Yoga For Parkinson’s And MS: What Mr Iyengar, The Yoga Doctors And The Research Say

Shaky hands, stiff legs, a slower walk, or a tiredness that sleep does not touch? Parkinson’s disease and multiple sclerosis (MS) are different conditions, but they share a lot: balance, stiffness, fatigue, low mood and the worry of what comes next. People living with them often ask whether yoga for Parkinson’s, or yoga for MS, is worth trying. Mr BKS Iyengar taught people with Parkinson’s, an Iyengar teacher with MS has taught for decades, and more than 20 studies have now tested yoga, pranayama and meditation for these conditions. This guide brings it all together. Last updated: 4 November 2026.

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Does yoga help Parkinson’s and MS? The short answer

Yes. In the trials, yoga for Parkinson’s improved movement, balance, walking, anxiety and low mood, and yoga for MS lowered fatigue and improved balance, mood and quality of life. In the largest Parkinson’s trial, 138 people in Hong Kong did 8 weeks of mindfulness yoga: it helped movement as much as stretching and strength training, and did better for anxiety, depression and quality of life. A review of 22 studies and 1,199 people found mind-body exercise, yoga among it, improved movement scores, walking, balance and mood. For MS, the first trial of Iyengar yoga found less fatigue after 6 months, and reviews of up to 10 trials agree that yoga lowers MS fatigue. A humming breath (Bhramari pranayama) lowered fatigue and low mood in a 2025 MS trial. Of all the Parkinson’s exercises tested so far, yoga is one of the few that also lowered anxiety and low mood. None of this makes either condition go away. It helps people live better with it.

One thing to keep in mind as you read: most trials tested “yoga” of many styles, taught by teachers with very different training. Only one, the MS trial above, tested Iyengar yoga by name, taught by trained Iyengar teachers, and it did well. In our view, as certified Iyengar teachers, Iyengar yoga’s use of props, its precise attention to the body and its slow, careful pranayama suit people with Parkinson’s and MS especially well. Why the kind of yoga matters.

The bottom line: five key moves for Parkinson’s and MS

1. Go to a yoga class at your level, twice a week or more, and keep going. The trials that helped ran 8 to 24 weeks, most of them once or twice a week. Props, chairs and the wall make the poses fit you, whatever the day brings.
2. Train your balance, with support. Standing poses near a wall or a chair, and learning to get down to the floor and up again. Balance is where these conditions bite hardest, and the trials found it can be trained.
3. Add pranayama (breath work). It calms the mind and brings stress, worry and anger down. Slow, nasal breathing and the humming breath are gentle and can be done lying down or seated.
4. Respect fatigue and heat, but do not stop. Rest when you need to, keep cool, and come back. Calm, supported poses on a low day still count.
5. Start now. New to Flametree, or away 3 months or more? 2 free classes, then 10 at half price, in Darwin or LIVE online.

Iyengar yoga is the style we teach at Flametree. During the 20th century, Mr BKS Iyengar was the major person who codified traditional Indian yoga, through his seminal books and widespread teaching. He also pioneered the use of props, so poses can be adapted to almost any body. His style is sometimes called modern classical yoga. This guide is part of our encyclopaedia of yoga for health conditions, and covers Dr Timothy McCall’s Parkinson’s Disease (no. 73), Multiple Sclerosis (no. 59) and, briefly, Essential Tremor (no. 115).

This guide in short

• Mr BKS Iyengar: no Parkinson’s or MS course in his books, but he taught people with Parkinson’s and spoke to a Parkinson’s society in 2007. His idea: reconnect the senses and the muscles.
• Iyengar teachers: an Israeli teacher of Parkinson’s groups, and Garth McLean, an Iyengar teacher who lives with MS.
• Dr Timothy McCall: both conditions are on his list; stress and inflammation link MS and the mind.
• Dr Loren Fishman: wrote a whole book on yoga and MS. We hold it and will add it here.
• Dr Krishna Raman: in Parkinson’s, stiffness responds to yoga more than tremor does.
• The research: 22 studies below, from a 6-person tremor pilot to reviews of more than 1,000 people.
• For men: Parkinson’s is about one and a half times more common in men.
• Take it further: our free ebook Strong Bones, Steady Feet, and classes in Darwin and online.

