HHS HealthBeat (March 3, 2006)

Stretch your back

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

It’s not a stretch to say yoga could help people with lower back pain. A study says yoga’s gentle twists and stretches can do better than conventional exercise or self-help books.

Researcher Karen Sherman of Seattle’s Group Health Cooperative divided more than 100 people with chronic back pain into groups – yoga, conventional exercise and self-help reading. Her study in Annals of Internal Medicine was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

After 12 weeks, people who did yoga functioned better. After 26 weeks, the folks in yoga reported less pain.

"The results of this study offer hope to people with lower back pain that there’s a treatment out there that can actually work for them." (6 seconds)

The form of yoga in the study was viniyoga – a style that’s easily learned and adapted for individual problems.

Learn more at www.hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I'm Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: May 7, 2011