Yoga, stretching can help ease lower back pain

People who suffer chronic lower back pain saw about the same improvement after taking yoga classes taught by highly trained teachers as they did from stretching classes, according to a US study.

The findings were described by authors as the largest US randomised trial on yoga to date. “We found yoga classes more effective than a self-care book – but no more effective than stretching classes,” said lead study author Karen Sherman, a senior investigator at Group Health Research Institute in Seattle.

“We expected back pain to ease more with yoga than with stretching, so our findings surprised us,” she said.