Research Reinforces Findings That Chinese Exercises Benefit Older Adults

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Research Reinforces Findings That Chinese Exercises Benefit Older

Adults

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=46220

New work by researchers at the University of Illinois lends strength

to previous research documenting the health benefits of Qigong and

Taiji among older adults who practice these ancient Chinese martial-

arts forms.

Qigong (chee-kung) and Taiji (tye-chee) - or Tai Chi, as it is more

commonly known in the U.S. - combine simple, graceful movements and

meditation. Qigong, which dates to the middle of the first millennium

B.C., is a series of integrated exercises believed to have positive,

relaxing effects on a person's mind, body and spirit. Tai Chi is a

holistic form of exercise, and a type of Qigong that melds Chinese

philosophy with martial and healing arts.

" Traditional Tai Chi training includes Qigong, but most contemporary

Tai Chi researchers have omitted Qigong from their research, " said

visiting kinesiology professor Yang Yang. " As a result, previous

researchers may not have documented all of the health benefits

possible from traditional Tai Chi training. "

Yang, a Tai Chi master with three decades of experience, said Tai Chi

and Qigong are relatively simple, safe and inexpensive, and require

no props or special equipment, making them easily adaptable for

practice by healthy senior citizens.

In two studies - one quantitative, one qualitative - presented

recently at the North American Research Conference on Complementary &

Integrative Medicine, lead researcher Yang found that healthy seniors

who practiced a combination of Qigong and Tai Chi three times a week

for six months experienced significant physical benefits after only

two months.

Not only did participants demonstrate noticeable improvements in

laboratory-controlled tests designed to measure balance, lower body

strength and stance width, a subset of participants who contributed

responses in the qualitative study provided dramatic evidence of how

Tai Chi and Qigong practice had also enhanced their lives from a

mental, emotional and spiritual perspective.

" Seniors said, 'Now I can put my socks and jeans on just like I

always used to, standing up instead of sitting down, " said Yang, who

published the results of the studies as his doctoral dissertation.

Yang said a woman noted that she had reduced the number of strokes

required to swim across the pool - from 20 to between 11 and 14.

Another said she was more confident of her ability to climb the

stairs to her attic.

Karl Rosengren was Yang's Ph.D. adviser and is a contributing author

of the U. of I. studies Other evidence pointed to improvements in

sleep quality, concentration, memory, self-esteem and overall energy

levels.

Other positive statements by participants regarding how they

generally felt better mentally and physically:

* " I have the sense that I'm not going to go downhill nearly as

quickly as I might have. It's a very positive way to feel. "

* " I feel more upbeat … more optimistic … more hopeful. I upped my

lifespan from 80 to 100. "

* " You don't think about 70-year-olds learning new things they can

carry on … this is so unexpected. This has made me feel much younger

… much younger, let's say, 10 years. Someone who hasn't done this has

no comprehension about how much better it has made me feel. "

The quantitative study included 39 participants and a control group

of 29; the average age of participants was 80. Each was given a

battery of physical performance tests in the beginning as a baseline,

then again after two-month and six-month intervals. The smaller

qualitative study consisted of in-depth interviews with four of the

exercise participants described by Yang as " very enthusiastic about

their Tai Chi and Qigong practice. "

" At present, Yang is the only one who has been putting those two

things - the quantitative and the qualitative - together, " said

kinesiology and psychology professor Karl Rosengren, Yang's Ph.D.

adviser and contributing author of the U. of I. studies.

" Usually they are not seen together in the same research. "

Yang and Rosengren said the quantitative study is the first, to their

knowledge, to employ a randomized control trial (RCT) designed with

testers blind to group allocation and to combine laboratory platform

balance measures with multiple measures of functional balance and

physical performance.

" It is also the first Tai Chi RCT to evaluate potential sensory

organization improvements in elderly practitioners, to evaluate

whether balance and strength improvements are significant predictors

of a laboratory loss of balance measures, and to evaluate stance

width as a possible learned strategic mechanism for improved postural

stability, " Yang said.

In real-world terms, improvements in these areas are believed to

reduce seniors' risks of falling and suffering potentially

catastrophic consequences.

Yang, who also is the director of the Center for Taiji Studies and

the author of the book " Taijiquan: The Art of Nurturing, The Science

of Power " (Zhenwu Publications), said one of the facets of the

studies most interesting to him is how comments collected from the

interviews correlated with the quantitative data gathered in the lab.

For example, in assessing the effects of Tai Chi and Qigong practice

on participants, the researchers used a number of standard physical-

activity measurements, among them, the single leg stand, or SLS. The

SLS measures the length of time an individual can stand on one leg,

with eyes closed and eyes open.

" With eyes open, we saw an 83 percent improvement after two months, "

Yang said. " With eyes closed, we did not see results - 29 percent

improvement - until the end of six months.

Numbers alone don't tell the full story of the results, however, Yang

said.

" But when you see how it translates to functional performance … how

meaningful it is to their daily life - putting on jeans, taking

groceries out, even the posture you have when you hold your

grandchildren - the results are significant. "

Also telling, he said, is the strong desire among study participants

to continue practicing Tai Chi and Qigong beyond the bounds of the

research.

" The program has demonstrated its sustainability at one of the senior-

living facility instruction sites, where an enthusiastic activities

director has continued classes and actually expanded participation

since the completion of the study, he said. "

Rosengren said the U. of I. research team plans to continue studying

the links between Tai Chi and Qigong and the benefits of their

practice for older adults.

" We plan to focus on trying to understand the mechanisms more, " he

said. " We'll also try to investigate more closely the effects of the

expertise of the instructor by looking at other research that's been

done and trying to get measures of expertise in training.

" One of the things I think gets lost in a lot of the Tai Chi research

is that the quality of the instructor matters. We've seen programs

where they don't really care about that. They'll have someone who's

had six months of Tai Chi experience, and they think they can teach

Tai Chi.

" Having watched Yang and having seen videotapes of instructors with

minimal experience, there's a huge difference, " Rosengren said. " It's

the wealth of knowledge he brings and the combination of the science

from the West and the traditions from the East that actually bring

together things in a very positive way. "

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Co-authors with Yang and Rosengren on the quantitative study include

Jay Verkuilen, Grubisich and . Additional co-

authors on the qualitative study are , Sharon DeCelle,

Schlagal and Greene.