Yoga for Chronic Pain

Chronic pain is a significant public health problem in the US. It is highly prevalent: over 100 million Americans are estimated to experience chronic pain at any given time. 1 It is costly. Conservative estimates place measurable loss in productivity and direct costs due to chronic pain at over $500 billion annually. 1 It can be debilitating. For the past 25 years, back and neck pain have been the second leading cause of disease burden in wealthy nations. 2 Low back pain is the leading cause of disability globally.3,4 Yet pain is still poorly managed. Trends over the past decade in the United States indicate that chronic pain is increasingly being managed with guideline-discordant rather than evidencebased approaches. 5 Additionally, US soldiers and veterans experience chronic pain at a higher prevalence and with worse outcomes than in the general US population