Back pain is the main cause of disability in the world. In the United States, four out of five people experience back pain at some point in their life. In the UK, back pain is one of the most common reasons for doctor visitsand missed work. In fact, missing work due to back problems is costing UK employers dearly over £3 billion every year.
But there is a potentially simple way to prevent this problem: yoga. Our new search found that exercises from the ancient Indian practice can have very positive benefits for back problems. Our results suggest that yoga programs consisting of stretching, breathing, and relaxation methods can reduce sickness absence due to back pain and musculoskeletal disorders.
Well being at work
There has already been a great deal of research demonstrating the benefits of yoga for NHS patients, showing that patients with chronic back pain who regularly practice yoga take fewer sick days than those who do not practice yoga. But very little research has been done on the benefits of implementing workplace programs like we did.
We worked with 150 NHS staff from three hospitals in North Wales. Staff were randomly assigned to either a yoga group or an education group. The yoga group received a total of eight 60-minute yoga sessions, once a week for eight weeks. In addition to this, yoga participants received a DVD and a poster for home practice. They were asked to practice yoga at home for ten minutes a day for six months. The education group received two educational booklets on how to manage back pain and reduce stress at work.
The yoga program was based on Dru-Yoga – which emphasizes soft, flowing movements – and consisted of four parts. To start each session, there was a series of gentle warm-up movements, followed by eight stretches to release tension from the shoulders and hips. Next, participants performed four back care postures to develop spinal flexibility and improve posture. This was complemented by relaxation techniques to create an overall feeling of positive health and well-being.
After eight weeks, results showed that most yoga participants had greater reductions in back pain compared to the education group. After six months, employee personnel records showed that yoga participants had 20 times less time off work due to musculoskeletal disorders (including back pain) than the education group. We also found that yoga participants saw medical professionals for back pain half as often as education participants over the six-month study.
Those who improved the most were participants who also practiced yoga at home for an average of 60 minutes or more each week. Ten or more minutes a day of home practice was associated with doubling the reduction in back pain, and many participants noted that it also helped them better manage stress.
Productivity gains
In the US, around a quarter of all major employers offer some form of meditation or yoga, but this has not yet been adopted as widely in the UK or elsewhere in Europe. insurance company Etna, for example, offers free yoga classes to its 55,000 employees with reported annual savings of $2,000 (£1,520) per head in healthcare costs and a productivity boost of $3,000 (£2,280) per head. nobody. Preventing back pain makes economic sense in every way. Yoga not only looks good for employees and employers, but also for the economy.
With more and more research confirming health benefits of yogathe National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) in the UK recommend now stretching, strengthening and yoga exercises as the first step in managing low back pain. Public Health England also advises workplace yoga classes.
Since our initial work with the NHS proved to be so successful, the Dru Yoga healthy back program used in the study was given to staff at Merseyside Police, Great Ormond Street Hospital, the Institute of Chartered Accountants, Siemens, Barclays, Santander and many other private and public organisations. We now hope that many more will take up yoga to improve the health and well-being of their employees.
