Yoga for Back Pain II
Yoga for Back Pain II
Back pain is having its 15 minutes of fame.
Last week the American College of Physicians released new guidelines in the treatment of back pain. This is a substantial revision from their last update in 2007.
Gone are pills and in their place are yoga, acupuncture, MBSR, massage, light exercises, and CBT to name a few.
It was covered in Forbes, NYT and NPR as well as a host of other mainstream media sources if you want to read more, and comes on the heels of the CDC’s report that more than 33,000 people died of opioid overdoses in 2015.
While there are types of back pain (nerve pain especially) that may respond better to prescription medication, the majority of low back pain is muscular in origin and short-term — pills are usually an incomplete, temporary fix. Muscle relaxants, which were commonly prescribed for back pain, act on the entire musculoskeletal system and can leave a person groggy and lethargic. And any narcotic pain relievers obviously carry a strong addictive component.
I’ve yet to have a client who found medication a solution for chronic back pain, so I’m very happy to see modalities that were long considered ‘alternative’ now being recommended by the medical establishment.
Back pain is no joke – it afflicts 80% of Americans at one point in their lives and is the leading cause of reported absence from work.
If you’re suffering from back pain or know someone who is, please share this article! And if your back pain has been helped by yoga, feel free to comment below.
As always, consider hiring a certified private yoga instructor as part of your treatment team!
Catherine