in the yoga class were taking medication for their back pain; 58 percent had been doing so before starting the yoga class. The use of pain medicine for the exercise group dropped to 50 percent from 57 percent, while those who read the book increased their use of pain medication -- from 50 percent to 59 percent, the researchers said. Sherman said yoga may be more effective in helping with back pain because many people are unaware how they move their bodies. And the breathing that is a component of yoga makes people more conscious of their bodies and of ways they move that might contribute to their back problems, she said. Sherman said this is the largest study done so far comparing different therapies for chronic, low back pain. But larger studies would be helpful in further teasing out the benefits of yoga compared to other forms of exercise or reading a self-help book.

She also emphasized that it's important to choose the right yoga instructor if you're struggling with back pain. Dr. Andrew Sherman, head of medical rehabilitation at the Spine Institute at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, said that while yoga was shown in this study to be helpful, the best rehabilitation is tailored to each patient. Someone under stress and with tight muscles might be a good candidate for yoga, but another person with back pain who has very weak muscles might do better with a strength-building exercise program, he said. Because there were only about 35 people in each group in this study, a larger study is needed before yoga can be shown to be definitively better than other therapies, he said. "You can't throw other therapies under the bus based on 35 patients," Sherman said. Kate Lorig, one of the co-authors of The Back Pain Helpbook and the director of the Stanford Patient Education Research Center, said she wasn't surprised by the study's findings. "We have long known that in most cases giving people information alone is not enough to change either health behaviors or health status," she said. "I would never expect a book alone to make much difference." She also agreed that the best way to achieve the desired results is with a good yoga instructor. "My real question is if the findings from this study can be replicated with other instructors," Lorig said.

(published with permission in writing from:http://www.womenshealth.gov/)




Infosquare the most complete source of information! Help to complete infoblog and promote your own website. Do you have interesting information? Become infoblog partner and discover the advantages!