Yoga for Lower Back Pain Relief

By Matengo Chwanya

There’s growing evidence that yoga is a more efficient and less costly method of getting relief for lower back pain.

Yoga, a series of various poses and breathing techniques that was developed centuries ago in India, was primarily a meditation technique through which its practitioners hoped to achieve some spiritual goal. This has nowadays changed, such that the greater goal is attaining some sort of physical goal. The shift from spiritual to physical is necessitated by the need to be able to include people of other faiths who would otherwise not participate in the practice if it retained its religious aspects.

Studies from as far back as 2005 had indicated that yoga could offer a more cost effective way of managing back pain, and subsequent studies seemed to confirm its ability to at least alleviate several health issues, lower back pain included.

Studies published by American and British institutes in 2009 provided evidence that specific yoga routines were somehow more effective at reducing back pain compared to conventional methods. The Boston Medical Center & Boston University School of Medicine collaborated in a study that targeted people suffering from chronic lower back pain and had little access to medical services. These patients were split into two groups; with one attending 12 weekly 75 minutes yoga classes while the other were attended to by doctors.

The end result showed that pain scores had been reduced by 33% amongst the yogis (people practicing yoga) but only by 5% amongst the patients tended to by doctors.

A trial conducted in 2011 by the Group Health Research Institute, and funded by the National Institute of Health, to compare the efficacy of yoga against stretching also found similar results. The stretching exercises had been specifically designed for lower back problems, and they were nearly as good as the yoga poses.

The efficacy of yoga in alleviating back pain has been once again confirmed by a recently published trial that used 95 volunteers. This time the focus was on whether attending the 75 minutes of exercises twice a week was more efficient than once a week. There was no marked difference between the two groups, as both reported similar levels of reduced pain.

It should be noted that yoga also comes with the risk of exacerbating back pain, and should be undertaken only after a consultation with a physical therapist who can tailor an exercise regime more suited to your particular problem. In the Group Health Research Trial, about 15% of the volunteers reported newer pains, most of them related to the back; one even developed a herniated disk.

The benefit of yoga spreads beyond the back, so even if you are healthy, it is not a bad idea to check out a local yoga class.

Sources: health.harvard.edu/ science daily/ science daily/ medicalnewstoday/

Edited by: Nancy Nguyen

Africa Global News Publication