Yoga matches physical therapy for back pain

A new trial has found that a 12-week yoga class designed for patients with chronic lower back pain is as effective as 15 physical therapy sessions for reducing pain, improving function and lowering the use of painkillers.

Weekly yoga classes and physical therapy are both more likely to bring improvements in function than education classes.

At 12 weeks, just over half (55%) of patients doing yoga or physical therapy used pain medicine, compared with 75% of patients in the education group.