Yoga and lumbar disc degeneration disease: MR imaging based case control study

Yoga is a popular exercise with evidence of various physical and psychological benefits. However, most of these studies are based on subjective scales. To our knowledge, there are very few original studies on MRI analyses of yoga practicing individuals at present. Here we conducted a MRI-based case-control study of yoga and lumbar degenerative disc disease (DDD). Eighteen yoga instructors were enrolled in our study and other 18 asymptomatic cases were randomly selected from our health check up database as control group. All lumbar discs of these cases were graded by using MRI and analyzed statistically. The mean practice period is 12.9±7.5 in yoga group. The median grading of the L1/2, L2/3, L3/4, L4/5, L5/S1 and the 90 lumbar discs was 2 (3, 2), 2 (3, 2), 3 (3, 1), 3 (4, 1), 2 (4, 1), 2 (4, 1) in yoga group and 2 (3, 2), 2.5 (4, 2), 3 (4, 1), 3 (4, 1), 3 (4, 1), 3 (4, 1) in control group, respectively. The median grading of the 90 discs was significantly lower in the yoga group than in the control group. The median grading of the L2-3 and L3-4 discs was significantly lower in the yoga group than in the control group. The grading of DDD was lower in the study group that had practiced yoga for more than 10 years as compared to the control group.