This Health Alert is intended for readers interested in learning about the prevention, diagnosis, and management of back pain.
If you have chronic lower back pain and are looking for relief, you may want to try yoga. According to a new study from India, published in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine (Volume 14, page 637), one week of intensive yoga practice may reduce chronic low back pain and improve spinal flexibility better than a simple physical exercise program.
In the study eighty adults with low back pain for more than three months attended a residential healthcare center for one week. Researchers randomly assigned them to eight hours a day of yoga or general physical exercises like hamstring stretches.
The yoga group practiced meditation, breathing and chanting, deep-relaxation and stress-reduction techniques, and yoga postures designed to relax muscles in the spine and strengthen back and abdominal muscles. The physical exercise group also did breathing exercises (non-yoga based), received information about causes of back pain, the benefits of exercise and stress reduction, and they performed standard stretching and strengthening exercises.
At week's end, the yoga group had a 49% reduction in disability and a significant increase in spinal flexibility. The physical exercise group also had a reduction in disability and better spinal flexibility, but improvements were not as great as those in the yoga group.
Bottom line: If you want to try yoga, check with your doctor first. If you get the okay, be sure the yoga teacher is knowledgeable about low back pain.