“When the legs are shaky, the mind is also shaky.”

What are Parkinson’s disease, MS and essential tremor?

• Parkinson’s disease is a condition of the brain that slowly changes how a person moves. The common signs are a tremor (shaking), muscle stiffness (doctors call it rigidity), slowness of movement, poor balance and a shuffling walk. Anxiety and low mood are common too, and the trials below measured both.
• Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a condition in which the immune system damages myelin, the protective coating of the nerves in the brain and spinal cord. It often comes and goes in flare-ups (relapsing-remitting MS). Fatigue is one of the most common symptoms, along with numbness, weak or shaky legs, poor balance and, for many, a sensitivity to heat. Our guide to yoga for inflammation and the immune system covers the immune side.
• Essential tremor is a different condition from Parkinson’s. It is a shaking, often of the hands, without the other signs of Parkinson’s. Only one small yoga study has looked at it so far (see the research below).

What the two main conditions share is the problem yoga works on most directly: the link between the brain, the nerves and the muscles, and the balance, steadiness and calm that depend on it.

“The nerves are like the bridge between the body and the mind.”

What did Mr BKS Iyengar teach about Parkinson’s?

In short: his books have no course for Parkinson’s or MS, but he taught people with Parkinson’s, and his method was to bring the mind into the part of the body that has lost its power.

In Yoga: The Path to Holistic Health, Mr Iyengar sets out a yoga approach for 72 health conditions. Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis and tremor are not among them, and his other major books (Light on Life, The Tree of Yoga) have no section on them either. The nearest part of Yoga: The Path to Holistic Health is “Brain and Nervous System” (pp. 351 to 358), which covers headaches, memory, migraine, epilepsy and sciatica, and opens with his view that regular practice relieves pressure on the brain and nervous system (p. 351, his claim). His daughter Geeta S Iyengar’s Yoga: A Gem for Women has no section on either condition.

But Mr Iyengar did speak about Parkinson’s, at length. On World Parkinson’s Day, 11 April 2007, he addressed the Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorder Society at Bombay Hospital in Mumbai, to people with Parkinson’s, their carers, neurologists and yoga students. Patients and neurologists at the meeting spoke of how Iyengar yoga had helped them. His talk was printed in Yoga Rahasya (2007, Vol 14, pp. 23 to 26). In our words, he said:

• “Fellow sufferers.” He began by calling the audience his fellow sufferers, because, in his view, old age is itself a kind of natural disease.
• The senses and the muscles lose touch. In Parkinson’s, he said, the physical body has lost some of its power, and the communication between the sensory nerves (which feel) and the motor nerves (which move) is lost. His claim, in the language of yoga rather than medicine.
• His method: bring the mind to the part. He taught people to take their attention into the affected part, so that feeling and moving begin to talk to each other again, and he used his own senses to guide the student.
• Medicine matters too. He accepted that Parkinson’s is a neurological disease that begins in the brain, and said neurology matters in caring for these people. Hope, faith and calm, he said, support the early stage. Yoga works alongside medical care.
• Getting the body working again. He spoke of rehabilitation as the real task: getting muscles, ligaments and joints working again.
• A violinist’s story. He told how the violinist Yehudi Menuhin, his student, had a hand that shook so he could not hold the bow, and how, in Mr Iyengar’s telling, the shaking stopped after some years of yoga. A story, not a study.

He welcomed the research the Mumbai Parkinson’s society was doing with Iyengar teachers, and expected better results if it continued. That study is described in the research section below.

