Vijay Vad - Back RX: A 15-Minute-a-Day Yoga- and Pilates-Based Program to End Low Back Pain

BACK Rx

A FIFTEEN-MINUTE-A-DAY
YOGA- AND PILATES-BASED PROGRAM
TO END LOW BACK PAIN

Vijay Vad, M. D.

and Hilary Hinzmann

PUBLISHERS NOTE

Every effort has been made to ensure that the information contained in this book is complete and accurate. However, neither the author nor the publisher is engaged in rendering professional advice or services to the individual reader. The ideas, procedures, and suggestions contained in this book are not intended as a substitute for consulting with your physician. All matters regarding your health require medical supervision. Neither the author nor the publisher shall be liable or responsible for any loss, injury, or damage allegedly arising from any information or suggestions in this book.

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Published by Gotham Books, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

First printing, January 2004

Copyright Vijay Vad, M.D., 2004

All rights reserved

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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

Vad, Vijay.

Back RX : a fifteen-minute-a-day yoga- and Pilates-based program to end low back pain / Vijay Vad, and Hilary Hinzmann.
p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN: 978-1-101-07584-5

1. Pilates method. 2. BackacheAlternative treatment. 3. Yoga. I. Hinzmann, Hillary. II. Title.

RA781.V23 2004

617.56406dc22

2003049337

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Version_2

To my beautiful wife, Dilshaad, whose struggle with back pain motivated me to find a solution; to my parents, Drs. Bal and Lata Vad, who are my greatest supporters, friends, and mentors; and to all the low back pain sufferers in the worldmay this book help you regain full quality of life.

VV

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Chris Godek, whose knowledge and insight guided us through this project; our agent, Stuart Krichevsky, for his unfailing support, diligence, and wisdom; J. B. Berns, for helping to design the exercise programs, and Tara Parker-Pope, who first suggested the need for this book.

At Gotham Books we have had the benefit of a wonderful group of publishers; thanks especially to William Shinker, Lauren Marino, Erin Moore, Sabrina Bowers, and Gary Perkinson for helping us to fulfill our vision for the book. Thanks also to McLain Bennett for her work on the photographs and to Tina Thompson for her design of the book.

Introduction:

The Back Rx Way to a Healthy, Pain-Free Back

I f youre reading this book, youre probably all too familiar with the pain of a low back injury. A strained muscle in the low back can make you gasp with pain at the slightest movement. The herniation of a spinal disk, the most troublesome cause of severe low back pain, can virtually cripple you. Worst of all, in the aftermath of a low back injury, pain may take up permanent residence almost anywhere in the back or legs, including sites far removed from the point of injury.

If youre hurting now, skip ahead to for some simple ways to ease the pain. Come back to read these pages when youre feeling better. In order to make a full and lasting recovery from low back pain, you must first understand what causes it.

In North America, four out of five people will suffer a serious episode of low back pain at some point in their lives. Only the common cold causes more lost work days than low back pain for adults under forty-five years of age.

Low back injuries usually heal within weeks, a testament to the backs inherent strength and resilience. But long-term healing is notoriously difficult to achieve. One episode of low back pain generally leads to another. Four out of five people will suffer a recurrence within one year, and then face a 7080% risk of further recurrences. The right treatment can make all the difference between healing completely, building a more injury-resistant and resilient back in the process, and falling into a downward spiral of recurrent injury that defeats every measure of conventional and alternative care and leads to failed back syndrome, long-term dependency on pain medication, and even surgery. That downward spiral traps far too many low back pain sufferers.

Ive had to heal my own low back pain. So I write this book both as a physician and as a fellow sufferer. The Back Rx program enabled me to beat my low back pain for good. And it has helped thousands of patients I see in my sports medicine practice and research at the Hospital for Special Surgery, an affiliate of Cornell University Medical Center in New York, where I also serve on the faculty as a professor. Back Rx achieves these results by blending carefully selected elements of rehabilitation, yoga, and Pilates with a central focus on breath control. It is one of the few exercise programs for the low back to be shown effective in controlled clinical trials.

In an ongoing study, my research colleagues and I are monitoring the progress of two groups of low back patients who receive the same medical care and take the same pain medication, except that one group does the Back Rx program for fifteen minutes three times a week. At the end of the first year, the group doing Back Rx had a 70% success/cure rate (as measured by a more than 50% reduction in low back pain), whereas the other group had only a 33% success/cure rate. The group doing Back Rx also needed much less pain medication and had significantly less recurrence of back pain than the other group.

Building on the work of many other low back pain researchers and clinicians at the Hospital for Special Surgery and elsewhere, my research and clinical practice have demonstrated that an exercise program like Back Rx can be the key to healing low back pain without surgery or long-term dependence on medication.