Yoga Gets Tested For Osteoarthritis & Comes Out With Flying Colours
Yoga practices gradually increase the range of movement especially when practised with deep internal awareness. Like physiotherapy, Yoga helps strengthen the muscles around joints
In Osteoarthritis, exercise almost always helps because it reduces pain. Among all exercises, it is Strengthening Exercises that offer the best support and are used as standard treatment for this condition.
Yoga has also been claiming success in this area for a long time but it isn't widely accepted only because studies conducted so far have lacked a 'credible" evidence base.
So, researchers in Australia decided to compare Yoga and Strengthening Exercises for their effectiveness in Osteoarthritis (OA).
Yoga Or Strengthening Exercise?
At the University of Tasmania in Hobart, Australia, researchers carried out a randomised clinical trial to compare Yoga with Strengthening Exercise.
Fifty-eight patients were recruited in the Yoga group and 59 in strength training. All patients were in their 60s. For the first 12 weeks, there were both supervised and home sessions, and the next 12 weeks had only home sessions.
The primary outcome was to assess pain at the end of 12 weeks. Here, researchers found no difference in pain between the two groups. This led to the conclusion that Yoga was at least 'non-inferior' to Strengthening Exercise. (Yoga did better at overcoming depression, though, in the same 12-week period).
Week-24 Results Were The Game-Changer
Yoga's many 'superior' facets were evident at week 24, when secondary outcomes were evaluated. Of 26 secondary outcomes, seven were in favour of Yoga—pain at end of week 24, stiffness and function measures according to the WOMAC (Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index) and Osteoarthritis Research Society International system, patients' global self-assessment; and a 40-meter fast walk.
While seven outcomes favoured Yoga, there were none in favour of strength training. Incidentally, pain at week 24 was also better in the Yoga group, even if not statistically significant.
The researchers concluded that this showed that Yoga could be considered a viable alternative, especially for the medium term.
They added that: 'While our findings are promising, further research is needed to investigate the long-term effects of yoga and strengthening exercises beyond the 24-week period, providing insights into the sustainability of benefits." They were also keen on a deeper understanding of the underlying mechanisms.
An Indian Patient's Experience
Swati Damle, a 53-year-old Mumbai-based software professional, had been struggling with weight gain for some time. Nutrition-based weight-loss had resulted in a rebound. Recently, she had also developed OA.
Within two weeks of stay at a Yoga therapy centre, Swati was walking comfortably, with no pain. She had also lost 2 kgs. She left the place very satisfied and attributes it to the twin-factors of yogic diet and yoga exercises. 'Diet triggered the weight loss," she says, 'but more than that, it was compassion of the Yoga teachers that really helped me." Each time she was discouraged because of her pain to do any more exercises, they would show her a way out.
The selected poses for OA are low-impact and gentle. Coordinated with breathing, they ease pain in that area and bring in vital energy. In Swati's case, naturopathy packs and Ayurveda massages added to the relief.
Swati continued Yoga practice at home for a month or more, but then life took over and she became irregular. Nevertheless, eight weeks even after stopping practice, she's still comfortably walking. The diet plan gave her many ideas that are sustainable and reduce food cravings. She has been able to maintain her weight. Now, however, she feels it's time to begin practising again.
A Yoga Guru's Reasoning
Dr Nagarathna Raghuram, Medical Director of Arogyadhama, SVYASA Bengaluru, gives interesting insights in her book `Yoga for Arthritis'.
Physical Yoga Exercises
Yoga practices gradually increase the range of movement especially when practised with deep internal awareness. Similar to physiotherapy, Yoga helps strengthen the muscles around joints.
Yoga uses shakti-vikasaka exercises for OA, which are gentle and repetitive stretches coordinated with breathing. By definition, these are meant for developing strength. In addition, they contribute to deep relaxation, which counters muscle fatigue.
OA is related to aging of the joints. With age, the rate of repair of cartilage falls behind the rate of wear-and-tear.
According to Yoga, we are born with a stock of `prana', which is spent in day-to-day activities. If a person leads a disciplined life, in tune with nature and one's own bio-rhythm, the prana is programmed to last for a full life-span of 100 years.
But today's fast lifestyle combined with 'hypersensitised emotional surges, and suppression" burn out prana faster. This results in the problems of aging showing up earlier—the early greying, early atherosclerosis, heart attacks in very young persons, and so on.
Emotions, incidentally, demand larger energy (prana) expenditure than physical activities do. A stressful lifestyle alters the environment for gene expression. The programme in the gene that decides the rate of aging gets disturbed, and so does the rate of cell destruction and regeneration.
Pranayama and meditation can help reduce this stress. Further, yogic counselling and other methods to slow down the mind can help an individual develop poise and the confidence to accept the ups and downs of life.
This almost arrests the process of further ageing and can help the gene function to get back to a normal rate of cell repair in the cartilage.
The author is a journalist, cancer survivor and certified yoga teacher. She can be reached at swatikamal@gmail.com.
News18 Lifestyle section covers health, fashion, travel, food, and wellness tips, celebrity style, travel spots, and recipes. Also Download the News18 App to stay updated!
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April 26, 2025, 08:57 IST
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