Study Finds Yoga Works As Well As Physical Therapy For Back Pain (time.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from TIME: Another study is touting the benefits of yoga -- this time, for people with back problems. The new research put yoga head-to-head against physical therapy and found the two were equally good at restoring function and reducing the need for pain medication over time. In the new study, published in Annals of Internal Medicine, a group of 320 people did 12 weeks of yoga or physical therapy, or they simply received a book and newsletters about coping with back pain. People in the active treatment groups reported that their pain was less intense than it was at the start of the study and that they were able to physically move more. Some were also able to reduce, or even stop, their pain medications. Those improvements stuck around for a full year after the study was over. This research is unique because the people in the study were racially diverse, and most were from low-income families. Many had pre-existing medical conditions. That's important, say the researchers, because chronic back pain -- which affects about 10% of U.S. adults -- has a greater impact on minorities and people of lower socioeconomic status.

Comments

same difference

[networkzombie]

Isn't yoga physical therapy? Except for the therapist / yoga guru, they seem the same.

Re:same difference

[AmiMoJo]

The difference between physical therapy and yoga is not the exercises. It's that a physical therapist with some kind of medical qualification evaluates your needs and makes recommendations. For many people those recommendations will just be "do yoga", but if the pain is the result of an injury it might be useful to know what exercises are safe and won't make it worse.

Obviously up to you if you think paying for that advice is worth it. I've found that just experimenting carefully by myself had better results.