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One overlooked exercise could ease debilitating back pain suffered by 65million Americans
Anyone with lower back pain knows it can be a debilitating condition that limits nearly 65 million Americans' ability to move and participate in daily life.
But new research suggests that simply getting up and walking through the pain is a highly effective way to reduce aches and get back to a normal life.
Australian researchers tested two groups of people: One group received no treatment and the other was told to walk for 30 minutes five times a week.
After following up with the participants in one to three years, they found the group that walked regularly was pain free for nearly twice as long as those who did not - 208 days versus 112.
The study, which ran from September 2019 to June 2022, is the first to make the case for walking to treat aches and pains.
Some 16million American adults experience chronic back pain thanks in part to high rates of inactivity and obesity and an ever-expanding population of seniors. While tens of millions more experience some form of the discomfort.
This translates to lost time at work, expensive trips to physical therapists and fees for exercise classes that require specialist equipment.
The walking group was pain-free for 208 days versus 112 days in the control group
Walking prevented people's back pain from reoccurring
But walking is a free intervention, making it uniquely attractive - and accessible.
The study included 701 people, 80 percent of whom were women. All of them had recently recovered from a bout of severe lower back pain.
One group was assigned to three months of zero intervention. But the second group was given six sessions of educational classes with a physical therapist and told to build up to walking for 30 minutes per day for five days every week for three months.
Dr Mark Hancock. A physical therapist from Macquarie University, said: ‘The intervention group had fewer occurrences of activity-limiting pain compared to the control group, and a longer average period before they had a recurrence, with a median of 208 days compared to 112 days.’
Participants wore a device that tracked their walking or jogging speeds and step counts, and they recorded in a daily walking diary.
The walking group also missed fewer days of work and reduced doctor visits related to their pain by half. Walking also improved people’s sleep and mood.
Walking is free and can be scaled up easily. Unlike other interventions like exercise classes, it requires no specialist equipment and has myriad heart health benefits
Dr Hancock said: ‘We don't know exactly why walking is so good for preventing back pain, but it is likely to include the combination of the gentle oscillatory movements, loading and strengthening the spinal structures and muscles, relaxation and stress relief, and release of “feel-good” endorphins.’
It’s no secret that walking has a myriad of cardiovascular and other health benefits, but not enough Americans do it.
According to the CDC, less than 47 percent of American adults satisfied federal physical activity guidelines, which recommend getting 150 minutes of moderate intensity exercise, like brisk walking, every week.
A separate study published in 2012 found less than a quarter of Americans reported walking for more than 10 minutes continuously in a typical week.
Walking aimlessly may seem like a boring and pointless activity, but it improves blood circulation to the muscles, helps manage weight, improves metabolism, and releases mood-boosting endorphins.
While it is impossible to determine from the study whether walking was more effective than the educational sessions, researchers believe ‘the two components complement each other, with education helping to overcome avoidance and fear of movement, while the health coaching and walking program resulted in behavior change.’
Humans evolved from beings with a horizontal spine and, over millions of years, have had to adapt to support most of the body’s weight and all the pressures of movement through life with normal wear and tear, injuries, sedentary lifestyle, and obesity.
Past studies have shown the benefits of exercise to alleviate back pain, the leading cause of disability worldwide, but they have always involved group exercise classes that required close supervision and expensive equipment.
The researchers concluded: ‘This intervention should be relatively easy to scale up and could substantially reduce the burden due to low back pain, including reducing the costs associated with care.’
Their research was published in the Lancet.