A new study found that 12-week virtual yoga classes along with regular treatment may provide significant benefits in chronic low back pain.
Low back pain is common. It affects about 20% of adults. It lasts a long time, and how bad it gets varies. For some, it is bearable. For others, it is severe. Many people living with low back pain even need opioids to control their pain.
Low back pain also tends to come back. Even if it eases, it may return soon. So many people live in constant fear.
When low back pain is severe, it may cause serious disability. It can make it hard to walk, sleep, and do daily tasks.
Doctors often find this pain hard to manage, because in many patients, regular painkillers or even opioids fail to give enough relief.
Also, like any other chronic pain, it is not always due to major physical changes in the lower back. Studies have already shown that disc changes in the spine are common in older adults. Many of them do not get low back pain.
All this means science does not fully understand lower back pain. That is because, like any other chronic pain, it has many causes. So there is always room for drug-free therapies to help manage it.
This latest study was published in a respected journal, JAMA Network Open. Researchers enrolled 140 patients with low back pain. More than 80% of them were women. The study was done at the Cleveland Clinic, Florida.
The study ran 24 weeks. Patients were split into two groups, called yoga-now and yoga-later. In the yoga-now group, 70 patients got virtual yoga classes plus regular treatment. The other 70 patients stayed on regular treatment. After 12 weeks, the yoga-later group joined the yoga classes too. Trained Cleveland Clinic instructors taught the 12-week virtual classes.
Researchers were amazed by the benefits. At 12 weeks, the yoga-now group reported six times greater pain reduction than the yoga-later group. Yoga also cut pain intensity by 2.7 times. It also improved quality of life and mobility.
Also, 34% of the patients in the yoga-now group were able to cut back on their medicine. They reported a massive 10 times improvement in sleep quality. These gains held in the yoga-now group to the end of the study, at 24 weeks.
So researchers concluded that virtual yoga classes might be one way to manage chronic low back pain. And these were online classes, which are very easy to access.
Many people with chronic lower back pain cannot get to a yoga class for one reason or another. Virtual classes make it much easier to add yoga to treatment.
Researchers now plan more studies with a more diverse group of people. Still, yoga is safe, so it can be recommended to most chronic low back pain patients. This study also shows how much physical therapy matters in managing chronic pain.
Frequently asked questions
Is it good to do yoga if you have lower back pain?
Yes, for most people with chronic lower back pain. In a Cleveland Clinic trial of 140 adults published in JAMA Network Open, 12 weeks of therapeutic yoga added to regular treatment cut pain. It lowered pain intensity and improved quality of life and mobility. Because yoga is safe, it can be recommended to most people living with chronic low back pain.
Can online yoga classes help chronic back pain?
Yes. Every class in the trial was virtual, taught by trained Cleveland Clinic instructors. After 12 weeks, the yoga group reported six times greater pain reduction than the group still waiting to start. The gains held at 24 weeks. Many people with back pain can’t get to a studio. Virtual classes remove that barrier, so yoga is easy to add to treatment.
Can yoga help you cut back on pain medication?
In this trial it did. After 12 weeks of virtual yoga alongside regular treatment, 34% of patients in the yoga group reduced their medication use. That matters because many people with low back pain end up on opioids. And regular painkillers or even opioids often fail to give enough relief.
How long does it take for yoga to help back pain?
The benefits in this study were measured after a 12-week course of virtual classes. At that point the yoga group reported far greater pain relief than the group that had not started yet. They also had better mobility and a tenfold improvement in sleep quality. Those gains were still there at 24 weeks, the end of the study.
Source:
Tankha, H., Gaskins, D., Shallcross, A., Rothberg, M., Hu, B., Guo, N., Roseen, E. J., Dombrowski, S., Bar, J., Warren, R., Wilgus, H., Tate, P., Goldfarb, J., Drago, V. G., & Saper, R. (2024). Effectiveness of Virtual Yoga for Chronic Low Back Pain: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Network Open, 7(11), e2442339. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.42339
Dr. Gurpreet Singh Padda, MD, MBA, MHP
