Yoga may help ease chronic back pain

Yoga might help people reduce chronic back pain, according to a new British study carried by the Annals of Internal Medicine. The study, conducted in Britain, followed 313 adults with nonspecific chronic back pain. It found that three months of weekly yoga classes can ease back pain more than the usual course of care. Even a year later, patients with such pain who had participated in yoga classes reported less pain than those who hadn't. "Even for patients who still had pain, they showed an improvement in being able to perform their normal daily activities," said study researcher David Torgerson, of the University of York. Yoga has long been studied as a treatment for back pain because of its combined focus on stretching, strengthening and relaxing. But further studies are needed to explore how yoga or stretching can ease more severe back pain, or help patients who have other health problems besides their back pain.