Hot Yoga is the Bees Knees - for osteoarthritis, torn meniscus and your medical bills
Your knees may be aching but why should you take a painful hit to your budget?
According to Dr. Joseph Mercola, arthroscopic knee surgery for osteoarthritis, torn meniscus and more knee ailments constitutes one of costliest and most unnecessary surgeries ...because it works no better than placebo surgery.
Recent research about knee surgery might just bring you to your knees...or to hot yoga.
A double blind placebo study (Harvard’s Mass General hospital) published in one of the most well-respected medical journals, the New England Journal of Medicine - over 10 years ago!- proved that knee surgery and placebo surgery had equal results.
But don't just take the word of one study; another seven studies note that physical therapy/movement for knee problems offer the same results as that costly and slow-to-recover-from knee surgery:
“Researchers at seven major universities and orthopedic surgery centers around the U.S. assigned 351 people with arthritis and meniscus tears to get either surgery or physical therapy. The therapy was nine sessions on average plus exercises to do at home, which experts say is *key to success.
*(NOTE: I believe they're saying the key to success is CONSISTENCY. It doesnt matter where you do the exercise as long as you commit to it with regularity - like we say about three times a week for optimal results from hot yoga. Just sayin.)
After six months, both groups had similar rates of functional improvement. Pain scores also were similar.
Thirty percent of patients assigned to physical therapy wound up having surgery before the six months was up, often because they felt therapy wasn’t helping them. Yet they ended up the same as those who got surgery right away, as well as the rest of the physical therapy group who stuck with it and avoided having an operation.”
Australian preventive medicine expert Rachelle Buchbinder of Monash University in Melbourne urges the medical community to change its practice and use physical therapy as the first line of treatment, reserving surgery for the minority who do not experience improvement from movement.
More research also shows that movement is vital, supporting the notion that when it comes to knee surgery, which necessitates immobliity of the knee afterwards, surgery could well be one of the least effective treatments available.
Now they tell you.
Some 510,000 people in the United States undergo arthroscopic knee surgery every year paying anywhere from $4,500 to $7,000 per procedure... billions of dollars every year spent on knee surgery. Ouch.
Hot yoga, on the other hand, is $22 per class...or less.
Hot yoga for Osteoarthritis?
Osteoarthritis of the knee is a degenerative joint disease in which cartilage that covers the ends of the bones in your joint deteriorates, causing bone to rub against bone.
Hot yoga is not a cure, but pose after pose, the systematic locking of the leg in the standing poses forces blood flow from the leg back up to the heart - bringing better circulation to the knee cartilage. Better blood flow creates healthier tissue.
Managing the Pain and still getting the Gain
There are some factors to consider when you do hot yoga on a bum knee, particularly if your pain tends to worsen with movement: you do not want to strain a significantly unstable joint.
Pain during movement is one of the most common and debilitating symptoms of osteoarthritis, and typically this is the result of your bones starting to come into contact with each other as cartilage and synovial fluid is reduced.
So slow it down. Follow the hot yoga instructions and take it easier.
Hot Yoga for Torn Meniscus?
A torn meniscus means a tear in that crescent-shaped fibrocartilaginous cushion in your knee.
Hot yoga cannot stitch up a tear...unless you consider that by flooding the tear with more oxygenated, nutrient rich blood, hot yoga aids the body's natural healing process (it does).
More Knee Problems and their non-surgical solutions
Another study published in 2007- also found that exercise was just as effective as surgery for people with a chronic pain in the front part of their knee, known as chronic patellofemoral syndrome (PFPS), which is also frequently treated with arthroscopic surgery.
The study compared arthroscopy with exercise in 56 patients with PFPS. One group of participants was treated with knee arthroscopy and an eight-week home exercise program, while a second group received only the exercise program. At the end of nine months, patients in both groups experienced similar reductions in pain and improvements in knee mobility.
A follow-up conducted two years later still found no differences in outcomes between the two groups.
How much hot yoga is good for those bad knees?
It's all good - but there's no reason to push it. If you're in pain during longer than one hour after hot yoga, slow down; take more Savasana poses and be patient. You didnt get the injury overnight, and you may not heal it in one hot yoga class either (not saying you won't - just don't be disappointed if you don't.)
