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| Exercise Helps Chronic Lower Back Pain |
Recent research conducted at Toronto Institute for Work and Health, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, has found that exercise therapy can make a difference for long-term back pain. The analysis was an update of a review that was published in 1999.
“Exercise therapy can help alleviate pain and improve function for some patients with nonspecific lower-back pain—pain that isn’t the result of a condition like arthritis or infection,” says Jill Hayden, DC, lead author of the study.
Hayden searched the medical literature published up to October 2004, and systematically reviewed 61 published randomized controlled studies that evaluated the benefits of exercise compared to other treatments as well as no treatment at all. The studies examined the benefits of exercise therapy for patients in the acute stage (pain lasting up to 6 weeks), the subacute stage (symptoms lasting from 6 to 12 weeks), and the chronic stage (symptoms lasting longer than 3 months).
The study found that adults with chronic lower-back pain had modest improvements in physical functions and reduced pain with exercise therapy. Hayden’s review did not find a difference between patients with acute lower-back pain who underwent therapy and those who did not. According to Hayden, the majority of people in the acute phase will get better on their own, without treatment. For subacute lower-back pain, the study found that workers benefited from a program that included a gradual increase in exercise intensity.
Hayden conducted a second systematic review of 43 research studies about back pain and exercise. These studies were focused on identifying particular characteristics of exercise interventions that contributed to decreased pain and improved function among patients with chronic lower-back pain.
“When we analyzed the research, we found that the most effective strategy seems to be supervised, individually tailored exercise programs,” says Hayden. “Stretching and strengthening exercises were the most effective in improving pain and function in adults with chronic lower-back pain.”
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