World Tai Chi and Qigong Day 2015

 
World Tai Chi and Qigong Day is fast approaching! On Saturday, April 25, 2015, participate and learn about the great benefits of tai chi practice, see demonstrations, and network. See the WTCD website for listings of events in your local community.

Yoga Practice Caveats and Lessons

When is a good thing too much? When it creates problems. That's the case for some yoga practitioners, as described in this New York Times Magazine article. According to yoga instructor Glenn Black,

...a number of factors have converged to heighten the risk of practicing yoga. The biggest is the demographic shift in those who study it. Indian practitioners of yoga typically squatted and sat cross-legged in daily life, and yoga poses, or asanas, were an outgrowth of these postures. Now urbanites who sit in chairs all day walk into a studio a couple of times a week and strain to twist themselves into ever-more-difficult postures despite their lack of flexibility and other physical problems. Many come to yoga as a gentle alternative to vigorous sports or for rehabilitation for injuries. But yoga’s exploding popularity — the number of Americans doing yoga has risen from about 4 million in 2001 to what some estimate to be as many as 20 million in 2011 — means that there is now an abundance of studios where many teachers lack the deeper training necessary to recognize when students are headed toward injury. “Today many schools of yoga are just about pushing people,” Black said. “You can’t believe what’s going on — teachers jumping on people, pushing and pulling and saying, ‘You should be able to do this by now.’ It has to do with their egos.”

While tai chi practice seldom leads to injury, the lessons of yoga practitioners--students and teachers alike--should give pause for thought. How far does one push oneself? How does one work out safely?

Arthritis and Exercise

Exercise is the way to deal with arthritis, experts say. "Three years ago, federal health officials recommended that people with arthritis exercise moderately every day for about 20 minutes. But that's not what's happening. A recent study at Northwestern University looked at activity among 1,000 adults, between 49 and 84 years old, who had osteoarthritis of the knee. Ninety percent of the people were not exercising, according to lead scientist Dorothy Dunlop....Even more alarming, 40 percent of men and nearly 60 percent of women were total couch potatoes, Dunlop says." Read the entire article at NPR.
Tai chi, of course, is widely practiced for arthritis.

Tai Chi for Heart Health

 A recent study reported on in US News found that tai chi "could boost heart patients' quality of life. Researchers split 100 patientswith heart failure into two groups: Half participated in a 12-week tai chi program, while the others spent 12 weeks in an educational program learning about heart-related issues, like low-sodium diets and heart-rhythm problems. At the end of the study, the tai chi group reported improvements in mood, less , less fatigue, and more energy than the others—and those in the first group were more likely to continue with some type of physical activity, according to findings published Monday in the Archives of Internal Medicine. "Maintaining an exercise regimen is important in heart failure," study author Gloria Yeh of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center told HealthDay. "Tai chi may be a suitable alternative or adjunct exercise for these patients."

Tai chi is much more than sheer exercise. Yes, those who do take up tai chi find it has many unexpected benefits: improved balance and gait, mental focus, straightened posture, lower stress, improved immune system, and more. But tai chi is also "philosophy in motion," a martial art (improved balance and posture do wonders for "standing up for oneself"), and it can be a window into understanding more about Chinese culture. It is a calming, yet is exercise, and can be modified to fit anyone's physical needs, regardless of age.

Texting and Tai Chi?

Excessive texting is clearly a problem. As reported in the New York Times, A study at Case Western Reserve University "suggests that the high school students who spend the most time texting or on social network sites (or both) are at risk for a host of worrisome behaviors, including smoking, depression, eating disorders, drug and alcohol abuse, and absenteeism."
Mental focus, calm, self-image, self-control, stress management? Hmm, maybe tai chi can help teens with this.

Tai Chi Helps Ease Fibromyalgia Pain

Tai Chi has been practiced for hundreds of years, and has been studied scientifically for several decades. Medical reserachers have clearly demonstrated tai chi's usefullness for treatment of numerous conditions: arthritis, diabetes, balance problems, fall prevention, bone density loss, high blood pressure, shingles, stress, anger management, schizophrenia, and for improvement of general well-being.

"The ancient Chinese practice of tai chi may be effective as a therapy for fibromyalgia, according to a study published on Thursday in The New England Journal of Medicine.

A clinical trial at Tufts Medical Center found that after 12 weeks of tai chi, patients with fibromyalgia, a chronic pain condition, did significantly better in measurements of pain, fatigue, physical functioning, sleeplessness and depression than a comparable group given stretching exercises and wellness education. Tai chi patients were also more likely to sustain improvement three months later."

Read the complete New York Times article here.

The Brain-Power Workout

Tai Chi for health? You betcha: balance, relaxation, lower blood pressure, coordination...the list goes on. Now here's what one article says: "Studies have long shown that tai chi improves balance. Now research demonstrates it may also protect the area of the brain responsible for the sense of touch. In a recent Harvard study, 50- to 60-year-olds who did tai chi had a more acute sense of feeling in their fingertips, equivalent to that of people nearly half their age." The article offers a one-week "brain-power workout" to help brain function. ("The brain-power workout" India Today 9/16/09).

