A study published in the October 1997 issue of Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise by T. Videman and associates from the Department of Health Sciences, University of Jyvaskyla, Finland examined the effect of lifetime exercise on MRI findings in monozygotic twins.
The study examined:
- The effects of endurance exercise in 22 discordant twin pairs (mean lifetime frequencies of 3.9 vs 1.1 times/wk)
- The effects of power sports in 12 discordant pairs (2,300 vs 200 hours of weightlifting).
The study found:
- No differences in MRI findings between co-twins discordant for endurance exercise at any of the spinal regions.
- Subjects with more power sport involvement had greater disk degeneration in the T6-T12 region (P <0.03), but similar findings were not present in the lumbar spine.
The study concluded:
- No signs of beneficial or harmful effects of lifetime endurance exercise on disk degeneration were seen. Increased power sport participation was associated with slightly greater disk degeneration in the lower thoracic spine, but not in the lumbar spine.
(Editor's Note: A common question for physicians at workers' compensation depositions
is whether heavy lifting caused the employee's lumbar degenerative disk disease. This
small but clever study would provide information that would argue against such causation.
wln)