Chronic lower back pain is equally likely to improve with yoga classes as with physical therapy, according to a new medical research study. Twelve weeks of yoga lessened pain and improved function in people with low back pain as much as physical therapy sessions over the same period. “Both yoga and physical therapy are excellent non-drug approaches for low back pain,” said lead author Dr. Robert Saper, of Boston Medical Center.

About 10 percent of U.S. adults experience low back pain, but not many are happy with the available treatments, Saper and colleagues write in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

According to the report in Reuters Health, the American College of Physicians advised in February that most people with low back pain should try non-drug treatments like superficial heat or massage before reaching for medications.

Physical therapy is the most common non-drug treatment for low back pain prescribed by doctors, according to Saper and colleagues. Yoga is also backed by some guidelines and studies as a treatment option, but until now no research has compared the two.

Indeed the California Medical Treatment Utilization Schedule, Chronic Pain Treatment Guideline adopted by the DWC on July 28, 2016 also recommends yoga. The published guideline on page 182 provides that yoga is recommended “as an option for motivated patients. There is considerable evidence of efficacy for mind-body therapies such as yoga in the treatment of chronic pain. Also, the impact on depression and disability could be considered as important outcomes for further study. Since outcomes from this therapy are very dependent on a motivated patient, we recommend approval where requested by a specific patient, but not adoption for use by any patient.”

For the new study, the researchers recruited 320 adults with chronic low back pain. The participants were racially diverse and tended to have low incomes.

The participants were randomly assigned to one of three groups. One group took part in a 12-week yoga program designed for people with low back pain. Another took part in a physical therapy program over the same amount of time. People in the third group received a book with comprehensive information about low back pain and follow-up information every few weeks.

It was concluded that 48 percent of yoga participants and 37 percent of physical therapy participants reached the specified goal, compared to 23 percent of people who were in the education group.

For achieving noticeable differences in pain, physical therapy was again no better or worse than yoga. After 12 weeks, people in the yoga group were 21 percentage points less likely to used pain medications than those in the education group. That difference was 22 percentage points for physical therapy versus education.

The improvements among the people in yoga and physical therapy groups lasted throughout the year, the researchers found. “If they remain the same after one year, it’s a good bet that their improvement will continue on,” Saper told Reuters Health.