Introduction
Backache is one of the most common problems faced by many today,
yet there is no simple effective cure offered by the modern
medical science (Karmananda 2003). It is reported that at least
50%-60% of the population will suffer from the incident of acute
or more long-term back pain at some stage during their life.
Karmananda (2003) also mentioned that:
“…yoga offers a simple, effective and permanent
cure for this troublesome (backache) condition. …”
This study aims to look at the effectiveness of yoga therapy
on backache since it is widely claimed by yoga practitioners
that yoga is effective for treatment of backache, which western
medicinal practitioners are still in search for more effective
methods for such solutions, especially for permanent cure.
The research methodologies adopted in this study include a case
study of the Therapeutic Hospital and a small survey of teacher
trainees at the Yoga Vidya Gurukul at Nashik, India. The information
collected in these two sites form the main findings of this
research.
The organization of the article is as follows: Section 1 briefly
introduces the topic of the research. Section 2 outlines the
structure of the vertebra and the spinal column. This is followed
by the case study report of the Therapeutic Hospital at Nashik,
India and Section 4 provides the results of a census of the
October 2005 teacher trainees at the Yoga Vidya Gurukul, Nashik,
India. Section 5 concludes.
The
Vertebra and Backache
The main support to human beings that keep them erect in standing
position is the backbone, formed by 33 vertebrae. These vertebrae
are further divided into five sections, namely the cervical
region which contains 7 vertebrae (C1 to C7), the thoracic region
which contains 12 vertebrae (T1 to T12), the lumber region consists
of 5 vertebrae (L1 to L5), the sacrum region consists of 5 vertebrae
(S1 to S5), and the coccyx region consists of 4 vertebrae.
Backache comes in when the muscles are under fatigue, for example:
when we attempt to turn in certain direction yet the muscle
refuses to do so. Backache commonly happens at the neck or the
lumber region as these are the regions that most twisting, turning
or bending occurs. One of the main reasons of the backache is
that our backs are commonly used in one-direction only (that
is the forward bending), therefore, when we attempt to bend
in other directions, especially the reverse direction of forward
bending, we may just hurt our backs. Therefore, the most common
place backache happens is either at the neck or the lumber region.
Case
Study Report: The Experience of the Therapeutic Hospital at
Nashik India
In order to further understand the effectiveness of
yoga therapy on the cure of backaches, the researcher interviewed
the key person in charge of the Therapeutic Hospital at Nashik
(hereinafter called the Therapeutic Hospital or the Hospital),
India, Dr. Pravin Despande, on the clinical records of their
patients.
In general, the Therapeutic Hospital treats about 60 patients
in a month, 15 patients each in the morning and evening for
30-day sessions, and another 30 in patients. Approximately 70%-80%
of the Hospital’s patients are there because of backache,
5%-6% are due to diabetes, 5% because of asthma, another 5%
because of heart disease or hypertension, the balance are due
to problems caused by digestive system, arthritis or knee problems.
Despite the fact that most of the patients go to the Hospital
due to backache problems, the Hospital does not categorize the
patients due to different natures of backache, although the
backache could be due to different factors and occasionally
some variations in treatments are being given.
In general, almost all backache patients to the Hospital are
over 40 years of age, with majority of them aged around 50-60
years old. Approximately three-quarters (70%-75%) of the backache
patients are females, and most of these patients are working
in the office, traveling job or travelers on 2-wheelers. Approximately
60% of the patients with backache are due to obesity.
The Yoga treatment given by the Hospital is a monthly course
of an hour daily yoga session. As most of the patients are above
40 years in age, the yoga session conducted in the Hospital
is Yoga Sanjivan. The other components in the 30-day package
include: master cleansing, pranayama, chanting, natural homeopathy
and/or oil enigma.
The deep breathing practice in the package is brahmari (with
inhale through both nostrils and exhale with noise). The patients
practiced the brahmari 21 times (approximately 5 minutes) daily
for the 30-day course.
The natural homeopathy consists of massage and steam bath. Massage
is given twice a day, once each in the morning and evening,
consecutively for 3 days. However, only in patients are massaged
twice a day, out patients are only massaged once a day. In the
massage, sanjivan oil is used as a painkiller, and also to reduce
the friction on the skin of the patients while the massage is
being conducted.
On the other hand, for patients suffer from backache at the
lumber, an additional treatment is given, that is the oil enigma.
Oil enigma is an injection of 50 cm3 of sesame oil between 5:30
pm to 6:30 pm everyday. Clinical results in the Hospital showed
that the oil enigma treatment has been very effective for backache
at the lumber region.
