Holistic Care Approach News and Research Weblog
Yoga May Sooth Chronic Back Pain
By Amy Norton
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – People plagued by chronic lower backaches may find some relief in yoga class, researchers reported Monday.
Their study of 101 adults with persistent low back pain found that a gentle yoga class seemed to be a better alternative to either general exercise or a self-help book. Though people in the exercise class eventually improved to a similar degree as their yoga-practicing counterparts, yoga class brought quicker results.
It’s possible that yoga’s benefits for both the body and mind explain the effects on lower back pain, the study’s lead author, Dr. Karen J. Sherman, told Reuters Health.
She stressed, though, that the study participants took a slower-moving form of yoga that was designed for people with lower back problems. Vigorous styles of yoga that include more-advanced poses could potentially make chronic back pain worse.
Sherman, a researcher at the Group Health Cooperative in Seattle, and her colleagues report the findings in the Annals of Internal Medicine this week.
It’s estimated that 14 million Americans practice yoga, often as a way to treat chronic aches and pains. But, in the Western medical literature at least, there have been no published studies on the effects of yoga on chronic back pain, Sherman said.
To look at the question, she and her colleagues randomly assigned 101 adults to take either 12 weeks of yoga class or 12 weeks of a standard therapeutic exercise class, or to follow the advice of a self-care book.
The yoga class was conducted in what’s known as the viniyoga style, which goes by the philosophy that poses should be adapted to the individual’s needs. The instructor was experienced in therapeutic yoga, and the class was limited to basic poses that would not put too much strain on the back, Sherman explained.
After 12 weeks, the yoga practitioners reported better back function than their peers in either of the other two groups. After another three months, those in the exercise group had improved to a similar degree as the yogis.
The findings don’t clearly show whether yoga or standard, therapy-focused exercise is better for low back pain, Sherman said. But, she added, given the choice, “I’d pick yoga.”
She pointed to one difference between the yoga practitioners and other two groups that remained over the long haul: At the last evaluation, the yogis were using less than half the amount of pain medication their peers were.
Why this is, and why yoga showed a quicker benefit for low back pain, is an open question. But Sherman speculated that yoga’s “mind and body effects” are at work.
Viniyoga, like other forms of yoga, focuses on coordinating movement with the breath and focusing the mind. It’s possible, according to Sherman, that yoga allowed the back pain sufferers to become more aware of their habitual movements and postures that may have been contributing to their back problems in the first place.
Certain back problems, like spinal disc injuries, might not respond well to yoga, Sherman noted. But most people, she added, have “non-specific” back pain involving muscles, soft tissue and nerves, and for them, therapeutic yoga could be worth a try.
SOURCE: Annals of Internal Medicine, December 20, 2005.
Research: Massage Reduces Cancer Symptoms
Massage therapy significantly improved cancer patients’ symptoms, such as pain, anxiety, nausea, fatigue and depression, according to a recent study. “Massage Therapy for Symptom Control: Outcome Study at a Major Cancer Center” was conducted by staff of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) in New York City. Three types of massage are available to patients at MCKCC: Swedish, light-touch and foot massage. Each massage lasts 20 minutes for inpatients and one hour for outpatients. Patients may request the massage themselves, or be referred by a health professional or family member. As a “routine part of clinical management,” patients rate pain, fatigue, anxiety, nausea and depression before and 5-15 minutes after each massage. For this study, the symptom with the highest score was deemed the presenting symptom. The study’s authors analyzed before-and-after data from the initial massage session of 1,290 cancer patients at MSKCC during a three-year period. Swedish and foot massage were the most common interventions, with some patients receiving a combination of both. Anxiety was the most common presenting symptom of the cancer patients, followed by pain and fatigue. Data analysis revealed a 54-percent mean reduction of the presenting symptom following massage therapy. Specifically, anxiety was the symptom eased the most by massage therapy (60-percent reduction), and fatigue was the symptom eased the least (43 percent). Outpatients showed a 10-percent greater improvement in symptoms when compared to inpatients, perhaps due to the longer massage sessions the outpatients received. “[I]t is clear that massage therapy achieves major reductions in cancer patients’ pain, fatigue, nausea, anxiety and depression,” state the study’s authors. Additional follow-up, beyond immediate post-session scores, involved 74 outpatients and 237 inpatients. Both inpatients and outpatients were assessed two-to-five hours after receiving the massage. Outpatients were again assessed 24 hours and 48 hours after the massage. Results of this extended follow-up showed that inpatients’ symptoms scores were about a half-point higher within hours of the massage. “This suggests that inpatient severity scores returned to the baseline within a day or so,” state the study’s authors. For outpatients, there was no regression toward baseline symptom scores throughout the follow-up period. “Massage therapy appears to be an uncommonly non-invasive and inexpensive means of symptom control for patients with serious chronic illness,” state the study’s authors. “It is non-invasive, inexpensive, comforting, free of side effects and greatly appreciated by recipients. “This non-randomized study suggests that it is also markedly effective,” the authors conclude. -Source: Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center’s Integrative Medicine Service and Biostatistics Service, New York City. Authors: Barrie R. Cassileth, Ph.D.; and Andrew K. Vickers, Ph.D. Originally published in Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, September 2004, Vol. 28, No. 3, pp. 244-249.
