Man performing tai chi (Photo by Ponto de Cultura Vila Buarque on Flickr)
A new study published in The New England Journal of Medicine shows that tai chi helps improve strength, balance, and physical function of those that suffer from Parkinson’s disease.
Parkinson’s disease is a neurodegenerative disease in which nerve cells in the brain that produce the chemical dopamine begin to die. The decrease in the production of dopamine results in movement impairments, loss of postural stability and many more problems that affect function and quality of life. According to Parkinson Society Canada, nearly 100, 000 Canadians have Parkinson’s disease and 1 in 300 people in Canada and the United States has Parkinson’s.
Tai chi is an ancient martial art that is characterized by slow, flowing movement and meditation that is practiced for both defense training as well as many health benefits.
The latest research recruited 195 patients who suffered movement and balance problems caused by Parkinson’s disease from four Oregon cities and randomly assigned them into three groups: tai chi, resistance training, or stretching. All patients in all three groups underwent two 60-minute sessions twice a week for 24 consecutive weeks. After 24 weeks, the patients in the tai chi group performed much better than the other two groups in many measures related to strength, balance, movement control, stride length, and functional reach.
What makes this finding more significant is that tai chi improves what current medications do not. Fuzhong Li, the study’s lead author, quoted in an interview with the New York Times, “Current medications do not work well in terms of providing impaired balance or postural instability.” Li added, “In fact, patients suffer a great deal of medication side effects which may lead to further deterioration in balance control.”
Tai chi may help your walks last longer. Photo by C. Frank Starmer
For those of you that are interested and have a few minutes of extra time, you may want to take a look at the short video of instructor Dr. Fuzhong Li, taken from “Tai Chi: Moving for Better Balance”, posted below.
