Yoga may help relieve chronic back pain, research suggests

[Justin]

Yoga may help relieve chronic back pain, research suggests. According to the Los Angeles Times (9/3, Roan) Booster Shots blog, "chronic back pain is difficult to treat and causes loads of misery." Yoga advocates "have long described its benefits in reducing back pain," but "not everyone was convinced." So, the NIH decided to underwrite "a three-year, $400,000 research project" to assess yoga's impact on back pain. The West Virginia University team eventually discovered that "something as simple as twice-weekly yoga appears to relieve pain and improve mood in people with the condition."

In fact, "people who were assigned to take yoga for two months experienced a 29 percent reduction in functional disability and a 42 percent reduction in pain," MedPage Today (9/3, Emery) reported. "Yoga was also associated with a 45.7 percent decrease in symptoms of depression over conventional therapy alone." The study is noteworthy, the authors say, because "lower back pain is a major public health issue...with studies suggesting that 70 to 85 percent of the population experience one or more episodes during their lifetimes. Directly-related medical costs exceed $34 billion per year, they wrote" in the journal Spine.

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I posted the study in Spine referred to above last week, click below:
Evaluation of the Effectiveness and Efficacy of Iyengar Yoga Therapy on Chronic Low Back Pain.

[Cindylou]

Wow. I can't say I am completely surprised, but I have shied away from it since my 3 lumbar disc surgery. Maybe I can revisit that again. Thanks Justin.

[Fuzzy]

Exercise is really really good. Especially when MRI looks fine and does not show "failure".

My surgeon tells me to this day "walk walk walk". He is right. I am sure Yoga has a place in helping to become mobile again.

[Justin]

CL, I'm finally at the point where I can start my rehabilitation and I plan on incorporating yoga into my program.

Fuzzy, your surgeon is right: walking is key. I notice the days that I'm less active during my current recovery correlate with an increase in perceivable pain.