Recent Research Further Documents Multiple Benefits of Tai Chi

In her September 10, 2018 Personal Health column in the New York Times, Jane E. Brody writes: “Tai chi moves can be easily learned and executed by people of all ages and states of health, even those in their 90s, in wheelchairs or bedridden.” The results make tai chi practitioners “not only stronger mentally but stronger physically and healthier as well.”

Citing 2015 research from Beijing University and Harvard Medical, Brody explains that tai chi’s benefits can be quickly realized for people with various medical problems, including “high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, and osteoporosis.” Of the 507 studies in the research, 94.1% of the participants found significant improvements.

In addition, “an analysis of high-quality studies published last year in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, researchers at the University of Jaen in Spain reported that older adults who did one-hour tai chi sessions one to three times a week for 12 to 26 weeks were 43 percent less likely to fall and half as likely to incur a fall-related injury.” Because tai chi sequences are low-impact, low-stress exercises and they synthesize slow breathing with slow, graceful motions, they reduce discomfort rather than causing it. Tai chi “strengthens the lower body, improves posture, promotes flexibility, increases a person’s awareness of where the body is in space and improves one’s ability to navigate obstacles while walking.”

Brody also reports findings from a New Zealand study showing college students who regularly practiced tai chi experienced reduced depression, anxiety, and stress. Moreover, Brody adds, tai chi “enhances an important quality called self-efficacy—confidence in one’s ability to perform various activities and overcome obstacles in doing so.”

Brody’s column reiterates conclusions drawn from decades of earlier scientific studies documenting the many benefits tai chi and qi gong can bring.