Performing A Single Yoga Pose A Day May Improve Scoliosis

Performing a single yoga pose—the side plank—for 90 seconds a day could reduce spine curvature in patients with scoliosis in as little as 3 months, a new study finds.

“The yoga pose, which consumes up to 1.5 minutes a day, seems to be a more desirable first move with scoliosis patients than [common treatment techniques such as] bracing, surgery, or ‘expectant observation,’” says Loren M. Fishman, MD, an assistant clinical professor at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, and lead author of the study.
 

RELATED CONTENT
Cervical Spine Injuries in the Geriatric Patient
Spontaneous Spinal Epidural Hematoma in an Older Woman
 

Fishman and colleagues sought to determine the effectiveness of the side plank—a common, basic yoga pose that involves lying on one side of the body with straight knees and propping up the upper body with the elbow and forearm—on 25 participants between the ages of 14 and 85 with idiopathic scoliosis.

After undergoing an initial examination, an X-ray, and an evaluation by a radiologist, patients were then shown how to carry out the pose. In the first week, the participants were instructed to do the pose on the side their spine was curved toward for 10 to 20 seconds each day, and were then asked to do the pose once daily for as long as possible, still on the side of their spine curvature. On average, participants did the side plank pose for 1.5 minutes a day, 6.1 days a week for 6.8 months.

Among all patients, the researchers found that spine curvature improved by around 32%. The 19 patients who did the pose for at least 3 days on a weekly basis saw spine curvature improve by 40.9%. Within this group, adolescents experienced a 49.6% improvement in curvature, and adults saw a 38.4% improvement.

“Scoliosis can be a cosmetic issue,” says Fishman, “but medically it may compromise respiration and even cardiac function when progressing to extremes, as it may in the degenerative scoliosis seen with aging.” 

Most scoliosis is adolescent idiopathic, she says, noting that the mothers and fathers of the young victims (9 out of 10 of whom are girls) who undertake bracing and surgery, “for their child’s own good.”

European studies “confirm dramatic loss of self image and plummeting self-esteem in the recently braced,” adds Fishman. “Annually, 38,000 surgeries are performed in the United States, which at median prices adds up to more than $7 billion. The physical and social misery is all the greater, considering how often it is probably unnecessary.”

—Mark McGraw

Reference:

Fishman L, Groessl E, et al. Serial Case Reporting Yoga for Idiopathic and Degenerative Scoliosis. Global Adv Health Med. 2014.