Introduction
Yoga is a representative mind-body therapy of complementary and alternative medicine. In Japan, yoga has been widely practiced to promote health, particularly among young women. Yoga has been reported to improve various stress-induced complaints of the mind and body, including anxiety, insomnia, and fatigue. The mechanism is gradually being elucidated regarding how yoga improves these symptoms. However, reports on yoga-associated adverse events have also been increasing. Glenn Black, a yoga teacher for almost 40 years, stated in a 2012 New York Times article that an increasing number of people have yoga-induced injuries and are in poor physical condition. These injuries include whiplash, muscle damage, and back strain. In addition, serious conditions such as stroke can also occur. Black has been warning people practicing yoga regarding these adverse effects of yoga [
1].
Most reports on yoga-associated adverse events have been from randomized controlled clinical trials on the usefulness of yoga and case reports of individuals practicing yoga (for review, see [
2]). Lower back pain and muscular pain are the most common symptoms in these reports [
3,
4]. While yoga has been suggested to relieve chronic neck pain and lower back pain [
5], it has also been reported to adversely affect individuals by aggravation of pain [
6-
9]. Yoga has been indicated to cause musculoskeletal pain in healthy individuals [
10], but such pain is mild in many cases. However, some musculoskeletal disorders are serious, such as bone fractures [
11,
12], tendon and ligament injuries [
13,
14], muscle strain [
15], and myositis ossificans of the forearm [
16]. Non-musculoskeletal disorders include ocular disorders such as keratectasia, central retinal vein occlusion, and progressive optic neuropathy in glaucoma patients [
17-
22], dyspnea and pneumothorax [
23-
25], and rectus sheath hematoma [
26,
27]. Rare adverse events are headache [
28], sciatic nerve injury [
29], hallucination [
30], and dental erosion [
31]. These adverse events were reported in articles only when they were unique or were seen in specific treatment settings. Only one web-based national survey in Australia investigated the yoga-related injury rate [
32]. The results demonstrated that the incidence of yoga-related injuries was relatively low (21.3% of respondents reported some kind of yoga-related injury, and 4.6% sustained an injury in the previous 12 months). However, to date, no study has elucidated the frequency and causes of adverse events in regular yoga classes.
It is important to understand the characteristics, frequencies, and risk factors of yoga-associated adverse events before yoga becomes even more prevalent for stress reduction in healthy individuals and treatment of stress-related disorders. Our study involved a national survey that aimed (1) to elucidate the frequencies and characteristics of adverse events associated with yoga class, (2) to examine the risk factors of adverse events, and (3) to examine the condition of adverse events that yoga therapists observed in their students. In this study, adverse events are defined as “undesirable symptoms or responses that occurred during a yoga class”. Some of these results were reported previously in abstract form [
33].
Discussion
This study examined the characteristics and frequencies of adverse events occurring during yoga classes in 2508 class attendees. It also examined the characteristics and frequencies of adverse events observed to date by 271 yoga therapists. Our survey showed that the class attendees with chronic disease accounted for 54% of the class attendees and the attendees who were hospital outpatients accounted for 42% of the attendees. These results show that, in Japan, people who take yoga classes are not necessarily healthy individuals and that many patients receiving treatment for their disease take classes to improve health. These chronic diseases were wide ranging and included orthopedic conditions, such as lower back pain and shoulder muscle stiffness, cardiovascular diseases, endocrine diseases, neurological diseases, and psychological disorders. Clinical effects and indications of yoga have not necessarily been established for these diseases. Therefore, unexpected adverse events can occur, and caution is required when yoga therapy is performed for patients with these diseases.
The results of this study demonstrated that 27% of the yoga class attendees experienced some type of adverse event during class. The most common adverse events were of the musculoskeletal system such as muscular pain, joint pain, and muscle cramp, and 11% of the attendees complained of these symptoms. In previous studies, the most commonly reported adverse events were also musculoskeletal symptoms [
3,
4,
6-
9]. In our study, 1% or more of the clients reported adverse events that are infrequently discussed in previous studies. These adverse events included neurological symptoms, such as dizziness and numbness, and respiratory symptoms, such as coughing. In our study, the adverse events reported by the class attendees were mostly mild and did not interfere with subsequent class participation.
