Tai chi helps Parkinson’s patients with balance and fall prevention

Exercise is important for a healthy lifestyle but it is also a key part of therapy, rehabilitation and disease management. For Parkinson’s disease, exercise routines are often recommended to help maintain stability and the coordinated movements necessary for everyday living.


An NIH-funded study, reported in the February 9, 2012 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine,evaluated three different forms of exercise – resistance training, stretching, and tai chi – and found that tai chi led to the greatest overall improvements in balance and stability for patients with mild to moderate Parkinson’s disease.

Tai chi’s benefits become more obvious over time

The fitness benefits of tai chi for older women only become obvious if they engage in long-term practice. Chinese researchers randomised 105 urban elderly women into an experimental group (tai chi) and two active control groups a (dance or brisk walking).

At 12 months, the effects of tai chi were found to be more significant than both control groups.

Tai chi improve balance for those with knee osteoarthritis

Tai Chi is a practice of meditative movement. 

It’s been shown to improve balance for those with knee osteoarthritis, who are at increased risk for falls because of knee weakness and instability. 


Tai chi is considered a safe practice for nearly everyone.

Tai Ji improves balance and aerobic capacity in patients with total hip arthroplasty

Practicing tai chi along with strength training provides good adherence, and can effectively improve balance and aerobic capacity status in patients with end-stage osteoarthritis and total hip arthroplasty.

Tai chi is a good on rehabilitation for patients preparing to do THA.

More beautiful with Tai Ji

Taipei, June 7 (CNA) Taiwanese researchers have identified one possible reason that practitioners of the martial art tai chi tout its health benefits: shadow boxing apparently reinvigorates stem cells.

In a study published in the international medical journal Cell Transplantation, a research team found that tai chi can increase the number of stem cells in practitioners.

Lin Hsin-jung, a neural surgeon and head of China Medical University Beigang Hospital in southern Taiwan, said Saturday that his team’s research has been selected as the cover story for the latest issue of the journal.