Tai Chi as medicine

[taai gihk yahn]

Most of these studies at Harvard are run by Ramel Rones, using some basic qigong, or his 'Sunrise Tai Chi' form, which is basically the first 9 movements of the classical Yang form as taught by Dr. Yang, Jwing-Ming, plus a closing move and abdominal breathing.

do you know if Joe Audette, MD has anything to do w/any of that work? (he was a PM&R resident back when I was in PT school at Columbia)

The osteoarthritis study was designed by Ramel under Chenchen Wang, MD, MSc.

as you obviously know, doing good research is a biotch, and most done by "alternative" types in the not too distant past is crap (never mind the stuff coming out of PRC - it's like a running gag); that seems to be changing of late, thankfully...
what were the results of the study?

He presented their research on the benefits of tai chi for osteoarthritis of the knee at the International Tai Chi Symposium in Nashville, TN in July this year.

that looked like a nice event - it was suggested to me to attend, possibly even present something, but time was not available; do you know if this will be a yearly thing?

"Rami" has been involved with the NIH in Boston since the 1990's and they have been very serious about slowly building real mainstream credibility, by operating WITHIN the system and following all the procedures requires of this kind of research.
These studies are VERY controlled, with all the double-blind controls required, and they have been slowly progressing over the past 10 years or so, from small groups toward larger, longer-term studies.

I know Steve Wolfe, PT, PhD has been involved in taiji research for over a decade down in Atlanta, which resulted in the body of work demonstrating decreased falling incidence in geriatric pop as a result; nice thing about a standardized "mini-form" w/a specific protocol is that you can factor out operator influence to a viable greater degree and ty to get the modality interacting more "purely" in a sense; although some would argue that this robs taiji of something essential...

Many places here in Boston, Mass General Hospital, Tufts medical School, Dana Farber Cancer Institute, are involved in these studies, and offer weekly taiji/qigong classes

I keep thinking about going around to local hospitals and starting classes, but it's always an issue of time, time, time...

Its impossible to say if Taiji, or Qigong, or Daoyin, or whatever, is better for health and healing - it depends on the teacher, the student, the condition, etc.

this is often the confounding aspect of doing studies along these line: operator skill / subjectivity is a critical component in application of some of this stuff - similar to any integrated movement approach (Feldenkreis, Alexander, Pilates, etc.);

But it is becoming clear that unlike jogging or other 'external' exercises, 'internal' arts like taiji and qigong have a lot of benefit because not only do they exercise the body, and increase range of motion, and oxygen uptake, but they also trigger the 'relaxation response' which retrains the nervous system and can have health benefits even on the genetic level.

are there any studies demonstrating differences between something like joggin and practicing taiji? personally, I would suggest that "relaxation" can happen w/just about any sort of movement, including running (there is even practice of "qigong running"), so I would say it has more to do w/the intent and the presence of awareness that one brings to it - running on a treadmill can be "internal", but not if you are staring at ESPN and wishing you weren't there at the same time!

I would say taiji is about 15 years behind yoga as far as when it will hit the mainstream in a big way. Qigong is probably another 10 years behind that.

I think taiji in its "traditional" incarnation may be on a plateau - modified forms, such as taught by guys like Yang Yang, PhD or Stephen Wolfe, PhD are more "consumer friendly"; qigong, OTHO, I think is just ascending, but quickly - I mean, when the Boomers figure out that they can't do yoga anymore, what are they gonna do?

if you are interested in a large bibliography of taiji / qigong research, I can post the link