Iyengar yoga for Parkinson’s: the talk as printed in Australia’s Iyengar journal

Iyengar Yoga Australia (then the BKS Iyengar Yoga Association of Australia) reprinted the same talk for its teachers and students in its journal Yoga Vaani (no. 91, September 2007, pp. 30 to 31, “Stabilising Parkinson’s Disease”). That printing adds a few details, in our words:

• A full hall. About 800 people heard him: people with Parkinson’s, carers, neurologists and other clinicians, and yoga students. After the talk he showed how the tremors could be steadied in practice. He spoke, he said, from 72 years of teaching.
• Stopping the shake is not enough. He recalled a 1956 film by an American surgeon, Dr Cooper, whose operations stopped the tremor but left the body rigid. For Mr Iyengar the real work came next: getting muscles, joints and ligaments working again, with the inner body and the outer body in line.
• The nerves rule the mind. He quoted the yoga texts: the mind is king of the senses, but the nerves are king of the mind. That, he said, is why neurology matters so much for these students.
• The teaching has to keep moving. He showed his teachers how to take people on from wherever they had stopped. In his words, “If the teaching stagnates then there will be no progress.”
• Menuhin, in more detail. Here he says the violinist’s tremor stopped after about three years of practice, that he regained steadiness in his fingers, and that he played until his death. His story, not a study.

Source: BKS Iyengar, “Stabilising Parkinson’s Disease”, Yoga Vaani 91, September 2007, pp. 30 to 31, reprinted from Yoga Rahasya Vol 14 No 3. See the issue in the Iyengar Yoga Australia e-library (members). This is Mr Iyengar’s view from a lifetime of teaching, known from practice rather than tested in a trial. In our Iyengar yoga classes in Darwin and online, the same idea runs through every pose: attention brought into each part, with the wall and chairs for steadiness.

We do not publish pose sequences for these conditions. A sequence needs a teacher who can see you on the day and adapt each pose, which is what a class is for.

“Use caution and be bold.”

What have Iyengar teachers learned from teaching Parkinson’s and MS?

In short: stability before stretching, use the wall, chairs and the floor, watch fatigue and heat, and keep people in the class.

Rina Tawil: Parkinson’s groups in Israel

Rina Tawil is an occupational therapist and Iyengar-trained yoga teacher in Israel, who taught yoga to Parkinson’s groups for about 14 years. She wrote about it in Yoga Rahasya (“Stabilizing Parkinson’s Disease”, 2003, Vol 10 No 4, pp. 62 to 68). In our words, her approach:

• Stability first, then stretching. She starts with steadiness, at the wall, on chairs and with a window sill or table to hold.
• Much of the stretching lying down, where there is no fear of falling.
• Practical skills: learning to sit down on a chair and get up again, and to get down to the floor and up again.
• What her students told her: they felt more stable and freer after a class, and the effect lasted 2 to 3 days. Some neurologists encouraged their patients to come. Her report, not a trial.

Garth McLean: an Iyengar teacher living with MS

Garth McLean is a certified Iyengar teacher in Los Angeles who has lived with relapsing-remitting MS since the 1980s. He told his story in Yoga Rahasya in 2005 (Vol 12 No 2, pp. 53 to 58), and has taught adaptive Iyengar classes at the UCLA MS Achievement Center with Eric Small, the co-author of Dr Fishman’s book on yoga and MS. He is clear that yoga does not make MS go away: for him it is a way to live well with it. He still has fatigue and numbness in his feet, and he noticed that a relapse followed a time of great emotional stress. In his guideline for teachers, in our words:

• Calm and support the nerves. The practice should soothe, not jolt.
• Use the wall and props for standing work when feeling or balance is changed, and stop standing work if the legs buckle or begin to shake.
• Rest when tired. On a day of fatigue, restorative, supported poses come first.
• Keep cool. In his words, a rise of 1 degree Celsius in body temperature can worsen symptoms in some people with MS. Avoid overheating.
• Keep the person in the regular class, so they are not isolated.
• Ask about today. He asks each student which symptoms they have that day, because they change.
• Courage and caution. He passes on Mr Iyengar’s advice to walk the line between the two.

