Making connections

When the Newton resident wanted to help low-income women improve their health through yoga, she became a certified instructor, applied for a grant, and brought her knowledge to a number of shelters.

Now people are finding Dunwell.

In 2006, Boston Medical Center learned of Dunwell's work and asked her to join a team to study using yoga to reduce lower-back pain for low-income women. If the regimen proved helpful, patients could begin to practice yoga in their homes, cost-free. The study, which was headed by a Newton resident, Dr. Robert Saper, finished in January and was a success.

Saper, the director of integrative medicine in the family medicine department at Boston University, had been awarded a grant from the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, a division of the National Institutes of Health, to develop clinical research skills in alternative medicine.

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