Dr. Pravin also said that the clinical report shows that all
the backache patients are recovered within 15 days. Between
80%-90% of backache patients are cured within 5-10 days.
However, the Hospital rejects patients who have no feeling on
their limbs. The Hospital only accepts these patients after
their operations. A 20-day programme will be given to these
patients: approximately 10 days of natural homeopathy programme
followed by another 10 days of yogic programme.
Dr. Pravin also said that although sanjivan yoga has been very
effective in curing the backache of the patients in the Hospital,
the patients need to continue with the yoga practice after they
have completed the therapy programme at the Hospital. The clinical
record indicates that those who did not continue practice yoga
at home after completing the programme at the Hospital would
return to the hospital after 3-4 months for the similar programme
to cure the recurring backache.
The clinical results of the Hospital seem to indicate that yoga
is a very effective alternative to cure backaches. However,
backache patients need to make yoga a routine in their lives
to ensure they are free from backaches permanently. The yogasanas
to be practiced by backache are in no means difficult since
the Hospital’s patients can perform that although most
of them are above 50 years old.
Major
Findings of the Census of Yoga Teacher Trainees at Nashik, India
A census was conducted to the October teacher trainees in the
Yoga Vidya Gurukul at Nashik, India on 21st and 22nd October
2005. All the 27 teacher trainees, 8 males (30%) and 19 females
(70%), were interviewed in person at the Gurukul.
The information requested from the trainees include: (i) personal
background information: gender, age, years of full time education
since elementary 1, occupation; (ii) health status: weight,
height, pulse rate, blood pressure; (iii) backache information:
experienced backache during the training period, experienced
backache before coming to the training; causes of backaches,
cure for backaches; and (iv) number of hours doing yoga in a
week.
The data collected is analysed using Statistical Package for
Social Sciences (SPSS) and most of the information are tabulated
by job type which is categorized based on the occupation reported
by the respondents.
The occupation of the respondents is categorized into passive
and active, based on the nature of the occupation described
to the researcher. “Passive” refers to occupations
that are mostly office-based, involved long hours of sitting
and limited amount of movement while “Active” refers
to occupations that involve lots of movements, limited continuous
period of sitting, and/or with longer hours of outdoor activities
than sitting in the office.
4.1 Personal Background Information
Slightly less than half (46%) of the respondents reported that
their job is better described as passive rather than active.
Table 1 presents the information on the personal background
of the survey respondents by gender. The findings indicate that
in general, respondents who hold a passive job is older in age
(average age is 34.6 years old) compared to those who have an
active job (average age is 29.7 years old). However, these two
groups of respondents are very similar in terms of time spent
in full time education since elementary school.
Table 1: Personal Background Information of October 2005 Teacher
Trainees
Health Status
It is indeed interesting to find out that regardless of the
nature of job, whether it is active or passive, the difference
in terms of physical health indicators collected from the survey
such as height, weight, pulse rate, systolic, diastolic or the
body mass index (BMI) remain to be quite small. Although the
BMI for trainees with passive occupation appears to be slightly
higher than that of the active group, but the mean BMI for both
categories of respondents are well within the normal range.
(Please refer to Table 2 for more details.)
Table 2: The Mean of Physical Health Indicators by Job Type
Information
on Backaches and Amount of Time Spent on Yoga
Table 3 shows the proportion of the trainees in the Gurukul
who complained about backache in October since they started
the course at India. The findings showed that only 5% of the
females complained about frequent backache while 25% of the
male trainees indicated so. However, the proportion of male
and female trainees that mentioned they never experienced any
backaches in October are rather similar, approximately half
from each group.
It is interesting to see that 71% of the trainees with jobs
categorized as “Active” indicated in the census
that they did not suffer from any form of backaches in the first
three weeks of the training and only 29% indicated they sometimes
felt some aching at the back due to overstretching themselves
in yoga classes.
Conversely, only one-third of the trainees with “Passive”
job indicated no backache at all in the first three weeks, and
a quarter of them indicated always suffered from backache in
the first three weeks of their training in the Gurukul.
Further analysis showed that regardless of the nature of their
work, those trainees who reported they never suffer from any
form of backache in the first three weeks actually spent at
least five hours weekly doing Yoga (before they come for the
course).
