Unclear on the Concept: Yoga as a Treatment

by Nina

Wet Handle Bars by Melina Meza

“A comprehensive review published in May in The Clinical Journal of Pain finds that there is “strong evidence for short-term effectiveness” of yoga against back pain, although whether the benefits last beyond a year is less certain.” — Gretchen Reynolds, NY Times Sunday Magazine

In this Sunday’s New York Times Magazine, there was a short article called “Spinal Trap,”
about alternatives for treating back pain. The subtitle was “How do you solve back pain? Don’t ask your doctor.” We’ve already heard from Baxter on this topic, when he confessed that he had little to offer his patients when he himself was a family doctor (see For the Young and Old: Back Care). And you’ll be hearing from him soon about the comprehensive review mentioned in the quote above.

For now, I’d just like to rant a bit about the second half of the sentence:

“strong evidence for short-term effectiveness” of yoga against back pain, although whether the benefits last beyond a year is less certain

At first, I was just confused. What does she mean it is less certain whether the benefits last beyond a year or not. If you’re doing yoga for your back pain and it helps your back pain, why wouldn’t it continue to help your back pain for as long as you kept practicing? But Brad pointed out to me the underlying confusion in this statement. He said, “She’s thinking about yoga like physical therapy. In other words, it’s like a “treatment” you get from the doctor, something you’d do for a couple of months to “cure” your back pain, but then when you felt better you’d stop the treatment. And then maybe the pain would come back eventually.”

Ah, so that's what she meant. But how completely unclear on the concept is that? Naturally, if something in your life is causing you back pain, whether it’s your posture at your desk or in your car, standing all day at your job, too much gardening, lifting your children, lack of exercise in general, stiffness in certain areas of your body, lack of strength in certain areas of your body, you can’t just go back to your old way of life and expect the results of a short session of yoga classes to see you through the rest of your life. That would be like thinking you could do a few months of weight training to get stronger, and then expecting that would keep you stronger for years to come.

Brad laughed and said, “Yeah, and it’s not like there’s a “cure” for aging.”

So, yes, we’re afraid that whether you are practicing yoga for back pain or another condition, or just, you know, for healthy aging in general, it’s going to require an ongoing commitment. But it’s free, has no unpleasant side effects, and oh, yeah, it actually works.