Readers of this back pain blog will know that for years we have been told that exercise is beneficial for those suffering with chronic back pain. Now, it seems that medical opinion has done another of it's famed u-turns.
In a story by Pauline Anderson on medscape.com she reports that randomized trials have shown no difference in pain, disability, or general health amongst patients with lower back pain and Modic Changes (MC's - oedema or fatty degeneration in the vertebral endplate) who followed an exercise regime, and those who adopted a routine of rest and load reduction.
A study involved 100 adult patients with chronic low back pain. One group, the rest group, were told to avoid hard physical activity and rest by lying down for an hour twice a day (lucky things). They were also allowed to use a flexible lumbar belt as required for up to 4 hours a day.
The other (exercise) group took part in supervised one-hour exercises once a week for the 10 weeks of the trial. This included exercises for stabilizing muscles in the low back and abdomen, exercises for postural stability, and light physical fitness training. They were also encouraged to continue with these exercises at home three times a week, and maintain a normal level of activity.
Without going into all the results here (they are in the full report which you can find here) at the end of the study no significant difference in general health scores was found between either group, also no serious problems or adverse effects.
So there you have it. You can ditch all your exercise equipment and loll about in front of the telly all day. I'm not convinced, they'll do another study soon that proves the opposite.
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