As reflected in Table 4, two-thirds of those who mentioned that
they always suffer from backaches in the first three weeks of
the course at the Gurukul but they never suffer any backache
before coming to the course. Sixty percent (60%) of these trainees
mentioned that the reasons of the frequent backaches were due
to overstrained or over stretched of their muscles as they tried
to achieve the ideal positions in the asanas taught and one
trainee indicated that the backache was due to her weak lower
back. Others mentioned improper sitting positions, mental stress,
leaving of heavy loads (earlier injury), and lumber scoliosis
as the main causes of their backaches during the course.
Interestingly, only 20% of those who suffered from backaches
occasionally during the course indicated that they never suffer
from any backache before the course and approximately the same
proportion (21%) of the trainees who suffered from backaches
occasionally before the course reported that they never suffered
from any backaches during the course. The yoga asanas practiced
during the course appeared to have cured their backaches they
have been suffering before coming to the course. However, yogasanas
seem to be less effective on old injuries caused in their younger
days due to sport activities.
However, no trainee indicates that they are using any medication
on backaches whether it is before or during the course.
Table 3:
Proportions of Backache Before Coming to the Course
(in %) Male Female Passive Active
Table 4:
Proportions of Backaches Incidence Before and During the Course
at the Gurukul
Backache Before Coming to the Course Backache in October Total
Eight trainees
also said that they do treat their backaches, of which 75% said
that they do yoga to get rid of the backaches and a-quarter
mentioned that they go for massage to release them from the
problem.
Table 5 presents some interesting findings on the relationship
with incidence of backaches and the physical health indicators
collected in the census.
A very clear trend is seen on the relationship between the incidence
of backache and the mean number of hours spent on yoga before
coming to the course. The findings seem to indicate that for
those who spent more than 4 hours weekly in doing yoga do not
suffer from backache. Further investigation into the raw data
appears to indicate that the mean hours to spend on yoga weekly
could be even as low as 2 hours as those who spent 8 or 10 hours
weekly on yoga still suffers from backaches occasionally due
to scoliosis or earlier injuries.
The other clear trend revealed in Table 5 is the incidence of
backache with body mass index where the higher is the BMI the
more often they suffer from backaches.
However, no clear trend is observed in the relationship between
the pulse rate, and systolic of the trainees and the incidence
of backaches reported. On the other hand, the findings also
showed that the trainees with higher mean of diastolic reported
to have higher incidence of backaches.
Table 5: The Mean Time Spent on Yoga Before the Course and Other
Physical Health Indicators by the Level of Backaches During
the Course
Backache during the course Statistics No. of hours spent on
Yoga before the course Body Mass Index* Pulse Rate Systolic
Diastolic
* An outlier is excluded in the case of “sometimes”
suffering of backache during the course
Summary
The results of the census of the teacher trainees in the Gurukul
in October 2005 reveal the followings:
(i) The nature of work, whether it is active or passive, appears
to be related to the frequency of backaches
(ii) From the clear trend between the number of yoga practicing
hours weekly and the incidence of backache complaints, there
appear to be some minimum number of yoga practice hours to get
rid of the backaches caused by factors which could be work-related,
sitting posture, over-stretched of muscles, scoliosis, etc.
However, for earlier injuries due to sports, yoga practice may
help to reduce the incidence of backache but may not get rid
of it completely.
(iii) Body mass index appears to have a strong influence on
the incidence of backaches, that is, the higher is the BMI,
the more often one may suffer from backaches.
(iv) The higher is the diastolic, the higher is the incidence
of backaches reported by the trainees.
Conclusions
The research aims to look at the effectiveness of yogasanas
on backaches. Based on the clinical report of a therapeutic
hospital and the census of the October teacher trainees at Yoga
Gurukul at Nashik, India, the study concluded that yogasanas
can be effective for backaches that are caused by factors such
as obesity, improper sitting posture, strains of muscles, and
lumber scoliosis. However, for backaches caused by old sport
injuries, the effectiveness of yogasanas need further research,
both in terms of the types of asanas to be practiced as well
as the type of injuries to be considered.
Both the findings from the case study and the census indicate
that a backache-free life can be expected for those who treat
yoga as a routine in their daily lives.
Hence, future research should focus on the number of hours of
yoga practice daily or weekly for a backache-free life.
References:
Karmananda, S. (2003).Yogic Management of Common Diseases. Yaga
Publications Trust, Murger, Bihar, India.
Mandlik, V. (2005). Backache and Yoga. Lecture conducted at
the Yoga Vidya Gurukul. Nashik, India.
Pearce, E. (1997). Anatomy & Physiology for Nurses. Jaypee
Brothers Medical Publishers (P) Ltd., India.
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