He has also written, for Iyengar Yoga (UK), that yoga is for everyone, listing MS, Parkinson’s and stroke among the conditions he has worked with through adapted practice (read his article).

Stories from the Iyengar community

• “I am not going to stop moving forward.” Tania Schneider in Canada has practised Iyengar yoga for about 30 years and was diagnosed with Parkinson’s about five years before she wrote her story. She keeps a nightly routine that includes yoga, says it helps her stay calm and connected to her body, and still cycles, hikes, lifts weights, and has walked the West Coast Trail. Told in her own words on the Iyengar Yoga Association of Canada’s blog (read her story).
• A Mumbai programme for people with Parkinson’s. Iyengar teachers in Mumbai have run yoga classes for people with Parkinson’s with the city’s Parkinson’s society, and more than 250 people had attended by 2012. Shail Pandey, then 64, had lived with Parkinson’s for 14 years and took up painting as well, which she said relaxes her. From a Hindustan Times report reposted by Iyengar Yoga (UK) (read the report).

“Fear and fatigue block the mind. Face both, then courage and confidence flow into you.”

What does Dr Timothy McCall say?

In short: all three conditions are on his list of those helped by yoga, and for MS he links stress, inflammation and the mind.

Dr McCall is a US medical doctor and yoga therapist, author of Yoga as Medicine and former medical editor of Yoga Journal; his own teacher is the senior Iyengar teacher Patricia Walden. His June 2019 list of conditions helped by yoga includes Multiple Sclerosis (no. 59) with 16 research references, Parkinson’s Disease (no. 73) with 5, and Essential Tremor (no. 115) with 1. His views, in our words:

• Stress, inflammation and MS. In his chapter on MS, he explains that long-term stress is thought to raise cortisol, which raises immune messengers that fuel inflammation, and that this may add to the damage to the nerves’ myelin coating. A calmer stress system is one road from the mat to the nerves. His account.
• Mood matters. He notes that in people with MS who are depressed, easing the depression has been shown to lower those same inflammation messengers.
• Balance, not boost. He reads the research as showing meditation can raise immunity where that helps and calm it in autoimmune disease, such as MS. In his words, “yoga is all about balance” (loc 274).
• The Iyengar MS trial. He lists Oken’s trial, in which Iyengar yoga lowered fatigue in MS, among the trials of Iyengar yoga (see the research below).
• An Iyengar teacher with MS. His MS chapter is built around Eric Small, a student of Mr BKS Iyengar who has lived with MS for more than fifty years. Eric starts new students in supported, restful poses, because people with MS tend to push too hard, then builds slowly with chairs, bolsters and belts, short holds of about ten seconds, and plenty of rest. He keeps the room cool, avoids poses that need a sudden burst of effort, and asks for about half an hour of home practice a day. McCall adds that heat is one of the biggest risks in MS, which rules out hot yoga, and that learning first with a qualified teacher matters. He also cites a 2002 survey of nearly two thousand people with MS: of those who had tried yoga, 57% called it very beneficial.
• Slow and steady. His words: “Yoga is strong medicine but it is slow medicine” (loc 274). Give it months, not days.

Yoga as Medicine has a chapter on MS but none on Parkinson’s; his Parkinson’s and tremor entries are on his list and its research references.

What does Dr Loren Fishman say?

In short: he wrote a whole book on yoga and MS, with an Iyengar teacher. We hold it, and more will be added here soon.

Dr Loren Fishman is a New York rehabilitation physician who studied with Mr Iyengar. With Eric Small, an Iyengar teacher who teaches adaptive classes for people with MS at UCLA, he wrote Yoga and Multiple Sclerosis: A Journey to Health and Healing (Springer Publishing, 2007), the only book on yoga and MS written by a rehabilitation doctor with an Iyengar teacher. Chris holds a print copy at Flametree. We have not yet read it for this guide, and its advice on poses, fatigue and heat will be added to this section when we have. Our bones and balance guide sets out his work on bones.

