We have sung the praises of tai chi – that so-called “meditation in motion” before – but now researchers at the Center for Complementary and Integrative Medicine at Tufts Medical Center in Boston decided to put it to the test. They set up a randomized trial to determine how well tai chi fared against traditional Western physical therapy for the treatment of knee osteoarthritis.

So, how does tai chi compare? Pretty well, as it turns out.

Osteoarthritis is a joint disease that occurs when the cartilage that connects bones at the joints breaks down. Knee osteoarthritis is a leading cause of pain and disability in older adults. It cannot be cured, and is usually addressed through anti-inflammatory meds and physical therapy.

To see if tai chi might be a good alternative to physical therapy, the team from Tufts randomly assigned about 200 people with knee osteoarthritis to try either PT or tai chi for three months. Both groups experienced similar reductions in pain at the end of the three months, and after a year. But people in the tai chi group reported greater improvements in wellbeing and mental health than the participants assigned to physical therapy.

Dr. Chenchen Wang, who led the research, chalked it up to tai chi's holistic approach. ““Tai chi is a multicomponent traditional Chinese mind-body practice that may systematically promote health … by integrating physical, psychosocial, emotional, spiritual and behavioral elements,” Wang told Reuters.

Participants in the trial averaged 60 years of age. They were typically overweight or obese and had been suffering from knee osteoarthritis for around eight years. Half of the participants were assigned to hour-long tai chi classes twice a week for 12 weeks. The others got six weeks of 30-minute physical therapy sessions twice a week and were then told to continue with exercises at home at least four times a week for another six weeks.

Neither group had perfect attendance, but the respective roll calls were close enough for each group: 79 percent of the people in tai chi and 78 percent of patients in physical therapy went to at least half of the scheduled sessions.

Romy Lauche of the Australian Research Center in Complimentary and Integrative Medicine at the University of Technology Sydney told Reuters that the findings suggest that tai chi may offer some relief to patients without the potential cost of attending physical therapy or side effects of medications.