Working out the back pain
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From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I'm Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.
Chronic lower back pain is hard to live with and can be hard to control. But a study indicates two activities that could help some people - yoga and stretching.
At Group Health Research Institute in Seattle, Karen Sherman looked at data on people with moderate low back pain. About 90 took 12 weekly yoga classes; about 90 others got about the same amount of stretching.
Sherman says both got about the same, moderate, amount of improvement. So she says:
``If patients are willing to practice either yoga or a lot of stretching, then I think a good case can be made to try either yoga or a class with a lot of stretching in it.'' (10 seconds)
The study in Archives of Internal Medicine was supported by the National Institutes of Health.
Learn more at hhs.gov.
HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I'm Ira Dreyfuss.