Joint Tenderness and Swelling in Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients with Participation Modified Yoga Program

BACKGROUND: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a disabling systemic disease with no cure. Yoga, currently considered to be a complementary and alternative medicine modality under investigation for potential health benefits, is an ancient physical activity that shows promise for slowing RA disability and helping to manage symptoms.

METHOD: Participants were 30 sedentary adults with RA and randomly assigned to an 8 week yoga program or a waitlist control group. Joint assessments were done by experienced clinic assessors who were blinded to treatment group.

RESULTS: Participants had a mean age of 46.0 ± 12.0 yrs, and were mostly female (97%) and Caucasian (67%) with mean disease duration of 8.0 ± 7.7 years. At baseline, participants had a mean of 6.8 ± 6.8 tender joints and 6.5 ± 5.8 swollen joints. No significant differences were found in age, race, sex, education or RA disease characteristics between groups.

As compared to baseline, participants who completed the yoga program, participants had fewer tender (6.7 ± 1.7 vs. 1.9 ± 0.6, respectively p<0.01) and swollen joints (5.7 ± 1.2 vs. 2.2 ± 0.6, p=0.01). As compared to baseline no significant changes were seen in the control group for the number of tender (7.5 ± 2.5 vs. 3.2 ± 1.9, p=0.15) or swollen joints (7.0 ± 2.2 vs. 3.2 ± 1.7, p=0.15).

CONCLUSIONS: Participation in a modified yoga program does not appear to exacerbate joint symptoms. Moreover, RA patients who participated in 8 weeks of yoga had significant reductions in both joint tenderness and swelling. Yoga practice shows promise for increasing physical activity and improving RA symptoms.