Low Back Pain and Sciatica and Relaxation Therapies

There are many types of relaxation therapies, and they use a variety of techniques that can be helpful in treating low back pain and sciatica.

Some common relaxtion therapies are:

• Meditation
• Guided Imagery
• Visualization
• Aromatherapies
• Jacobson's progressive relaxation
• autogenic training
• applied relaxation
• Many more

However, regardless of which relaxation therapy is used, most of them share certain related features.

Since many of us hold tension, emotion and (subsequently) pain in our backs, becoming aware of that pain and relaxing into it can help to relieve this tension that becomes low back pain/sciatica. The particular relaxation therapy that is most useful depends on the individual patient. Different people enjoy the aforementioned therapies in different ways and to varying extents. Therefore, it is difficult to test the efficacy of these treatments, as which treatment is right for each person is an individualized process.

Read more details about Relaxation Therapies.

One study done on mindfulness meditation found this to be useful in the treatment of chronic low back pain. ⁶⁹

Safety Issues

There are no known or proposed safety risks with relaxation therapies.

69. Morone NE, Greco CM, Weiner DK. Mindfulness meditation for the treatment of chronic low back pain in older adults: A randomized controlled pilot study. Pain. 2007 May 31. [Epub ahead of print