Tai Chi Research » Seniors

Tai chi augments pharmaceutical treatment of depression in seniors.

David Bendall — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 19:06:10 +0000

Nearly two-thirds of seniors treated for depression fail to achieve remission with pharmaceutical treatment. Researchers at at the University of California Los Angeles carried out a study to see if tai chi could help achieve improved results when used as a complimentary treatment to escitalopram (brand name Lexipro). 112 patients with major depression at least 60 years old were treated with escitalopram for 4 weeks. Of these 72 partial responders all of whom continued to take escitalopram were divided at random into two groups with one group taking tai chi classes twice a week for 10 weeks and the other receiving the same amount of health education.

Compared to the health education and escitalopram group, the tai chi and escitalopram group showed a greater reduction in depressive symptoms, improved physical functioning, improved scores on cognitive tests and a decline in inflammatory markers.

This study supports the view that tai chi can help seniors with depression achieve improved clinical outcomes related to depression. As other studies have shown that tai chi can also reduce the risk of falls among seniors the use of tai chi as a complementary therapy for seniors with geriatric depression is especially compelling.

Abstract

Tai Chi reduces Fear of Falling among the Elderly

David Bendall — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 17:15:42 +0000

Fear of falling is major health problem among elderly adults. Researchers at Chang-Gung University in Taiwan studied the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral strategies with and without tai chi in reducing the fear of falling.

Participants were randomly assigned to a control group, a cognitive-behavioral group without tai chi or a cognitive-behavioral group with tai chi. Participants in the tai chi group had significant improvements in fear of falling, mobility, social support behavior and satisfaction and quality of life five months after the intervention compared to the cognitive behavior along and control groups.

Abstract

Fear of falling has been shown to be linked to future risk of falls regardless of actual risk levels and can lead to social isolation and decreased quality of life. This study adds to the growing body of evidence that tai chi is an effective intervention for fall prevention.

Reference

Tai chi compared to swimming – balance and hand-eye coordination

David Bendall — Sat, 16 Oct 2010 15:46:02 +0000

Researchers at Chang Gung University in Taiwan carried out a study aimed at testing if practicing tai chi provides a distinctive benefit on balance in the elderly. Researchers compared 32 individuals who had practiced tai chi for at least 3 years to 20 participants who practiced regular swimming for the past three years and 34 healthy controls. Researchers measured both balance and hand-eye coordination.

Both the tai chi and swimming groups had significantly better hand eye coordination than the control groups, however the tai chi practitioners performed significantly better than both the swimming and control groups in the most challenging balance conditions.

Abstract

Seniors who practice tai chi have improved fitness

David Bendall — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 18:32:06 +0000

Researchers at the National Taiwan University Hospital in Taipei compared investigated the fitness level of seniors who practice tai chi to sedentary controls matched by age and body size. 22 male and 19 female tai chi practitioners with an average age of 69 and 12 years of tai chi practice were compared to 18 male and 17 female sedentary subjects. Both the male and female tai chi practitioners had significantly greater fitness measurements then the sedentary controls. The tai chi group had 18-19% greater peak oxygen uptake, greater flexibility and lower body fat compared to the sedentary controls.

Abstract

Long term tai chi practitioners show improved finger pointing accuracy.

David Bendall — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 23:10:54 +0000

Researchers at Hong Kong Polytechnic University compared the effects of age and tai chi on eye-hand coordination. The study consisted of three groups, a younger control group consisting of 30 university students with an average age of 24, a elderly control group consisting of 30 healthy non-tai chi practicing adults with an average age of 72 and an elderly tai chi group consisting of 31 healthy tai chi practicing adults with an average age of 70 and 7 years of tai chi practice. The study compared reaction time and accuracy in a test in which subjects point towards a dot on a display unit. The younger subjects achieved significantly faster reaction and movement times and better accuracy than the elderly controls in all finger-pointing tasks. The elderly tai chi group had significantly better accuracy than the elderly controls in pointing towards both stationary and moving targets. The accuracy in the tai chi group was similar to the accuracy in the younger control group.

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Tai chi associated with improved eye-hand coordination in the elderly.

David Bendall — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 22:33:52 +0000

Researchers at Ghang Gung Memorial Hospital in Taiwan studied the effect of tai chi on eye-hand coordination in the elderly. 22 elderly individuals who had practiced tai chi regularly for at least 3 years were compared to a control group of 20 healthy and active elderly individuals who did not practice tai chi. The tai chi group had significantly better test scores on the eye-hand coordination tests than the control group.

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Tai chi improves sleep quality in older adults.

David Bendall — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 13:22:24 +0000

Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles randomly assigned 118 older adults with moderate sleep complaints to 16 weeks of tai chi training or health education. Individuals assigned to the tai chi groups were more likely to achieve a treatment response than those in the health education group. Individuals in the tai chi group had significant improvements to sleep quality, efficiency, duration and disturbance. The researchers conclude that tai chi can be considered a useful nonpharmacologic approach to improve sleep quality in older adults with moderate sleep complaints.

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Tai chi improves sleep quality.

David Bendall — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 17:24:12 +0000

A study of 118 older adults at the Oregon Research Institute found that tai chi improved sleep quality more than a low-impact exercise control. Participates were randomly assigned to the tai chi or control group. Each group met for one hour, three times a week for 24 weeks. At the end of the program the individuals randomly assigned to take tai chi had significant improvements in sleep quality, sleep-onset latency, sleep duration, sleep efficiency and sleep disturbances.

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Review of controlled trials show tai chi to be effective at reducing risk of falls among seniors.

David Bendall — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 09:22:39 +0000

A systematic review of randomizes trials of interventions to reduce falls in community-dwelling seniors published in the April 2009 Cochrane Database Syst Rev. found that tai chi is effective at reducing the rate of falls. In addition to tai chi, multiple-component group exercise, individually prescribed multiple-component home-based exercise, and assessment and multifactorial intervention were also found to be effective. Of these tai chi had the greatest estimated reduction in falls. A number of other interventions were also found to be effective, however these only applied to selected situations or populations such as anti-slip shoes in icy conditions and first eye cataract surgery.

Abstract

Tai Chi for Falls Prevention Program Successfully Implemented

David Bendall — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 15:14:33 +0000

Researchers at the Oregon Research Institute demonstrated that a tai chi based falls-prevention program developed from a clinical trial could be replicated. The program was evaluated at 6 community centers. All 6 centers successfully implemented the program with an 87% reach into the target population. The participants showed significant improvements in health-related outcome measures.

Abstract