“Rigidity makes us brittle and causes us to lose our balance.”

What does Dr Krishna Raman say?

In short: in Parkinson’s, stiffness responds to yoga, and tremor less so.

Dr Raman is a Chennai physician who trained in yoga under Mr Iyengar. His question-and-answer book, Yoga and Medical Science: FAQ, covers Parkinson’s disease and MS among the brain and nerve conditions (questions 403 to 424). His view, in our words, is that in Parkinson’s the rigidity (stiffness) responds to yoga, while the tremor does not. His claim, from his clinical work. It fits the research below, where the trials found gains in movement, balance and walking, and the one tremor study was tiny.

Other yoga voices on Parkinson’s and MS

• Harvard Medical School, in its report An Introduction to Yoga, lists multiple sclerosis among the conditions where the evidence for yoga is early but promising (pp. 8 to 11).
• Iyengar Yoga London runs a livestream class for people with MS and other neurological conditions, and has summarised a 2023 university study of people practising in it (read their summary). People said yoga gave them a sense of control over their symptoms.
• Dr J. T. Shah, the fourth doctor who worked with Mr Iyengar, has nothing on these conditions in the material we hold.

For men: Parkinson’s is more common in men

Parkinson’s is about one and a half times more common in men than in women, and the gap widens with age: over 80, men are more than 1.6 times as likely to develop it, in a French study of more than 149,000 people with Parkinson’s and a review of 22 studies (Moisan 2016, read the study). Nearly half the people in the biggest Parkinson’s yoga trial, in Hong Kong, were men, and they did well.

Yet men do far less yoga than women. In a national survey of Australian yoga practitioners, 85% were women (Penman 2012, link). The things that helped in the trials, balance work, strength in the legs, a steadier walk and a calmer mind, are exactly what men with Parkinson’s need, and a class is a good place to get them. About a third of the people in Flametree’s classes are men. Bring a mate or come alone, but give it 12 weeks.

“The nerves which have become quiet through the practice of Pranayama should not be jolted.”

What does the research show about yoga for Parkinson’s and MS?

In short: yoga improved movement, balance, walking, anxiety and low mood in Parkinson’s, and lowered fatigue and improved balance, pain, mood and quality of life in MS. A humming breath and other breathing practice lowered MS fatigue, and mindfulness improved quality of life. Most studies are small. Only one tested Iyengar yoga by name, and it did well. Why the difference matters.

Parkinson’s disease: yoga

• Mindfulness yoga improved movement and mobility as much as stretching and strength training did, and did better for anxiety, depression, spiritual well-being and quality of life, at 8 and 20 weeks. Ninety-minute group classes for 8 weeks. Kwok 2019, 138 people with mild to moderate Parkinson’s in Hong Kong (187 enrolled). Read the study. Yoga in general did as well as exercise for movement. Iyengar yoga has not yet been tested against exercise in Parkinson’s. Why it matters.
• In the same trial, yoga did better than stretching for both movement and non-movement symptoms, and less anxiety and depression explained part of the gain in quality of life. Kwok 2022, a second report from the Kwok 2019 trial, not a new trial. Read the study.
• Both yoga and meditation beat usual care for anxiety, movement symptoms and quality of life at 2 months, and both lowered a blood marker of inflammation (interleukin-6) at 6 months. Eight weeks of 90-minute groups. Kwok 2025, 159 people with Parkinson’s in three groups. Read the study.
• Mind-body exercise improved movement scores, walking, balance, depression and quality of life. Jin 2019, a review of 22 studies and 1,199 people. Tai chi, yoga and qigong were pooled. Read the study.
• Yoga lowered anxiety, and yoga and dance both lowered depressive symptoms. Meliani 2025, a review of 7 trials of dance and yoga in Parkinson’s. Read the study.
• A yoga programme improved movement scores, balance, getting up and walking (the timed up-and-go test) and walking speed, as much as power training and far more than doing nothing. Twice a week for 12 weeks. Ni 2016, 41 older people with Parkinson’s, average age 72, in Miami. Read the study.
• Yoga meditation improved balance on the Tinetti test, and the sense of where a joint is, more than a body-awareness training programme, with no harms. Twelve weeks. Cherup 2021, 33 people with mild to moderate Parkinson’s. Read the study.
• Movement scores fell by a clinically meaningful amount in the yoga group, with trends to better balance and fitness in those who came most. Twelve weeks of hatha yoga. Meliani 2026, 49 people with Parkinson’s. The comparison group’s change was not clearly different. Read the study. General hatha yoga, not Iyengar yoga. Why it matters.

