Alexander Technique on List of Back Problem Therapies

by healthypages on 13/01/2012 - 01:22 pm |

When it comes to posture correction or dealing with back pain which therapy should you use. There is a lot to choose from but one therapy that is in the news now and again is the Alexander Technique. The therapy took its name from the founder, Frederick Matthias Alexander who first developed it in 1890 as a means to deal with hoarseness he experienced during public speaking and to which none of the doctors of the day had a remedy.

By observing himself in mirrors he found that his posture was incorrect and was causing the malfunctioning voice. He developed his initial findings into a complete therapy.

The New York Times reported on the beneficial effects of the Alexander Technique saying, "If you want a more systematic, long-term approach to posture change, consider the Alexander technique, a method that teaches you how recognize and release habitual tension that interferes with good posture.”

The article elaborated on the technique and referred to two recent studies that have revealed the therapeutic effect of the Alexander Technique: “Not all doctors in the United States are familiar with the technique, but recent research suggests that it can help with lower back pain as well as posture. A study published in The British Medical Journal found that lessons in the technique helped patients with chronic back pain. A 2011 study published in Human Movement Science concluded that the Alexander technique increased the responsiveness of muscles and reduced stiffness in patients with lower back pain."

The study mentioned in the NYT was conducted by the Neurological Sciences Institute based at the Oregon Health & Science University in Beaverton, entitled 'Increased dynamic regulation of postural tone through Alexander Technique training' it was found that the Alexander Technique offered some valuable help in posture correction. The study report stated that, “While changes in static levels of postural tone may have contributed to the reduced stiffness observed with the AT, our results suggest that dynamic modulation of postural tone can be enhanced through long-term training in the AT, which may constitute an important direction for therapeutic intervention.”

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Comments

Peter Bloch 31/03/2012 - 12:36 am

I'd just like to add a little more information to what is in this article. The Alexander Technique has been shown in several studies to be of remarkable benefit in back pain. Essentially, it is a form of cognitive-behavioural retraining in which the student develops the skill of learning to move more consciously in order to reduce the habits of movement that lead to poor performance and to injury. It has been shown to improve balance and efficiency in movement in a way that is applicable to any form of exercise, to reduce stress and to lead to considerable improvements in musculo-skeletal pain.
Regarding back pain, the recent publication mentioned was a large, randomised trial published in the British Medical Journal in 2008 (http://www.bmj.com/content/337/bmj.a884) that showed an 86% reduction in low back pain even 12 months after a course of lessons. I have summarized the results of this study and of several others here (http://peter-bloch.co.uk/back-pain). An important additional point to note is that there was not a single adverse event reported in all 571 patients.