More advanced pranayama practices bring further benefits for a wide range of chronic conditions. Simple forms of meditation are also a vital component of yoga therapy. These emphasize awareness, positive emotions, and a sense of unity with the rest of life. Surveys, case studies and anecdotal reports suggest that yoga therapy can also help many other chronic conditions, including back pain, menstrual conditions, migraine, multiple sclerosis and osteoarthritis. Low back pain Back pain provides an interesting area of overlap between yoga therapy and Fig.
General yoga can often resolve mild back pain caused by stress and tense muscles.
However, it can exacerbate conditions involving joint problems, such as prolapsed disc, facet joint strain and severe spondylosis. There are of course limits to the range of applicability of yoga therapy, and other therapies can sometimes be more appropriate. For instance, we recently found osteopathy greatly to help a severe case of scoliosis in the mid-thoracic region, where yoga therapy had failed. Equally, we have had cases who have responded to yoga but not osteopathy. Yoga therapy can often complement other therapies.