Tell your teacher about your issues and let her manage it by encouraging and reminding you to be kind to yourself. Come on - this is yoga. Be a warrior when it comes to correct form and instructions....but what you can't do today, you'll do tomorrow at another hot yoga class.
In Fact, If You Have Joint Pain, Exercise is an Important Must
The notion that exercise is detrimental to your joints is a misconception, as there is no evidence to support this belief. Instead, the evidence points to exercise having a positive impact on your joint tissues -- if you exercise sufficiently to lose weight, or maintain an ideal weight, you can in fact reduce your risk of developing joint pain due to osteoarthritis rather than increase your risk. Exercise can also improve your bone density and joint function, which can help prevent and alleviate osteoarthritis (a major cause of joint pain) as you age.
For example, previous research10 has shown that people with rheumatoid arthritis, which causes joint pain, stiffness and deformities, who did weight training for 24 weeks improved their function by up to 30 percent and their strength by 120 percent. Unfortunately, many with joint pain are missing out on these potential benefits. Research11 published in 2011 found that over 40 percent of men and 56 percent of women with knee osteoarthritis were inactive, which means they did not engage in even one 10-minute period of moderate-to-vigorous activity all week...
And Losing Weight Helps the Hurt
Losing weight also helps reduce stress on the knee joints. And guess what? Hot yoga helps with weight loss too.
"Each pound you lose reduces knee pressure in every step you take. One study13 found that the risk of developing osteoarthritis dropped 50 percent with each 11-pound weight loss among younger obese women. If older men lost enough weight to shift from an obese classification to just overweight — that is, from a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or higher down to one that fell between 25 and 29.9 — the researchers estimated knee osteoarthritis would decrease by a fifth. For older women, that shift would cut knee osteoarthritis by a third."
Smile; you're helping your knees in hot yoga, in many ways.
Starting with never giving up to not immediately giving in to surgery, to losing weight and taking the pressure off those weight-bearing joints. Yes, you'll take some heat for delaying your surgery. But you can take it.
“Currently, millions of people are being exposed to potential risks associated with a treatment that may or may not offer specific benefit, and the costs are substantial,” continues Buchbinder. “These results should change practice. They should also lead to reflection on the need for levels of high-quality evidence of the efficacy and safety of surgical procedures similar to those currently expected for nonoperative therapy.”
And remember:
“At no point did either of the intervention groups report less pain or better function than the placebo group. For example, mean scores on the Knee-Specific Pain Scale were similar in the placebo, lavage, and débridement groups... at one year [and] at two years... Furthermore, the 95 percent confidence intervals for the differences between the placebo group and the intervention groups exclude any clinically meaningful difference. In this controlled trial involving patients with osteoarthritis of the knee, the outcomes after arthroscopic lavage or arthroscopic débridement were no better than those after a placebo procedure.”
Rhonda Uretzky, E-RYT
Reader Comments (7)
Love this article! I had a bad knee and weak ankles due to running injuries and regular wear and tear. This hot yoga practice has healed me in many ways and continues in more way then I thought possible. love love love!
I think runner's injuries - everything from bad knees to shin splints to plantar fasciatus - are the most common "healings" I hear about from hot yoga students. Bad backs and tight shoulders and stiff necks are tied for second place. Oh wait - also arthritis pain! And oh yes - depression and anxiety relief. Oh let's face it: hot yoga heals all LOL! Anyone else have a hot yoga AHA moment?
Hot Yoga has performed nothing short of miracles on my body and mind. I feel calmer and my knees aren't so tense but really even my reproductive systems thanks me. Before, I really started embracing practice I had severe Amenorrhea. It could of weight loss or stress or what ever. But honestly, I think that compression in Garudasana really helps me out. :)
Garudasana is said to boost the libido too....who needs Viagra when you have hot yoga?
I have a tendency to turn out too much from the hips - mostly as a result from dancing. During the class, especially awkward pose and floor bow, I am reminded to keep my feet parallel, practice keeping my feet parallel. It's a good reminder for real life, because I know what not-turning out is like and can incorporate it into my body's awareness outside of the hot yoga room.
Hip turn-out is common, Kristina; watch people walk and you'll notice that almost everyone's toes point sideways when they're walking forward.... I wonder if this is why it takes us so long to get where we want to be in life...
Doing yoga not just treat osteoarthritis but also other chronic pain. You may also feel relax.