An across-the-board review of the health effects of Qigong and Tai Chi finds these practices offer many physical and mental health advantages with benefits for the heart, immune system and overall quality of life.

The review, which appears in the July/August issue of the American Journal of Health Promotion, included 77 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on Qigong or Tai Chi interventions published in peer-reviewed journals between 1993 and 2007. Taken together, there were 6,410 participants in the studies.

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It was evening and my 10 week old daughter was starting to cry. Without thinking, I began to rock and sway as I held her. After all, rhythmical, gentle movement is something that we all intuitively do to soothe and calm.

From the perspective of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Qigong, all of life alternates in rhythmical movement. Within the body the most fundamental rhythm of the heart and lungs forms the basis for our individual life. Within all of nature, we can find a similar, familiar rhythm. The activity of the day quiets at night, and the exuberance of summer is internalized and nurtured during the stillness of winter. All of these fundamental rhythms and movements, both within us and within all of nature, are described as “qi.”

Qi can be translated as energy, influence, vital function and breath. Within nature the transformations of qi can be seen in the cyclical movement of day and night, the phases of the moon, and the changing seasons. Within the body, qi is the energy that allows the functioning of life through warmth, movement, transformation, containment and defense. It is the energy that maintains and safeguards the integrity of the body and mind, containing and preserving what is necessary to our life and repelling what would be harmful to us. The attributes of qi within the body can be seen in the energy, warmth and vital movement of life. From this perspective, all transformations and movements within the body, whether physical or emotional, depend on the correct and balanced movement of the qi.

Medical Qigong is a branch of Traditional Chinese Medicine, like acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine. Medical Qigong consists of traditional therapeutic exercises used to support the correct movement of qi and address specific health issues. These are relatively simple, gentle exercises that are consist of what are traditionally referred to as the “Three Regulations,” the regulation of the body, breath and mind. Through specific methods of regulating the body, breath and mind we can enter into a rhythm that is in harmony with the greater movements and rhythms of nature. This process can be likened to rocking a baby to calm and settle the little one, helping them to enter into a deep and restorative sleep (at least that’s an analogy that I’ve been thinking about these days).

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Courtesy of whatsonxiamen.com

The group of five women and one man glided across the hardwood floor in the well-lit, butter yellow room on the second floor of the People’s Food Co-Op in Southeast Portland.

Their synchronized movements flowed like traditional ballet, with arms raised, fingers stretched, deep lunges. Then, the routine morphed into something more reminiscent of modern dance, with arm, leg and core muscles quickly contracting, releasing, often punctuated by staccato pulses of exhaled breath.

The “dancers” shed layers of loose clothing as their faces flushed with their physical and mental exertion; despite the effort, each participant wore a mien of pure concentration.

After the group had covered nearly every inch of the parquet, one of its leaders, Katy Langstaff, strode over to the three newcomers observing the exercises.

Inches above their white upturned palms, Langstaff placed her own downturned, pink and white mottled palm and asked, “Can you feel that?” referring to a warmth resonating from her hand.

“That’s my qi.”

Balancing the qi

Qigong is a classical Chinese exercise that claims to help its practitioners achieve inner balance and optimum mental and physical health. Done correctly, the series of largely gentle movements for the entire body, coupled with meditation, is supposed to balance a person’s two opposing forces (yin and yang) and unblock the qi.

Qi (also written “chi”) is the energy force that flows through the body via channels called meridians, says Lita Buttolph, a local qigong instructor who works with Langstaff.

If this energy force gets blocked anywhere in the body, that portion of the body suffers. But if the energy flows freely, the body better attains its balance and an ill can be healed, says naturopathic physician Laurie Regan, a professor and dean of the School of Classical Chinese Medicine at the National College of Natural Medicine (NCNM) in Southwest Portland.

Qigong practitioners’ health claims range from repairing bad knees to improving energy and metal acuity. Oh, and helping you avoid getting a cold.

Sound too good to be true? Regan, the NCNM dean, agrees. “It’s understandable to be skeptical,” she says. “So to dispel that is to experience it.”

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