were relegated to alternative. Thus, the use of thyroid hormone pills, an exact chemical replica of a naturally occurring human hormone, is conventional medicine, but the supplementation of melatonin, another human hormone, is alternative medicine. If a chiropractor fixes your back, it's alternative, but if an osteopath does it, it's conventional. Homeopathy was once considered part of conventional medicine, but the medical establishment has changed its mind on this issue.