Try yoga to ease back pain suggests new research

A new study has uncovered yet another benefit of practicing yoga, finding that the ancient practice could help ease lower back pain at least on a short-term basis.

Carried out by researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UM SOM) along with scientists from the University of Portsmouth in the UK and the University Hospital of Cologne in Germany, the team reviewed 12 separate studies which all looked at the effect of yoga on low back pain.

Together the studies included more than 1080 participants and looked at the effect of yoga -- mainly Iyengar, Hatha, or Viniyoga -- as well as the effect of a minimal intervention, such as education or physical therapy, or no intervention at all.

With around 80 percent of Americans suffering from back pain at least once during their lifetime, and a recent study finding that more than a third say the pain affects their ability to carry out daily tasks, exercise, and even sleep, finding an effective way to manage pain would benefit many adult Americans.

The team found that there was low to moderate quality evidence that at three and six months patients who practiced yoga benefited from small to moderate improvements in back-related function, as well as small improvements in pain.

However, because participants knew whether or not they were practicing yoga, their reports of any changes in pain and functioning could have been affected by this knowledge, with self-reporting also subject to errors. Therefore, the researcher's certainty was graded with "moderate" at best in an effort to reduce bias.

When compared to non-yoga exercise, yoga performed around the same in terms of improving back function at three and six months, although there were very few studies to provide evidence on the effect of yoga compared to other exercise.

Perhaps unsurprisingly the team also found that performing yoga is associated with more adverse events than non-exercise methods, however it is not associated with serious adverse events.

The team concluded that although additional research is needed to build on the results of the study and provide more information on the long-term outcomes of yoga, the practice is still worth considering as a form of treatment for those with chronic non-specific low back pain.

The study can be found published in the online journal Cochrane Library.