Are you suffering from acute back pain? Instead of relying on pain killers which can have side effects, try a daily yoga session, a best method to treat all the critical back pain, as has been found by a team of US researchers.

Main author, Karen J Sherman, senior investigator at Group Health Research Institute (GHRI) and his associates after conducting one of the largest US studies on yoga, certifies that it does ease chronic back pain and other associated symptoms.

"We found yoga classes more effective than a self-care book," the researchers said in the study published in the latest issue of journal Archives of Internal Medicine.

At least 228 adults in six cities were randomly assigned to 12 weekly 75-minute classes of either yoga or stretching exercises or a comprehensive self-care book. Researchers noted that back-related function was better and symptoms diminished with yoga in 12 weeks with benefits, including less use of painkillers. It lasted at least... six months for both yoga and stretching, with a thorough follow-up of more than nine in 10 participants, the study says.

"After some weeks, when the researchers were about to conclude their study, they were surprised to find that almost 50 per cent of the participants who attend yoga classes admitted that they felt much better and only 20 per cent of the participants from the self-care group felt better with the offered guidelines," it said.

The researchers also noted that in comparison to the generally prescribed painkillers which may have some side effects, yoga and stretching classes positively helped patients reduce their chronic back pain.

"People may have actually begun to relax more in the (yoga) stretching classes than they would in a typical exercise class," Sherman said adding that the results suggest that both yoga and stretching can be good, safe options for people who are willing to try physical activity to relieve their moderate low back pain.

Dr Ishwar V Basavaraddi, Director of Delhi-based Morarji Desai National Institute of Yoga, an autonomous body under Health Ministry agreed that yoga can cure many disorders with backache being just one. "Backache is due to structural disorders when an individual does not take care of body postures or due to some glandular disorders in young age. In young adults it can be because of digestive or sexual problems."

The most popular yoga for treating backache are bhujangasan, uthaan mandook aasan, shalabhasana followed by bhramari and pranayam. During our various studies at the institute we have found that such asanas have power to cure the disorder permanently unlike modern medicine which just give temporary relief to the patient, noted the director.