The following factors were found to increase the risk of adverse events: age (less than 40 years), condition on the day of class (poor physical condition, overexertion, a sense of physical strain, and a sense of mental strain), and chronic diseases (presence of respiratory and musculoskeletal disorders). Mental strain was the factor with the highest odds ratio, and the class attendees with mental strain had an odds ratio of approximately 4 times higher risk for adverse event. Thus, a sense of mental strain from yoga class may be a good indicator of a risk of adverse events. The risk factors that interfered with subsequent class participation were age of 70 years or older, physical condition on that day, and presence of chronic musculoskeletal disorder. Although the occurrence of adverse events was high among individuals less than 40 years, adverse events were more severe in elderly individuals 70 years or older. Previous studies stated that the elderly were more likely to be affected by sudden postural and blood pressure changes, that caution is required for specific poses in osteoporotic individuals, and that considerations for safety are needed, such as automated external defibrillators in yoga studios [
34,
35]. Elderly individuals are likely unable to handle as much physical load as young individuals and are slower to recover from adverse events. Therefore, yoga should be performed carefully based on the individual’s disease and physical condition on that day. Special attention is necessary when elderly people practice yoga.
As to the relationship between diseases and adverse events, individuals with musculoskeletal diseases had significantly higher occurrences of adverse events, such as muscular pain and joint pain. Individuals with respiratory diseases had significantly higher occurrences of the adverse events of coughing, nasal congestion, and runny nose. These results suggest that patients with specific diseases may develop or exacerbate their disease-related symptoms by practicing yoga. Although the reason is uncertain, individuals with a history of cancer had significantly higher occurrences of the adverse event of coughing. Kaley-Isley et al. showed that the risk of adverse event was high in individuals with diseases such as intervertebral disk disease, extremely high or low blood pressure, glaucoma, retinal detachment, and atherosclerosis [
36]. DiStasio stated that patients with symptomatic anemia, orthostatic hypotension, and lightheadedness should avoid prolonged standing poses, that cancer patients with fever and systemic infection should avoid vigorous yoga poses [
37], and that patients with signs of osteoarthritis are not recommended to do yoga [
5]. Since individuals with various chronic diseases practice yoga, it is important for these individuals to let the yoga therapists know in advance about their diseases [
36,
38]. Certain yoga poses or the practice of yoga itself might be prohibited or not recommended for individuals with certain conditions or diseases.
The survey for yoga therapists showed that 84.5% of the yoga therapists had observed mild adverse events in their students. The adverse events that required emergency transport included subarachnoid hemorrhage, subluxation of the hip joint, backward fall, attack of abdominal pain, and inability to move due to illness and increased anxiety. The details are unknown regarding the causal relationship between these events and yoga, but yoga therapists need to be able to respond to such events. Previous studies have reported on individuals with adverse events who required examination at medical institutions. These events included bone fracture, Achilles tendon rupture, and dyspnea [
11-
14,
23-
25]. The frequencies of these events are low, but it is necessary to devise measures in case they occur. Although severe ocular disorders were reported in other previous studies [
17-
22], such disorders were not reported in our survey. In our study, when the yoga therapists were asked about the causes of adverse events, they provided many factors associated with yoga class attendees: condition of attendees in class (such as overexertion, overdoing, and neglect of physical condition), presence of disease, and age. These therapists’ impressions were consistent with the findings based on the analysis of this study. Some instructors responded that they could not provide sufficient instructions to their students, partly because they did not know their students’ diseases and health conditions. Other instructors mentioned that the students did not know how much effort to put into yoga classes.
Healthcare providers and yoga therapists need to share medical information, especially the potential risks of the attendees, and to be aware of the possible adverse events that could occur, depending on the patient’s disease, the yoga pose, and other contents of the yoga class. It is also desirable for healthcare providers and yoga therapists to educate the yoga class attendees, including providing adverse event-related information in advance. When individuals with chronic diseases or risk factors for adverse events want to practice yoga, they should practice carefully, under the guidance of qualified yoga therapists. Furthermore, when severe adverse events do happen in the class, the information should be shared among all yoga therapists, and a follow-up system should be established to avoid such events in the future.
This study had several limitations. First, a very high percentage of the subjects were women who were 40 years or older. The mean age of the yoga class attendees (58.5 years) in this study might be higher than that in previous studies, i.e., 41.4 years in a study in Australia [
32] and 46.7 years in a study in England [
39]. However, this number may reflect typical yoga students in Japan, because the survey samples were obtained not from special settings, but from typical sports gyms and community centers throughout Japan. Second, the yoga class attendees filled out the questionnaire immediately after class. Thus, the data did not include adverse events occurring a few days after class. Third, our study did not examine physiological parameters, such as blood pressure, or laboratory test results, such as blood glucose levels. Therefore, adverse events associated with abnormalities of these parameters were not examined in this study. Future studies should be conducted to survey more young individuals and men, to examine longer term effects involving follow-up surveys of a few days to months after yoga class, and to examine laboratory test results and physiological parameters.
Competing interests
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Authors’ contributions
TO designed the survey. TM conducted the survey and collected the data. TO and TM analyzed the data and drafted the manuscript. Both authors read and approved the final manuscript.