Parkinson’s disease: meditation and mindfulness

• Mindfulness and meditation improved movement scores and thinking skills. Lin 2023, a review of 8 trials and 337 people with Parkinson’s. Read the study.
• Mindfulness programmes lowered depression and anxiety and improved quality of life. Yi 2024, a review of 12 studies in Parkinson’s. Read the study.

Iyengar yoga studies

These tested Iyengar yoga specifically, taught by trained Iyengar teachers.

• Iyengar yoga lowered fatigue in MS, on two separate fatigue measures, compared with a waiting list, as much as a weekly exercise bike class did, with no harms from the yoga. A weekly Iyengar yoga class plus home practice for 6 months. Oken 2004, 69 people with MS in Oregon (57 finished), the first trial of Iyengar yoga in MS. Attention tests did not change in either group. Read the study.
• Iyengar yoga improved mood and behaviour and the movement examination in people with Parkinson’s, compared with a group who did not do yoga. Mehta, Barretto, Lalkaka and Sankhala, Mumbai, presented in 2008: 27 people doing Iyengar yoga and 24 who did not. A conference report, not yet published in a journal. Read the report.

Multiple sclerosis: yoga

• Yoga reduced fatigue and low mood in the short term, compared with usual care, with no serious harms. The authors suggest yoga may suit people who do not keep up other exercise. Cramer 2014, a review of 7 trials and 670 people with MS. Read the study. Yoga in general. It did about as well as exercise; Iyengar yoga matched an exercise class in the Oken trial above. Why it matters.
• Yoga reduced fatigue more than usual MS care, by a large amount, and as much as exercise. Shohani 2020, a review of 10 trials and 693 people with MS. Read the study.
• Yoga improved quality of life: physical functioning, energy, mental health and social life. Twelve weeks, against physical therapy and a waiting list. Lysogorskaia 2023, 36 people with MS in Moscow. Read the study.
• Yoga with pranayama improved pain control and quality of life. Three months of pranayama, hatha and raja yoga against no yoga. Doulatabad 2012, 60 women with MS in Iran. Read the study.
• Both yoga and Baduanjin (a qigong form) improved balance, trunk control and fatigue over 24 weeks. Pan 2022, 80 people with MS. Baduanjin did better than yoga. Read the study. Yoga in general, not Iyengar yoga. Why it matters.
• Mind-body movement, yoga among it, improved balance as well as or better than other exercise or usual care, and yoga with other mind-body practice reduced pain. Buttolph 2026, an overview of reviews of yoga, tai chi, qigong, Pilates and dance in MS. Read the study.
• People with MS said online home yoga gave them a sense of control, felt made for them, and helped body and mind. Naisby 2023, interviews and focus groups with people in a livestream class that Iyengar Yoga London describes as its own. Read the study.

Multiple sclerosis: pranayama and breathing

Here the humming breath, Bhramari pranayama, was tested by name. It is one of the five pranayama we teach.

• The humming breath lowered fatigue and depression scores after 4 weeks, by a large amount. Bhramari pranayama, 20 minutes twice a day, against routine care. Sadr 2025, 78 people with MS in Iran. Read the study.
• Breathing training improved balance and fatigue. Li 2025, a review of 21 trials and 881 people with MS. Not all the trials used yoga breathing. Read the study.

