Study Links Walking to Decreased Back Pain

Story at-a-glance Walking is an effective, low-cost intervention for preventing and managing low back pain. Studies show it can significantly extend pain-free periods and reduce recurrence risk by up to 43%. Regular walking is as beneficial as other forms of exercise for chronic low back pain, improving pain levels, disability, quality of life, and fear avoidance. Walking offers numerous health benefits beyond pain relief, including improved cardiovascular health, better sleep, increased resilience, and potential reversal of cellular aging mechanisms. Moderate exercise like walking is more beneficial for longevity than vigorous exercise. Aiming for 7,000 to 12,000 steps daily provides optimal health benefits without risk of overexertion. There’s good news for the 619 million people suffering from low back pain worldwide. Walking, a simple, free exercise, may help prevent back pain and keep it away longer. Effective interventions like this can significantly improve quality of life, considering that nearly 7 in 10 people who experience an episode of low back pain will have another within 12 months. Those who engaged in the walking program, however, were pain free for nearly twice as long as those who didn’t walk, adding even more reason to make walking a regular part of your routine. "Walking is a low-cost, widely accessible and simple exercise that almost anyone can engage in, regardless of geographic location, age or socio-economic status," said study author Mark Hancock with Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. Five Walks a Week Kept Back Pain Away Longer The study, called WalkBack, revealed that a simple walking program, combined with some education, could significantly reduce the chances of back pain coming back. It involved 701 adults who had recently recovered from a bout of low back pain. Half of the participants were given a personalized walking program and six sessions with a physiotherapist over six months, while the other half went about their usual routines. Those in the walking group had a target of five walks per week for about 30 minutes daily — and they were encouraged to continue walking when the program ended. The walking group saw much better results. On average, they went about 208 days before experiencing another episode of back pain that limited their activities. The non-walking group, however, only made it 112 days before their back pain came back. Further, walking reduced the risk of low back pain recurrence that limited daily activity by 28%, while risk of low back pain recurrence that caused participants to seek medical care decreased by 43%. On a societal level, the researchers also looked at the cost-effectiveness of this approach. For every quality year of life gained, it only cost about $5,257 in U.S. dollars. In the world of health care, that's considered quite cost-effective. "The biggest savings came from less work absenteeism and less health service use among the intervention group," the researchers explained. In fact, the walkers also reported that additional general health benefits they experienced along with back pain relief motivated them to keep walking. Writing in The Lancet, the researchers added, "This accessible, scalable, and safe intervention could affect how low back pain is managed." Walking Works as Well as Other Forms of Exercise to Relieve Back Pain Other research also supports the effectiveness of walking as a treatment for chronic low back pain. A comprehensive meta-analysis published in Disability and Rehabilitation examined five randomized controlled trials comparing walking interventions to other forms of physical exercise. Their findings reveal that walking is just as effective as other exercise types in reducing pain, improving disability and quality of life, and decreasing fear-avoidance in individuals with chronic low back pain. This held true whether the effects were measured after short, medium or long-term follow-up periods, suggesting that walking could be a viable and potentially more accessible alternative to other exercise programs. The benefits of walking extend beyond just pain relief. Studies have shown that incorporating a daily walking routine can have a significant impact on overall health and well-being. Research indicates that taking more than 5,000 steps per day can help prevent or improve chronic pain conditions, while a goal of at least 7,000 steps daily is recommended for cardiovascular health. Ideally, however, strive for 10,000 steps a day. These findings underscore the multifaceted benefits of walking as a form of exercise, addressing not only back pain but also contributing to broader health improvements. This suggests that walking could potentially replace more complex or equipment-dependent exercises in pain management programs, offering a simpler and more cost-effective approach. The use of pedometers provides motivation and can help you increase daily step counts, which could further enhance the effectiveness of walking-based interventions. As research continues, exploring different walking intensities and durations may provide even more insights into optimizing this accessible form of exercise for chronic low back pain management. For example, experimenting with backward walking, which tends to shift your body's center of gravity, can reduce the load on your lower back. This altered biomechanics may provide relief for some individuals with chronic low back pain. Backward walking also eliminates the typical heel-strike to the ground, so it can lead to changes in pelvis alignment that may potentially alleviate pressure associated with low back pain. Source: mercola.com, 8/7/24.