Yoga Therapy for Back Pain – Psychological Stress

Yoga therapy for Back Pain, postulates that psychological stress is a major factor.



And Yoga therapy has a major role to play in alleviation of chronic low back pain. A lot of research has been done on this subject in Yoga institutes, ashramas, studios and centers across the world.



In fact, in a study conducted amongst patients of chronic low back pain of over 3 months, something surprising was observed. That is the contribution to the degree of disability in low back pain by the psychological distress with abnormal illness behavior was about 53%.



On the other hand, the contribution by the actual physical problem was only 47%.

A number of research studies published the on the role of stress in subjects with chronic low back pain. In this, they concluded that the displayable bone or soft tissue structural problems actually justify just 38% of the pain. The rest of it is all owing to psychological stress, as assessed by the researchers.

How Yoga therapy understands the relation between lifestyle and back pain

Yoga therapy classifies the causes of back pain as functional or organic. The organic causes include the following: trauma, tumor, infection that play small a part in a percentage of the cases of chronic back pain. The functional causes start at the level of the mind. Most of the chronic low back pain is the result of functional causes. These are more related to modern life style.

Here is an excellent exercise for Back Pain due to psychological stress.

• Inhale and slowly raise your head, shoulders and body up to the dorsal part of your back.
• Raise your arms up to shoulder level. But see that they are parallel to the ground.
• Retain the pose for some time.
• Exhale and come down to the floor. Relax.
• The same movements must be repeated 5 times.