19. February 2008 – Latest Research has shown: Regular Yoga exercises are a better way to fight pain in the lumbar spine than conventional back trainings. This is also the opinion of Drs. Horst Dekkers, head physician and managing director of the spine disease department at the Alphaklinik in Munich. Therefore, the spine expert recommends – in addition to medical help – practicing yoga in order to fight pain in the shoulder area and back pain.
In a recent study a research team from Seattle examined various back strengthening programs. 101 adults with back problems participated in these experiments. The result: Patients with back problems that participated every week in a yoga lesson for 75 minutes made better progress than patients participating in work-out and stretching classes. The first results were visible after three months only: patients that practiced yoga were better able to cope with their every-day-life after only twelve weeks than the other patients and after another fourteen weeks they experienced less pain and needed less painkillers than the comparison groups.
Drs. Horst Dekkers, head physician and managing director of the Alpha-Klinik in Munich, explains these findings as follows: “For some time exercises are a standard therapy against back pain. Now the results of this study have proved that Yoga exercises belong to the most efficient measures to fight back pain.”
The spine specialist explains this success as follows: „Yoga is a sport that requires dediction. Therefore, Yoga exercises actively practiced show a better result than those passively given.
Yoga is most of all helpful against tension headache, neck pain, and sacroiliac pain. Moreover, regular yoga exercises strengthen the back muscles. However, Drs. Horst Dekkers warns against considering yoga the sole remedy against chronic back pain.
Especially for patients with slipped discs yoga can support the healing process only after an operation. If surgery has become inevitable, today the latest procedures provide a good prognosis: The minimally-invasive disc surgery in connection with the autologous disc-derived Chondrocyte Transplantation (ADCT) prevents a further degeneration of the discs. After the surgery endogenic cells are taken from the disc and are reactivated under optimum conditions. Afterwards they are re-injected into the disc, thus restoring its original buffering function. For example the Alpha Klinik in Munich offers this innovative ADCT-treatment by the spine specialists Dr. Rudolf Bertagnoli and Drs. Horst Dekkers.
Yoga exercises can help to understand your body and to see how much strain it can cope with.
Expert advise and yoga exercises for a relaxed back recommended by Drs. Horst Dekkers:
• The knee swing – wellness for the lower back Lie down on your back and position your feet as wide as your hips. Let your back sink to the floor. Bend your legs one after the other to your upper body and put your hands in a paw like position on the back of your knees. While exhaling swing the knees with the help of your hands to the upper body and then breathing in forwards, without loosening the hands in the rhythm of your breath. If breathing gets slower and quieter the rocking movement will also get slower and quieter. Imagine yourself lying in a meadow, getting softly rocked.
• Cat with arched back – good for a flexible spine Gaze at the floor between your knees. Stretch your shoulders down towards the pelvis, the back is stretched from the sternum forward and upwards. Pay attention to keep your sternum straight. Stabilize the lumbar vertebra by slightly tensing up the abdominal wall. The elbow joints are stretched. Turn your elbows forward to increase stabilization.
Drs. Horst Dekkers...
is spine specialist, head physician and managing director of the Alpha Klinik in Munich, which specializes on the treatment of spinal diseases as well as knee and shoulder surgery. The Alpha Klinik is renowned for the development and perfection of minimally-invasive techniques as well as for high-quality surgeries, prevention, and convenience for patients from more than 60 countries throughout the world. The Alpha Klink team speaks more than 20 languages.
Contact:
Drs. Horst Dekkers
Alpha-KlinikGmbH
Mrs. Barbara Kohl Effnerstraße 38
D- 81925 München
Phone: +49-89-204000-402
E-mail: kohl@alphaklinik.de
heller & partner communication GmbH
Mirjam Schmidt
Possartstraße 14
D- 81679 München
Telefon: +49-89-45710-332
Telefax: +49-89-45710-305
E-mail: ms@heller-partner.de
