Cleveland Clinic Study Finds Virtual Yoga Effective Way to Manage Chronic Low Back Pain, with Added Benefit of Flexibility

PainRelief.com Interview with:
Hallie Tankha, Ph.D., Research faculty
Department of Wellness and Preventive Medicine 
Cleveland Clinic, and first author of the study

PainRelief.com: What is the background for this study?

Response: Numerous studies have highlighted the benefits of yoga for individuals with chronic low back pain, including reductions in pain intensity, improvements in daily functioning (such as walking or climbing stairs), and better sleep quality. However, these studies used in-person yoga sessions. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare delivery had to adapt quickly, and yoga was no exception. As virtual healthcare options continue to expand, this led us to wonder: could virtual yoga offer the same benefits as in-person classes for chronic low back pain?

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Yoga for Knee Arthritis: Some Improvement in Function but No Pain Reduction

PainRelief.com Interview with:
Professor Kim Bennell FAHM
Barry Distinguished Professor | NHMRC Leadership Fellow
Dame Kate Campbell Fellow
Centre for Health Exercise and Sports Medicine
Department of Physiotherapy
Melbourne School of Health Sciences
The University of Melbourne, Victoria Australia

PainRelief.com: What is the background for this study?

Response: Osteoarthritis is very common, and a major contributor to disability and decreased function. Exercise is a key treatment for osteoarthritis, but many people admit to not undertaking exercise. We investigated whether a free, online 12-week unsupervised yoga program (“My Joint Yoga”) could improve pain and function in people with knee osteoarthritis. Our team worked with yoga therapists, physiotherapists and people with lived experience of osteoarthritis to design an online yoga program tailored specifically to those with knee osteoarthritis.