Abstract
Hathayoga represents an elaborated system of exercises which can be used for improving the homeostasis of the human organism, Unlike the Western gymnastics and sports, hathayoga affects visceral organs and autonomic system directly. Elements of hathayoga can be used for the stabilization of the organism, needed by the modern society, which, on the one hand gives extended possibilities for the developing of personality, and, on the other hand, includes more demands on regulatory processes of the organism. Hathayoga involves exercises gradated according to difficulty, so that a particular approach directed to a particular system (e. g., vertebral column) is covered by a set of exercises from the very easy ones (suitable for patients) to the most advanced. The supposed mechanisms underlying the effect of yogic exercises can be the following: I. Changes in the intensity and distribution of excitation and inhibition in the brain, 2. Adaptation of reflexogenic areas (and mucuses), 3. Driving of rhythms, 4. Training homeostalois of regulations by means of misbalancing them, 5. Classical conditioned reflex, 6. Restricted consciousness, 7. Shifting of vegetative balance toward a relative parasymphaticotony (under conditions of higher stability of regulatory processes). In modern medical sciences hathayoga can be used for prevention or increasing homeostasis of the organism, therapy of especially functional diseases and allergic states, rehabilitation, both orthopedic and visceral, and research of physiological regulations.

Key words: HATHAYOGA , YOGA, MEDICAL SCIENCES