Seriously, again we find “news” expounding on something that we practitioners have known for millenia. Tai Chi helps arthritis. Here’s the article: “Tai Chi has major benefits for arthritic knees“ Note two things: the title says “MAJOR BENEFITS”, not just fringe “I feel better” benefits. Second, this study is to be published in the Nov. 15 issue of Arthritis and Rheumatism, a major trade mag.
In a study, researchers found that practicing the Chinese mind-body exercise led to improvements in pain, function and even mental health for people with osteoarthritis of the knee. Some of these benefits persisted for a full year after the study began—months after people had stopped doing the exercises.
If this is placebo effect, I want my share!
“The Tai Chi group seems to have developed a general sense of well being, suggesting that there may be synergy between the physical and mental components of this discipline,” note Dr. Chenchen Wang of Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston and colleagues in the journal Arthritis & Rheumatism. “These findings are promising because there are few efficacious long-lasting treatments for knee osteoarthritis.”
Tufts… last I heard that was a WESTERN medical school. Nice to know they’re looking into this for real! Let’s see how they did it:
To investigate further, they randomly assigned 40 people with knee osteoarthritis to an hour of Tai Chi or an hour of wellness education and stretching exercises twice a week for 12 weeks. Study participants’ average age was 65, and three-quarters were women. Most were overweight.
No patients dropped out of the study and those in the Tai Chi group attended 85 percent of the sessions, while the control participants went to 89 percent of the sessions.
At 12 weeks, pain scores had improved by 75 percent, on average, for the Tai Chi group, while function had improved by 72 percent—57 percent and 46 percent greater than for the control-group patients, respectively.
The Tai Chi group also showed significant improvements in quality of life, “self-efficacy,” and depression and anxiety compared to the control group, and the improvements in self-efficacy and depression persisted at week 24 and week 48. Self-efficacy refers to a person’s belief that he or she can accomplish a goal.
Pain scores and others may be subjective, but I’m hoping “function” was measured using objective scales. Will be looking forward to this when published! But wow, gotta say it: more than double the effectiveness!
Now one might wonder how can what appears to be standing around and waving the arms while dancing can actually improve joint pain and degeneration. Here’s my take on it: firstly, tai chi isn’t just about meditation, it’s about making Qi flow more efficient. If Qi flow is more efficient, then there is better Blood flow. (Note that I capitalized Blood here – indicating TCM Blood as opposed to western blood.)
In Chinese medicine, Blood has three functions: to nourish, to house the mind, and to moisten. If Qi flows better, more Blood flows to the joints, and thus the joints are more moistened and have less friction and dryness, at least according to the theory.
Western medicine wise, circulation is improved, leading to more nourished cartilage, I presume.
Either way, the stuff works.
Recent Comments