Qigong Research
When a small amount of exercise exacerbates pain in an arthritic patient, the idea of engaging in any form of “exercise” may be enough to deter participation. This review of the available research suggests that Qigong is a safe and efficacious approach for advancing the well-being of people with arthritis.
This is a systematic review of 28 studies for Qigong on numerous physical and emotional health conditions, such as: cancer, fibromyalgia, cardiovascular disease, Parkinson's disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, chronic low back pain, cervical pain, tinnitus, osteoarthritis, fatigue, burnout, stress and depression. The results suggest that practice of Qigong produces positive results on health, mainly in the medium and long term. Learn more…
This randomized controlled trial shows that paced breathing synchronized with rhythmic muscle contraction leads to more resilient activation of the parasympathetic response than either alternating contractions or breathing alone, which may help explain the stress reducing benefits of mind-body disciplines. Learn more…
This study suggests that Taoist qigong is able to exert acute immunomodulatory effects on components of both innate as well as adaptive immune response. After one month of Qigong training, participants showed higher values in the number and percentage of B lymphocytes, and lower values in the percentage of natural killer cells. Learn more…
This comprehensive review of 77 randomized controlled trials reveals significant results for a number of health benefits of practicing Qigong or Tai Chi, including improved quality of life, improved immune-related blood markers, increased bone mineral density, increased antibody levels in response to flu vaccination, decreased stress response blood markers, decreased anxiety and more… .
These two randomized controlled trials (RCT) show promising results for people with chronic fatigue syndrome who practice Qigong. In the first RCT, the Qigong group that practiced for 3 days a week and at least 30 minutes a session had significantly reduced fatigue and depressive symptoms, and improved telomerase activity - which impacts healthy cell development. Learn more…
Fuzhong Li, Ph.D., Peter Harmer, Ph.D., M.P.H., Kathleen Fitzgerald, M.D., Elizabeth Eckstrom, M.D., M.P.H., Ronald Stock, M.D., Johnny Galver, P.T., Gianni Maddalozzo, Ph.D., and Sara S. Batya, M.D.
The New England Journal of Medicine. 9 Feb 2012; 366:511-519.
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1107911
Patients with Parkinson's disease have substantially impaired balance, leading to diminished functional ability and an increased risk of falling. Although exercise is routinely encouraged by health care providers, few programs have been proven effective.
We conducted a randomized, controlled trial to determine whether a tailored tai chi program could improve postural control in patients with idiopathic Parkinson's disease. We randomly assigned 195 patients with stage 1 to 4 disease on the Hoehn and Yahr staging scale (which ranges from 1 to 5, with higher stages indicating more severe disease) to one of three groups: tai chi, resistance training, or stretching. The patients participated in 60-minute exercise sessions twice weekly for 24 weeks. The primary outcomes were changes from baseline in the limits-of-stability test (maximum excursion and directional control; range, 0 to 100%). Secondary outcomes included measures of gait and strength, scores on functional-reach and timed up-and-go tests, motor scores on the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale, and number of falls.
The tai chi group performed consistently better than the resistance-training and stretching groups in maximum excursion (between-group difference in the change from baseline, 5.55 percentage points; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.12 to 9.97; and 11.98 percentage points; 95% CI, 7.21 to 16.74, respectively) and in directional control (10.45 percentage points; 95% CI, 3.89 to 17.00; and 11.38 percentage points; 95% CI, 5.50 to 17.27, respectively). The tai chi group also performed better than the stretching group in all secondary outcomes and outperformed the resistance-training group in stride length and functional reach. Tai chi lowered the incidence of falls as compared with stretching but not as compared with resistance training. The effects of tai chi training were maintained at 3 months after the intervention. No serious adverse events were observed.
Tai chi training appears to reduce balance impairments in patients with mild-to-moderate Parkinson's disease, with additional benefits of improved functional capacity and reduced falls. (Funded by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke; ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT00611481. opens in new tab.)
