A Conversation with Timothy McCall, MD

Timothy McCall, MD, is a board-certified internist, the medical editor of Yoga Journal, and the author of two books, Yoga as Medicine: The Yogic Prescription for Health and Healing and Examining Your Doctor: A Patient's Guide to Avoiding Harmful Medical Care. His articles have appeared in dozens of publications, including the New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of the American Medical Association, The Nation, The Boston Globe, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and The Los Angeles Times. Timothy has studied Yoga since 1995 with Patricia Walden, a teacher of classical Iyengar Yoga. More recently, he has been working with Donald Moyer and Rod Stryker. In addition, Timothy travels regularly to India to research Yoga, Yoga therapy, and Ayurveda and to study with a traditional Ayurvedic vaidhya (doctor) in Kerala and a Tantric master in Bangalore. After completing his residency in primary care internal medicine, he practiced for more than 10 years in the Boston area before devoting himself full-time to writing and research. His main focus since the year 2000 has been investigating the therapeutic aspects of Yoga, as well as the scientific explanations of Yoga's effects. In this interview, Dr. McCall (TM) and IJYT Editor-in-Chief Kelly McGonigal, PhD, (KM) discuss what Western medicine can learn from Yoga and Ayurveda, the risks of trying to license Yoga therapists, innovation in the history of Yoga therapy, and the challenges of conducting research on Yoga.