Chinese Health Theraphy

A team of researchers found that the practice of the Chinese exercise for the mind and the body reduced pain and improved function and mental health of people with knee osteoarthritis.

Some of these benefits were maintained for one year after the start of the study, ie, months after people had suspended the exercises.

“The Tai Chi group had developed a general feeling of well-being, suggesting that there would be synergy between the physical and mental components of this discipline,” he wrote in Arthritis & Rheumatism Chenchen Wang’s team, School of Medicine, Tufts University in Boston.

“The results are promising because there are few long-term effective treatment for osteoarthritis of the knee,” he added.

Osteoarthritis of the knee is painful, debilitating and increasingly common as the population ages. While strength exercises are recommended for these patients, “have limited effect on pain and physical function, and no change in the psychological effects,” the team said.

Tai Chi was shown to improve strength and balance, relieve pain and reduce depression and anxiety in people with chronic diseases, but evidence on the benefits in patients with knee osteoarthritis is not conclusive.

To investigate, the researchers randomly divided 40 people with osteoarthritis in both groups who performed an hour of Tai Chi or one hour of education on welfare and stretching exercises twice a week for 12 weeks.

The average age of participants was 65 years and three quarters were women. Most were overweight.

No patients dropped out and did Tai Chi group attended 85 percent of the classes, while the control group was 89 per cent of the sessions.

At 12 weeks, the pain level had improved to 75 percent on average for the group that had performed Tai Chi, while functionality has increased by 72 percent, compared to 57 and 46 percent of the control group, respectively .

The Tai Chi group had improved more than the control group the quality of life, the “efficacy” and the level of depression and anxiety and increased self-efficacy and decrease depression remained at 24 and 48 weeks.

Self-efficacy is the individual belief to achieve a goal.

All this highlights the need to further assess the biological mechanisms and approaches of Tai Chi to extend its benefits to a larger population.

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