How stretching eases back-ache
Tuesday October 25th, 2011
Yoga or stretching classes can help relieve the misery of back-ache, researchers reported last night.
A
study conducted in Washington State, USA, found that getting people to
do yoga or just stretching classes makes a difference to pain in the lower
back.
Researchers said they had expected yoga to prove superior to stretching.
The research compared the two "treatments" with simply giving a patient a self-care book.
Some 228 people took part in the research, reported in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
Researchers say they made the stretching exercises quite "like yoga" - with more relaxation than normal.
Researcher Dr Karen Sherman, of Group Health Research Institute, Seattle, said: "We expected back pain to ease more with yoga than with stretching, so our findings surprised us.
"The most straightforward interpretation of our findings would be that yoga's benefits on back function and symptoms were largely physical, due to the stretching and strengthening of muscles."
"People may have actually begun to relax more in the stretching classes than they would in a typical exercise class. In retrospect, we realized that these stretching classes were a bit more like yoga than a more typical exercise program would be." So the trial might have compared rather similar programs with each other."
She added: "It's important for the classes to be therapeutically oriented, geared for beginners, and taught by instructors who can modify postures for participants' individual physical limitations."
Arch Intern Med. October 24 2011. doi: 10.1001/archinternmed.2011.524
Tags: Alternative Therapy | Fitness | North America | Orthopaedics | Pain Relief
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