Books Received May 2009

• The Essence of T'ai Chi Ch'uan: The Literary Tradition, Second Edition; translated by Benjamin Lo, Martin Inn, Robert Amacker, Susan Foe, IRI Press
• Tai Chi Chuan: State of the Art in International Research by Youlian Hong; Karger Publishers, 2008
• Seeking the Spirit of the Book of Change: 8 Days to Mastering a Shamanic Yijing (I Ching) Prediction System, by Zhongxian Wu, Singing Dragon
• You Are How You Move: Experiential Chi Kung, by Ged Sumner; Singing Dragon Eternal Spring: Taijiquan, Qi Gong, and the Cultivation of Health, Happiness and Longevity, by Michael Acton; Singing Dragon.
• Meet Your Body: Core Bodywork and Rolfing Tools to Release Bodymindcore Trauma, by Noah Karrasch; Singing Dragon.
• Beyond the Daode jing: Twofold Mystery in Tang Daoism, by Friederike Assandri; Three Pines Press

Knee Arthritis Helped by Tai Chi

"The traditional Chinese form of exercise known as tai chi can help reduce pain and physical impairment in people who have knee arthritis, researchers said this week.
In their study, one group of people in their 60s with severe knee osteoarthritis performed tai chi for an hour twice a week for 12 weeks, while a similar group did the same amount of conventional stretching exercises over the same period.
Those who did tai chi experienced greater pain reduction, less depression and improvements in physical function and overall health, researchers led by Dr. Chenchen Wang of Tufts Medical Center in Boston reported at a meeting of the American College of Rheumatology in San Francisco." Read the whole Reuters story at Canada.com. (Image: Andrew Wong/Getty Images)

T'ai Chi for Lowering Blood Sugar

Concerned about blood sugar?
"Regular walking can help control blood sugar, lower blood pressure and fight metabolic syndrome. But what if you don’t enjoy walking or the weather is too cold or too hot? Are there gentle indoor exercises that can help?
A recent study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine showed that regular practice of the gentle, relaxing exercises of tai chi and qigong may do the trick.
Eleven participants, aged 42 to 65, with elevated blood sugar attended tai chi and qigong exercise training for one to one and a half hours, three times a week, for 12 weeks. They were also encouraged to practice at home. Most people stuck with the program and the tai chai and qigong health benefits were evident. Body mass index, waist circumference and blood pressure showed significant improvement and there were small improvements in fasting insulin and insulin resistance." See full article at Stop Aging Now, 11/11/2008.

Taiji is True North?

Ever wonder why we face certain directions in taiji practice?
One might argue that it's because "taiji" can refer to the Pole Star, or because the Chinese emperors faced south, or because of the placement of a courtyard used for practice, but the real reason might be in our bodies.
A recent study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences "Direct observations of roe deer revealed that animals orient their heads northward when grazing or resting. Amazingly, this ubiquitous phenomenon does not seem to have been noticed by herdsmen, ranchers, or hunters. Because wind and light conditions could be excluded as a common denominator determining the body axis orientation, magnetic alignment is the most parsimonious explanation. To test the hypothesis that cattle orient their body axes along the field lines of the Earth's magnetic field, we analyzed the body orientation of cattle from localities with high magnetic declination. Here, magnetic north was a better predictor than geographic north."

{Picture} Rob Taverner in the UK practicing taiji in front of his herd. Metro.co.uk

T'ai Chi Helps Dental Workers

"I was exposed to Chinese martial arts as a child. In my small rural community, our family shared a common alley with a grandmaster of kung fu. I listened as people spoke of the grandmaster and his secret. Students would come in hopes of learning this elusive chi (internal energy) from him, and I watched while he effortlessly bounced and threw his students. I knew this elderly Chinese man — this Kung Fu Grandmaster — as gentle and soft spoken, with an indescribable presence. Even now, I remember how intrigued I was with his inner calm and centeredness....From the day I started practicing tai chi, it felt familiar. Surprisingly, while practicing clinical dental hygiene one day, it came to me — the principles of tai chi are applicable to the practice of dental hygiene. A knowledge and practice of tai chi might help dental hygienists work effortlessly, manage the demands of ergonomics, and cope with internal and external stresses." In this highly informative article for dental workers by Carol Lee, RDH, BS, the author outlines the important points of t'ai chi

Exercise by Pill Proxy

Researchers report that they've developed pills that mimic the effects of exercise. Tested on mice, the pills "reproduce many of the biological benefits of exercise, helping cells burn fat better and boosting endurance, said Ronald Evans, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute researcher at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in California. One of the pills may some day help people enhance their exercise or training, while the other might be more suited for couch potatoes who need to kick-start themselves, Evans and colleagues reported on Thursday in the journal Cell."
Of course, they've already developed a way to test athletes for the presence of the drug. Read the whole article in Reuters 7/31/08.

Tai Chi Featured on NBC News

NBC is running a series this week The Mind-Body Connection" on the Nightly News. The series features tai chi, acupuncture, food, massage and more. Dr. Shin Lin of UC-Irvine discusses with them researcch he is doing about the efficacy of tai chi practice in the areas of complementary and alternative medicine, mind/body signaling, qigong, tai chi, acupuncture, and exercise physiology.

For further information on research about tai chi, see our links column at the side.

Taiji for Parkinson's

Doctors at Mass General Hospital are warming up to taiji as a therapy for their patients with Parkinson's disease.
Over 1.5 million Americans have the disease which causes involuntary and rigid movements. Taiji helps by keeping the muscles relaxed and loose, and improving balance. Read more....