Reuters Health
By Amy Norton
March 30, 2005
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A new take on the ancient
martial art Tai Chi may offer a gentle way for even frail elderly adults
to keep moving.
The style, known as Tai Chi Fundamentals, combines
the traditions of the Chinese practice along with modern therapeutic
principles to form an exercise plan feasible for elderly adults with a
range of health problems -- from arthritis to heart disease.
"It's a simplified version of Tai Chi," said Dr.
Sandra Matsuda, an assistant professor of occupational therapy at the
University of Missouri-Columbia and one of only about 15 practitioners
in the U.S. specifically certified in Tai Chi Fundamentals (TCF).
The program is part of a growing recognition in the
U.S. and other Western nations of the potential health benefits of Tai
Chi, particularly for older adults who cannot perform higher-impact
exercise.
Long used in China as a way to promote wellness, Tai
Chi focuses on building strength, balance and flexibility through slow,
fluid movements combined with mental imagery and deep breathing. Studies
have suggested that the elderly can reduce their risk of falls, lower
their blood pressure and ease arthritis symptoms through the practice,
and some research indicates Tai Chi can improve heart and blood vessel
function in both healthy people and those with heart conditions.
"It's the regular practice of Tai Chi that makes it
beneficial," Matsuda told Reuters Health. Making the practice accessible
through a simplified style like TCF or through free classes at community
senior centers, for example, should help older people stick with it.
Writing in the March issue of the Rehab Management
Journal, Matsuda and her co-authors, including one of the developers of
TCF, Tricia Yu, describe how various rehabilitation therapists in the
U.S. are using the program to help older patients with chronic
illnesses.
The exercise, according to the Matsuda and her
colleagues, can be beneficial for a range of patients, including those
who are recovering from total knee replacement or who have
cardiovascular or lung conditions, given that instructors are properly
trained in the needs of elderly adults with health limitations.
A local senior center, Matsuda said, would be a good
place for older people to start looking for an appropriate class.
Like traditional Tai Chi, TCF is intended to promote
well-being, not just aid in rehabilitation, according to Matsuda. In
general, Tai Chi seems particularly suited to helping reduce the risk of
falls -- a major cause of disabling injury among the elderly - because
it helps improve balance and coordination.
"It offers a way to be confident in your movement,"
Matsuda said.
One recent study of frail men and women between 70
and 90 years old, many of whom relied assistive devices to get around,
found that regular Tai Chi lessons cut the risk of falls by 25 percent.
"The time to treat falls," Matsuda said, "is not
after people have broken bones."
SOURCE: Rehab Management Journal, March 2005.
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