ABC News reports that Yoga has helped chronic lower back pain and improve their mood and ability to function. In addition, it eased their pain more conventional treatment alone, according to a new study funded by the National Institute of Health.

People who were assigned to take yoga for two months experienced a 29 percent reduction in functional disability and a 42 percent reduction in pain, the authors reported in the September 1 edition of the journal Spine. Yoga was also associated with a 45.7 percent decrease in symptoms of depression over conventional therapy alone.

“Yoga improves functional disability, pain intensity, and depression in adults with chronic lower back pain,” Dr. Kimberly Williams of West Virginia University concluded. “There was also a clinically important trend for the yoga group to reduce their pain medication usage compared to the control group.”

“Complementary alternative medicine utilization has increased nearly 10 percent in recent years, with back pain as the most commonly reported reason for its use,” the authors noted. “One of the most common complementary alternative medicine activities is yoga, with participation reported at approximately 14.9 million in the United States.”

Previous research on hatha yoga — showed a decrease in pain and improvements in function and mood.

For more information go to ABCnews.go.com

ForWomenOnline.com