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 quite common and affects about 20% of the adults. The condition is long-lasting and has varying severity. In some, it might be tolerable, while in others, it is quite severe. Many of those living with low back pain even require opioids to manage their pain.
There are other issues with low back pain, like even if it subsides, it may return in the near future. Thus, many are constantly living in fear.
When low back pain is severe, it may cause significant disability, making it difficult to walk, sleep, and do regular activities.
Doctors often find such pain challenging to manage, as in many patients, regular painkillers or even opioids fail to provide sufficient relief.
Further, like any other chronic pain, it is not essentially due to significant pathological changes in the lower back. Studies have already shown that changes in vertebral discs are pretty common in older adults, and many of them do not develop low back pain.
All this means is that lower back pain is not fully understood by science. This is because, quite like any other chronic pain, it occurs due to multiple reasons. This means that there is always a scope for various non-pharmacological therapies in managing the condition.
This latest study was published in one of the reputed journals,JAMA Network Open. In the study, researchers enrolled 140 patients living with low back pain, and more than 80% of them were females. The study was done at the Cleveland Clinic, Florida.
This was a 24-week-long study. They divided the patients into two groups, called yoga-now and yoga-later. So, 70 of the patients (yoga-now group) were prescribed virtual yoga classes along with regular treatment, while the other 70 patients were on regular treatment. After 12 weeks, the yoga-later group was also enrolled in the yoga classes. These 12-week-long virtual yoga classes were carried out by trained instructors from the Cleveland Clinic.
Researchers were quite amazed by the benefits of virtual yoga classes. At the end of 12 weeks, yoga-now groups reported six times greater pain reduction compared to the yoga-later group. Yoga also reduced pain intensity by 2.7 times and also had a positive impact on the quality of life or mobility.
Further, 34% of the patients in yoga-now groups could reduce their medication use, and they reported a massive 10 times improvement in their sleep quality. These benefits were sustained in the yoga-now group at the end of the study, that is, at 24 weeks.
Thus, researchers concluded that virtual yoga classes might be an approach to managing chronic low back pain. Moreover, it is worth noticing that these were virtual classes, and such classes are highly accessible.
Many of those living with chronic lower back pain cannot go to yoga classes for different reasons. However, virtual classes make it much easier to include such classes in the treatment.
Researchers now plan to do more research into the topic, using a more diverse population group. However, considering the safety of yoga, it can be recommended to most chronic low back patients. Further, this study highlights the importance of physical therapy in managing chronic pain.
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