No trial has yet tested pranayama on its own for Parkinson’s. Not yet studied is not the same as not working. Breathing was part of the yoga programmes above, and “breathwork” can mean many things, so it matters what was taught and by whom. Pranayama or breathwork: why it matters.

Multiple sclerosis: mindfulness

• Mindfulness programmes improved quality of life, most of all mental quality of life. Simpson 2023, a review of 14 trials and 937 people with MS. Read the study.
• Mindfulness improved a test of attention, with early signs of gains in other thinking skills. Komar 2024, a review of 12 trials and 700 people with MS. Read the study.

Essential tremor

• Five of six people had less tremor after 8 weeks of yoga (15% on average), and balance improved by 11% on average, with no harms. Weekly hour-long classes. Vance 2018, a pilot of 6 people with essential tremor. Read the study.

That is the only yoga study of essential tremor so far. No trial has yet tested meditation or pranayama for it.

“A teacher must therefore see the reason behind fatigue. The practice has to be changed accordingly.”

How this comes together in a Flametree class

Everything above points the same way, and it is how we teach in Darwin and online.

• Props in every class: chairs, blocks, belts, blankets and the wall, so standing poses can be done with support and nobody has to fear a wobble.
• Stability first. Standing poses build strong legs and steady feet; the wall and a chair are always close.
• Getting down and up again. Learning to get down to the floor and back up, safely, is part of a beginner class.
• Classes adapted to the people in them. No one-size-fits-all. Tell your teacher what is going on today, and the poses are changed for you.
• Rest is part of the class. Every class ends in rest, and supported poses are there on a tired day.
• Keeping cool in Darwin. Darwin is hot and humid for much of the year, and heat matters to many people with MS. Take a break whenever you need, sit out a pose, and bring water. LIVE online classes let you practise in your own cool room.
• Breath and calm: our restorative yoga classes go slower, and our pranayama classes teach the humming breath and the other breaths step by step.
• Company. As Garth McLean says, stay in the class. A regular class, with the same faces, keeps you coming back.

Read more on balance, the brain and falls

• Yoga for bone health, balance and falls
• Falls and yoga: the studies, including the Sydney Iyengar trial
• Brain health, memory and dementia risk
• Yoga for inflammation and the immune system
• Yoga and sleep, insomnia and fatigue
• Yoga for osteoporosis, with a family story of Parkinson’s and a fall
• A son’s story: heart disease, Parkinson’s, and why yoga matters
• Yoga or Iyengar yoga? Why the difference matters in the research

Take it further

• Classes, in Darwin or LIVE online: new, or away 3 months or more? 2 free classes, then 10 at half price. Already practising yoga? See the non-beginner half price pass. See every class time.
• Masterclasses: our 2027 Sunday Arvo Masterclasses with Chris Lalor, Certified Senior Iyengar Yoga Teacher and certified Yoga Therapist, include sleep and energy, and anxiety, upsets and anger: fatigue and worry are two of the biggest burdens of Parkinson’s and MS. Bookings open soon.
• Retreats: a week of daily, adapted yoga in Bali. See the retreats.

Other conditions are in our encyclopaedia of yoga for health conditions.

Parkinson’s, MS and yoga: questions people ask

Can yoga help Parkinson’s disease?

Yes. In the largest trial, 138 people with mild to moderate Parkinson’s did 8 weeks of mindfulness yoga: it helped movement as much as stretching and strength training, and did better for anxiety, depression and quality of life. Another trial found a yoga programme improved balance and walking speed as much as power training. A review of 22 studies and 1,199 people found mind-body exercise improved movement, walking, balance and mood.

Is yoga good for MS fatigue?

Yes. MS fatigue is one of the best-studied results. In the first trial of Iyengar yoga in MS, 6 months of weekly classes plus home practice lowered fatigue on two measures, compared with a waiting list. Reviews of 7 and 10 trials agree that yoga lowers MS fatigue compared with usual care, about as much as exercise does. A 2025 trial found the humming breath lowered fatigue in 4 weeks.

