Britain's Prince Charles backs wider use of yoga in UK

The heir to Britain's throne, Prince Charles, has spoken out in favour of wider use of yoga by the UK's state-funded National Health Service (NHS) as a means to ease the pressure on healthcare resources.

The 70-year-old royal, known for his support for alternative therapies, came out in favour of the ancient Indian practice in a written message to the Yoga in Healthcare conference in London over the weekend.

"The development of therapeutic, evidence-based yoga is, I believe, an excellent example of how yoga can contribute to health and healing, said Charles, the Prince of Wales.

"For thousands of years, millions of people have experienced yoga's ability to improve their lives This not only benefits the individual, but also conserves precious and expensive health resources for others where and when they are most needed, he said.

Queen Elizabeth II's son and heir expressed his support for more yoga classes because he said they not only had tremendous social benefits but also built "discipline, self-reliance and self-care".

"I will watch the development of therapeutic yoga in the UK with great interest and very much look forward to hearing about the outcomes from your conference," he said.

The Yoga in Healthcare Alliance was set up with a mission to make yoga more accessible and collaborates with the NHS to create a model to help integrate yoga into healthcare systems.

The conference, held at the University of Westminster in London from February 15-17, brought together opinion leaders and pioneers in yoga research, health policy, and government to address integration of yoga into the NHS.

"At a time when we are faced with unprecedented levels of preventable lifestyle diseases, and tragic levels of health inequality, the NHS and healthcare systems around the world are searching for low-cost ways to empower people towards better self-care. Increasingly, they are looking towards yoga, the alliance said in a statement.

Duncan Selbie, the chief executive of the UK government's Public Health England agency, told yoga therapists at the event that some of the government's health funding would go towards yoga classes.

"Yoga is an evidenced intervention and a strengthening activity that we know works," he said.

In the UK, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) the body responsible for laying out healthcare guidelines already recommends yoga for lower back pain. The Yoga in Healthcare Alliance said it now plans to map how yoga can become an integral part of the NHS.