Yoga Rx: A Step-by-Step Program to Promote Health, Wellness, and Healing for Common Ailments, Larry Payne and Richard Usatine, Broadway Books: 297 pp., $17.95

Anyone who has taken a yoga class probably has heard the instructor say something like: “This pose cleanses your lymphatic system” or “This posture stabilizes your spine.” Perhaps you wondered if there is any truth behind these statements. “Yoga Rx,” co-written by a doctor and a classically trained yoga instructor, provides the medical explanations behind such claims. The book explains how, for example, certain poses can squeeze your organs like sponges, allowing fresh, oxygenated blood to flow in and improve your body’s function.

The authors offer a series of yoga exercise programs targeting specific ailments such as allergies, high blood pressure, migraines, diabetes and depression. Each chapter begins with an explanation of how traditional yoga views a certain medical disorder, some basics of medical anatomy and a description of how yoga practice can help alleviate the problem. It then offers a “yoga prescription” for the ailment.

The book’s medical explanations are clear, if a bit short on specifics. The detailed yoga exercise programs are simple enough for readers to do on their own. The book concludes with a helpful resource guide and a quick reference to postures, breathing, relaxation and meditation. “Yoga Rx” should be helpful for those seeking alternative treatments for chronic medical problems, and the backing of coauthor Dr. Richard Usatine, who formerly headed the family medicine residency training program at the UCLA School of Medicine, should give readers some confidence in the yoga prescriptions.