Each year 5.4 million Americans are disabled by chronic low back pain. Now a recent study published in the September 2009 issue of the journal Spine confirms what Yoga instructors have told us all along: Iyengar yoga improves chronic low back pain. According to a three-year, $400,000 study funded by the National Institutes of Health and conducted at West Virginia University, people with chronic low back pain who practice yoga do better at overcoming pain and depression than people treated conventionally for back pain.
The 90 study subjects, who experienced mild to moderate functional disability, were randomly assigned to the yoga group or the group that received conventional medical therapy. Yoga participants took 90-minute Iyengar Yoga classes twice a week for 24 weeks, doing postures targeted to relieve chronic low-back pain. Follow up continued for six months after the end of classes or therapy.
The results were significant and conclusive, reported researchers: The yoga group had less pain, less functional disability and less depression compared with the control group. Furthermore, these important changes were maintained six months after the intervention.
Although proponents of yoga have long described its benefits in reducing back pain, this study was the largest and most rigorous evaluation to date and confirmed anecdotal claims of the benefits of Iyengar Yoga.
