Yoga For Lower Back Problems
Yoga for lower back problems is being promoted in various medical circles to prove its efficacy according to this article. While bio-mechanical tests are being conducted to establish how Yoga poses affects the muscles and joints, brain-imaging scans are carried out to prove its effectiveness on neurotransmission. Dubious claims about the actual benefits from particular Yoga poses have not been established; therefore, scientific research has become necessary to find out the real effectiveness of Yoga. False and exaggerated claims of various health benefits by Yoga instructors have made government regulators to keep a watchful eye on them in the interest of consumer protection. The Yoga industry is facing a unique situation where the art may be peaking in interest, but it is likely to wane as soon as scientific research is carried out to verify the truth of its claims.
Yoga For Low Back Pain: Celebrity Yoga instructor Kristin McGee of BuiltLean.com walks through 7 yoga poses to help decrease tightness and relieve pain in your lower back.
Yoga For Lower Back Problems
They seem to be everywhere these days: Academics in their Birkenstocks and white lab coats on a mission to “prove” that yoga “works.” At the National Center on Complementary and Alternative Medicine, they’re conducting “bio-mechanical” tests to document how major yoga poses, known as asanas, affect different joints and muscle groups. At Harvard, “brain-imaging” scans to reveal how yoga affects your “neurotransmitters” are the rage. There’s even a new yoga medical journal. The list goes on and on. It’s not enough anymore to ask people why they do yoga, or how they actually feel about it anymore. Now, it seems, you’ve got to have “data.” Hard data.
Why all this emphasis on “scientific” legitimation? In part, it’s yoga’s own fault. For decades, if not centuries, yogis, even the great Hindu sages of old, have made far-flung – and often dubious – claims about the health benefits of their practice that have never actually been validated. And now, with yoga no longer confined to dingy ashrams – and public interest at an all-time high – government regulators and consumer protection advocates are sniffing around in earnest.
The list of false or exaggerated health claims is rather long, in fact. “Weight loss” is one that’s received a lot of attention of late. Yoga superstars like Tara Stiles, who counts Deepak Chopra and Madonna among her students, claims she can get her students “bikini-ready” by summer – but the evidence is scant. There are other, far more outrageous, and potentially dangerous, fibs: for example, that yoga’s deep breathing techniques can help stave off asthma attacks by pumping more air into your lungs. In fact, yoga may not kill you – though physical injury is a real danger, many studies show – but throwing away your trusty asthma inhaler very well might.
If the disjuncture between “science” and yoga isn’t exactly new – the push to do something about it is. And that’s probably because the $6 billion yoga industry, after a decade of rapid and unregulated commercialization, is poised for either take-off or decline. Even before the current steep recession, there was a significant fall-off recorded in the number of adult yoga consumers. The industry, it appears, has exhausted its supply of aging female baby-boomers with enough disposable income to finance the pricey all-day yoga workshops and exotic retreats to Third World get-a-ways, to say nothing of $25 classes and the attendant yoga accessories deemed necessary for a trendy and fashionable yoga practice.
That hasn’t kept yoga marketers from looking elsewhere, of course: to prisoners, war veterans, dope-smokers, teenage gang-bangers, hip-hop enthusiasts, and nudists– all of whom have niche yoga practices specifically “branded” for them now. But add them all up and their numbers still pale by comparison to the high-end yoga stretch pant shoppers. The fact is, there are only so many small and eccentric consumer niches that yoga’s marketing gurus can try to tap to compensate for the decline – or stagnation – of their core upscale market.
Yoga is presently fighting to keep its place in the market against possible odds of scientific reasoning proving either the efficacy or ineffectiveness of Yoga in relation to its likely health benefit claims related to certain major poses. Although Yoga for lower back pain has been advocated for years, scientific research work aims to prove its authenticity. Yoga has recently found less favor in the market where baby boomers have found exotic retreats and other expensive ways to entertain themselves. Yoga marketers are trying to explore the markets where they expect to reach new parts of society, but pathetically, the numbers are very small. Moreover, small number of Yoga niches make it hard for gurus to bank on them for compensating the loss. However, if the claims can be substantiated, there will be an increase in lumbar injury sufferers attending Yoga classes, assuming the instructors allow for patients in their classes.
Lead investigator, Professor David Torgerson, explains that yoga may be more effective than usual care for improving back pain and function among chronic low back pain sufferers.
Yoga routine for lower back pain Esther Ekhart – Yoga Teacher of EkhartYoga.com shows you some yoga exercises and a yoga routine to help you combat and prevent pain.
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