Tai chi benefits individuals with Ankylosing Spondylitis
December 6, 2009 by David Bendall · 1 Comment
Researchers at the Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine in Daejeon, South Korea published results in the December 2008 issue of Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine of a study that found that tai chi benefits individuals with Ankylosing Spondylitis. The study randomly assigned 40 individuals to two one hour sessions of tai chi for 8 weeks, or a control group. After 8 weeks the tai chi group had significantly lower disease activity and improved flexibility than the control group. The authors noted that effect size for disease activity was greater than found in previous studies of home exercise, conventional exercise, global posture re-education and NSAIDs.
Pain related depression is a major issue for individuals with Ankylosing Spondylitis. While there were improvements in depression compared to the control group in this study, they were not statistically significant. The authors noted that previous studies of tai chi for depression with similar durations and practice time failed to achieve statistically significant decreases in depression, while a study where participants had four tai chi lessons per week for 18 week did reduce depression levels in patients with osteoarthritis, indicating that training time and duration may be related to reducing depression levels. It will probably take larger studies or studies with additional tai chi training to conclusively demonstrate that tai chi reduces depression as well as lowering disease activity in individuals with Ankylosing Spondylitis.
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I am a tai chi instructor and have been dealing with Ankylosing Spondylitis and arthritis since 2002. I was in the contruction industry and due to the economy and A.S. I was forced to close the business. After studying tai chi for the past 22 years I was fortunate enough to make it my new career and open a stuio (Full Moon Tai Chi). In the past 6 months I have been able to stop taking my arthrits pills (3 tolmetin/day) and have cut my pain pills in half (from 8 utrucets/day to 4/day). I do still need to take the enbrel injections twice a week and the afternoon nap, however I can feel the physical and mental benififits of doing tai chi twice a day.