Up to 20% of adults across the globe suffer from long-term or recurring lower-back pain. Many of them take medication to ease the ache.
However, a recent study has found that just 12 weeks of therapeutic virtual yoga can reduce back pain intensity, improve back-related functionality and reduce the use of pain medication. It can even improve quality of sleep.
For the study, researchers at the Cleveland Clinic assigned 140 participants to one of two groups.
The “yoga now” group engaged in live-streamed virtual yoga group classes for 12 weeks, followed by 12 weeks of assessment.
These participants did yoga for an average of 16 minutes at a time, typically four times per week.
The “yoga later” group completed the same assessments as the “yoga now,” but these participants were instructed to refrain from yoga during the study period and instead continue with their usual medical care. (Once the study ended, however, they were offered yoga classes that were not part of the study.)
At the end of the study period, those in the “yoga now” group had a six times greater reduction in pain intensity scores than those in the “yoga later” group. The former group also had a 2.7 times greater boost in back-related function. Both of these improvements continued for at least six months after the study ended.
In addition, 34% fewer members of the “yoga now” group used pain medication than their “yoga later” counterparts. They also had a 10 times greater improvement in sleep quality.
In a summary of the study findings, Hallie Tankha, the lead author of the study, says:
“Yoga offers a comprehensive approach to managing low back pain, a condition for which traditional treatments often fall short. Now we must work to increase access to this safe and effective treatment.”
The Cleveland Clinic findings were published in JAMA Network Open, a journal of the American Medical Association.
The study itself was a randomized controlled clinical trial, which is among the most rigorous types of scientific studies. It is considered:
- Randomized because participants were randomly assigned to a group
- Controlled because it included a control group, meaning a group of participants that refrained from the therapy — the “yoga later” group, in this case
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