Panaji : The US military has adopted yoga into its training curriculum, Union Minister of State for AYUSH Shripad Naik said on Monday.

“Western countries are showing much interest over yoga. In the US alone, nearly 20 million people are practicing yoga and these numbers are increasing by 5 per cent every year. The US military training has adopted yoga in its training curriculum,” Naik said while speaking at the inauguration of a two-day international yoga conference.

The Minister also said that countries in Europe had started recognising the benefits of yoga and that several modern medical institutes there had adopted yoga as an alternative treatment for many disorders.

“Yoga is growing more popular because of increasing lifestyle-related disorders and non-communicable diseases. Some of the non-communicable diseases are growing like an epidemic and there is an urgent need to check its growth.

“Yoga along with other drug-less systems were probably the only answer for preventing such epidemics,” Naik said.

—IANS