UsingYoga to Promote Bone Health and Reduce Fracture Risk In the Geriatric Population

摘要

Efforts to prevent fracture are critical to reducing morbidity, mortality, and health service utilization. One approach to fracture prevention is with prescribing yoga to patients. Yoga has the potential to reduce the risk of fracture via several mechanisms: improving bone mass due to the weight-bearing nature of yoga, reducing the risk of falls due to improved strength and balance, and improving functioning due to improved quality of life, improved body mechanics, and reduced pain. Decreased functional impairment facilitates exercise, decreases medication usage, and decreases depression and the associated stress hormones, which can induce bone loss.7 Endocrine and immune alterations from depression may play a role in bone metabolism,8 and if yoga is helpful in depression, bone loss could be minimized. Proinflammatory cytokines play a role in many chronic conditions, including osteoporosis, frailty, and functional decline.9 Those who are yoga experts have lower levels of serum interleukin-6 than novices had, and the odds of a detectable C-reactive protein were 4.75 times higher in the novices than in the expert yoga practitioners9 If yoga dampens the stress-related changes and inflammatory response, it could have beneficial effects on bone and overall health.