KEYNOTE: Holger Cramer

Yoga for Chronic Pain: Evidence, Safety, and Implications for Global Integration

Presenter bio: Holger Cramer, PhD

Chronic pain is among the most prevalent, disabling, and costly health conditions worldwide. Yoga is increasingly used as a therapeutic intervention for chronic pain, reflecting both patient demand and growing clinical evidence. This keynote synthesizes current research on yoga for chronic pain, drawing primarily on findings from systematic reviews and meta-analyses that demonstrate pain-reducing effects, particularly for chronic low-back pain, and emerging evidence across other pain conditions.

Beyond effectiveness, yoga is characterized by a particularly favorable safety profile. Epidemiological data indicate lower injury rates compared with many other forms of physical activity. Health economic evaluations from multiple healthcare contexts further indicate that yoga interventions for chronic pain are cost effective, especially when societal costs such as lost productivity are considered. Accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, a growing body of research on remotely delivered yoga interventions shows that online formats are feasible, acceptable, and safe, with preliminary evidence suggesting clinically relevant pain reduction.

Taken together, this body of evidence positions yoga as not just an adjunctive therapy but a credible, scalable, and equitable component of evidence-based pain management. We’ll discuss the implications of these findings for integrating yoga into evidence-informed pain management across diverse healthcare settings, highlighting opportunities to improve access, strengthen health systems, and address global inequities in chronic pain treatment.