New research shows that people with chronic low back pain have better results from yoga and physical therapy compared to reading evidence-based self-help materials. While this finding was consistent across many patient characteristics, a much larger effect was observed among those already taking pain medication to treat their condition and those who did not fear that exercise would make their back pain worse. Led by researchers at Boston Medical Center and published in Pain Medicine, the findings also showed that individuals who expected to do well with yoga were more likely to have a meaningful improvement in their function if they received yoga compared to receiving physical therapy.

The results from this clinical trial show that overall, 39 percent of participants responded to one of the three treatment options with a greater response to yoga or physical therapy (42 percent) than the self-care group (23 percent). There was not a significant difference in proportion of people responding to yoga versus physical therapy—both showed similar improvements in back-related physical function. Among the study participants that were also using pain medication to treat chronic lower back pain, a large effect was observed among more participants in yoga (42 percent) or physical therapy (34 percent) compared with self-care (11 percent).

Not into yoga? Expert hands-on care from highly trained chiropractors who specialize in remedying back pain without medication may be the answer.

Presented as a service to the community by: Union County Chiropractic Clinic, 110 Skyline Drive, Maynardville, TN (865) 992-7000 www.unioncountychiropractic.com.