T'ai Chi Proven to Be Good for Health!

 

The Guardian writes:

Traditional Chinese exercises such as tai chi can offer wide-ranging benefits for people with musculoskeletal disorders, improving physical function, pain, mental health, sleep quality and bone mineral density, according to the largest review of its kind.

More than 1.7bn people have musculoskeletal conditions worldwide. While prevalence varies by age and diagnosis, people of all ages in every country and every continent are affected.

Musculoskeletal conditions significantly limit mobility and dexterity, leading to early retirement from work, lower levels of wellbeing and reduced ability to participate in society. They are also the leading contributor to disability worldwide, with low back pain being the single leading cause of disability in 160 countries.

My first time doing tai chi: ‘It feels like my brain is solving a Rubik’s Cube’

Read more

There was already evidence indicating traditional Chinese exercises were associated with beneficial health outcomes in people with musculoskeletal disorders, but much of it was fragmented and contained inconsistencies.

The overarching review of pooled data analyses of systematic reviews by researchers at hospitals and universities in China, published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, drew on 92 data syntheses from 1,744 randomised controlled clinical trials.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/aug/24/largest-review-of-its-kind-confirms-benefits-of-tai-chi-and-other-chinese-exercises?CMP=share_btn_url

Sage Principles by Cheng Man-ch'ing

 

 

Professor Cheng Man-ch’ing (Zheng Manqing, 1902-1975) was known as a “Master of Five Excellences” for his skills in poetry, calligraphy, painting, t'ai chi ch'uan (taijiquan), and Chinese medicine. He was a well-known artist in Beijing and then Shanghai in the 1920s, where he headed the department of traditional painting (guo hua) at the Shanghai Art College, and was involved with leading art societi

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the 1930s, he began in-depth study of Chinese medicine, and he began studying t'ai chi with the famed Yang Chengfu. In 1949, at the fall of Republican China, he and his family moved to Taiwan, and in 1964, to New York City, where he taught t'ai chi--being one of the first masters to openly teach outside of the Chinese--and prescribed herbal remedies to students.

Sage Principles is one of his last works, translated by his long-time assistant Ed Young, assisted by Dr. Steven Cowan, a pediatrician and acupuncturist. Great River's Barbara Davis supplied an introductory biography. The book weaves together Professor Cheng's deep knowledge of Chinese philosophy, medical theory, and self-cultivation. These unique insights will be of interest to all t'ai chi students and practitioners of Chinese medicine. Sage Principles includes reproduction of Professor Cheng's original calligraphy, recollections by several patients, a lecture on health from New York, and an explanation of Chinese words used in the text.

The book is available on Amazon, and will hopefully soon be available via Redwing Books.

For a list of Professor Cheng's books, visit https://chengmanching.wordpress.com/writings/

World Congress on Qigong, Tai Chi, and TCM

A wide array of experts will present dozens of seminars at the 17th Annual World Congress on Qigong, Tai Chi, and Traditional Chinese Medicine, September 2-5, 2016, in San Francisco. See East West Qi for further information.

Acupuncture Works?

A recent survey shows that 38% of American adults use "alternative" health therapies. "More than one-third of adults and nearly 12 percent of children in the United States use alternatives to traditional medicine, according to a large federal survey released today that documents how entrenched acupuncture, herbal remedies and other once-exotic therapies have become. The 2007 survey of more than 32,000 Americans, which for the first time included children, found that use of yoga, "probiotics," fish oil and other "complementary and alternative" therapies held steady among adults since the last national survey five years earlier, and that such treatments have become part of health care for many youngsters." See the whole article at Washington Post 12/11/2008