Taichi: Health Benefits
Description
This article is from the Alternative Medicine Therapies guide.
Taichi: Health Benefits
Tai chi can be used as a preventive health measure, as a way to maintain good health, or to help with a specific ailment. While tai chi cannot cure disease, it is often recommended as a complementary therapy to conventional treatment. Specifically, tai chi can be used to help:
- Arthritis. By strengthening the muscles surrounding an arthritic joint and improving flexibility, tai chi increases range of motion without causing pain. Although tai chi cannot treat bone and cartilage damage caused by arthritis, it can lessen the severity and pain of the disease when started early enough.
- Balance. Research shows that practicing tai chi improves balance in older people and thus reduces the risk of falling--a major cause of death and disability in the elderly.
- Circulation problems. Tai chi may enable the heart to pump more blood with each beat, thereby improving circulation.
- High blood pressure. A recent study done at Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions revealed that tai chi lowered blood pressure almost as much as moderate-intensity aerobic exercise in older adults who had been sedentary.
- Multiple sclerosis. Preliminary studies suggest that tai chi helps people with MS to increase their physical functioning as well as their mental well-being.
- Stress. Although the evidence is limited, some studies have shown that tai chi is as effective as meditation and walking for reducing the amount of stress hormones in the body.
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