The best solution for non-specific low back pain may not be a top-of-the-range ergonomic office chair, or regular visits to a physical therapist to use special equipment.
A randomized controlled trial in Australia has found a highly effective way to recover from low back pain that cannot be attributed to a diagnosed disease or injury and can be accessed anytime, anywhere at no cost.
It involves nothing more than a good old walk.
It turns out that your daily steps can not only improve your metabolism, cardiovascular system and mood, but contribute to a longer and healthier life, it can also affect your musculoskeletal system and keep back pain at bay.
“We don’t know exactly why walking is so good at preventing back pain,” admits physiotherapist Mark Hancock from Macquarie University, “but it is likely to involve a combination of gentle swinging movements, loading and strengthening of spinal structures and muscles, relaxation and stress relief and the release of “feel-good” endorphins.”
Low back pain is one of those physical ailments that can be frustratingly difficult to shake once they occur. About 70 percent of people who recover from low back pain experience a recurrence within the next year.
Previous studies have found that exercise can reduce the risk of low back pain recurrence, but these trials have typically involved group-based exercises, which require close supervision and the use of expensive equipment.
When an international team of researchers, led by researchers at Macquarie University in Australia, combed through the literature in 2019, they couldn’t find a single randomized controlled trial that had considered whether simply walking worked to relieve back pain in the same way.
Their study is the first to suggest that this is the case. Their trial included 701 participants, more than 80 percent of whom were female, who had recently experienced undetermined pain somewhere between the 12th rib and a hip fracture that lasted at least a day.
For a year or more, half of the group received no treatment for their back pain. Meanwhile, the other half participated in a walking and education intervention that included six educational sessions with a registered physical therapist, who coached participants through pain science and a home walking program.
The goal was for the participants to have the time and energy to walk five times a week for at least 30 minutes at the six-month mark. If their low back pain returned and it was bad enough to limit their physical activity, the participants were to notify the researchers by email.
After the three-year study ended, researchers found that the walking group had fewer recurrences of debilitating back pain than the control group.
Those who walked regularly for exercise went an average of 208 days before experiencing the first recurrence of low back pain, compared with 112 days for the control group.
“Not only did it improve people’s quality of life,” says lead author and health scientist Natasha Pocovi, “but it both reduced their need to seek help from health care and cut the time off work by about half.”
According to some estimates, as many as 843 million people could be living with low back pain by 2050. Currently, it is the leading cause of disability worldwide, likely due to modern sedentary lifestyles.
Walking is a low-risk exercise that is widely accessible to young and old, rich and poor. It’s also one of the easier forms of exercise to incorporate into a busy lifestyle.
Given the many potential benefits, going for a brisk walk is a preventive treatment for back pain that should no longer be neglected.
The study was published in The Lancet.
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