Yoga for lower back pain

A NEW study indicates that taking part in yoga can be as effective as physical therapy for relieving back pain.

Carried out by researchers from Boston Medical Centre, the study recruited 320 predominantly low-income, racially-diverse adults with chronic low back pain.

Participants were randomly assigned to complete either 12 weekly yoga classes or 15 physical therapy visits, or given an educational book and newsletters about coping with chronic low back pain.

After this intervention phase, participants continued with a maintenance phase and were followed by researchers for one year.

The findings, published in Annals of Internal Medicine, showed that yoga was as safe and effective as physical therapy for improving function and relieving pain.

In addition, 12 weeks into the study, those who completed yoga or physical therapy sessions were less likely to take pain medication than those who received only the educational resources.

Although physical therapy is the most common reimbursable, nonpharmacologic therapy prescribed by health practitioners, with evidence supporting its effectiveness, the researchers behind this new study now suggest that yoga may be an effective alternative to physical therapy, depending upon patient preferences, availability, and cost.

Their conclusion comes shortly after another study published in February this year which also found that yoga could help ease lower back pain, at least on a shortterm basis.

Published in the online journal Cochrane Library, that research reviewed 12 separate studies which all looked at the effect of yoga on lower back pain.

The studies included 1,080 participants in total and compared the effects of various styles of yoga – mainly Iyengar, Hatha, or Viniyoga – as well as the effects of educational intervention, physical therapy, or no intervention at all.

The results showed low to moderate quality evidence from the studies, that at three and six months, patients who practised yoga benefited from small to moderate improvements in function and small improvements in pain.

Although the team added that more research is needed, they also envision the possibility of yoga being an effective treatment option for lower back pain. – AFPRelaxnews