Does yoga help the tremor or the stiffness of Parkinson’s?

Mostly the stiffness and the movement. Dr Krishna Raman, a physician who trained with Mr Iyengar, holds that rigidity responds to yoga while tremor does not, and the trials found gains in movement scores, balance and walking. Mr Iyengar told the story of the violinist Yehudi Menuhin, whose shaking hand, in his telling, settled after years of yoga: a story, not a study. For essential tremor, a different condition, one 6-person pilot found less tremor after 8 weeks.

Why does heat matter with MS, especially in Darwin?

Many people with MS find heat brings their symptoms on. Garth McLean, an Iyengar teacher who lives with MS, says a rise of just 1 degree Celsius in body temperature can worsen symptoms in some people. Darwin is hot and humid for much of the year. In class, take a break whenever you need, sit out a pose and bring water, or practise LIVE online in your own cool room.

Is breathing practice (pranayama) useful for MS?

Yes. In a 2025 trial of 78 people with MS, the humming breath (Bhramari pranayama), 20 minutes twice a day for 4 weeks, lowered fatigue and depression scores. A review of 21 trials of breathing training in MS found better balance and less fatigue. Slow, quiet pranayama can be done seated or lying down, so it suits tired days too.

Can I do an ordinary yoga class if I have Parkinson’s or MS?

In our view, yes, with a teacher who adapts the poses. Garth McLean, an Iyengar teacher with MS, advises keeping people in the regular class so they are not isolated, with the wall and props for standing work and rest on tired days. Iyengar classes use chairs, blocks, belts and the wall as a matter of course. Tell your teacher what is going on today, and the poses are changed for you.

Did Mr Iyengar teach people with Parkinson’s?

Yes. On World Parkinson’s Day in 2007 he addressed the Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorder Society in Mumbai, where patients and neurologists described how Iyengar yoga had helped them. His idea was that in Parkinson’s the sensory nerves and the motor nerves lose touch, and that bringing the mind into the affected part helps them work together again. His book Yoga: The Path to Holistic Health has no course for Parkinson’s or MS.

Is there a yoga class in Darwin or online for Parkinson’s or MS?

Yes. Flametree Yoga Studio teaches Iyengar yoga at Woolner and Coolalinga in Darwin, and LIVE online across Australia, with chairs, the wall and other props in every class, balance work, pranayama, and gentle and restorative classes. New, or away 3 months or more? You get 2 free classes, then 10 at half price.

Where this comes from: BKS Iyengar, Yoga: The Path to Holistic Health (Dorling Kindersley), Brain and Nervous System (pp. 351 to 358); his address to the Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorder Society, Mumbai, 11 April 2007, printed in Yoga Rahasya Vol 14 (2007), pp. 23 to 26; Light on Life; Iyengar: His Life and Work; Sparks of Divinity; Yoga Wisdom and Practice; Yoga Rahasya Vol 4 No 2 (1997). Geeta S Iyengar, Yoga: A Gem for Women. Rina Tawil, “Stabilizing Parkinson’s Disease”, Yoga Rahasya Vol 10 No 4 (2003), pp. 62 to 68. Garth McLean, Yoga Rahasya Vol 12 No 2 (2005), pp. 53 to 58, and his MS Practice guideline (2012). Timothy McCall MD, Yoga as Medicine (Bantam), including his MS chapter, and his June 2019 list of health conditions helped by yoga. Loren Fishman MD and Eric Small, Yoga and Multiple Sclerosis (Springer Publishing, 2007), held, not yet read. Krishna Raman MD and S. Suresh MD, Yoga and Medical Science: FAQ. Harvard Medical School, An Introduction to Yoga. Penman and others, Yoga in Australia, a national survey, 2012. Moisan and others, Parkinson’s in men and women, 2016. Stories from the Iyengar Yoga Association of Canada and Iyengar Yoga (UK), as linked. Studies as linked above. Everything is summarised in our own words.

This page is general information, not medical advice. Flametree Yoga Studio, Darwin and LIVE online.