Tai chi 'may help people cope better with diseases of ageing'

ConclusionThis review searched the literature to summarise the effects of tai chi on four common chronic conditions. It identified a large number of trials collectively examining many different physical and psychological outcomes in a predominantly middle-aged to elderly population.  The notable significant effects seemed to be for improvements in walking for those with heart failure, knee extensor strength for those with heart failure and COPD, and pain and stiffness for those with osteoarthritis. There were also trends for effects on depression and quality of life for people with heart failure and COPD.The researchers concluded that tai chi could be performed by individuals for many different chronic conditions. However, this review can't demonstrate that tai chi will definitely have a positive effect if it's tried out by someone who has one of these chronic conditions. Overall, the systematic review is a high-quality study design. However, the evidence is only as good as the studies included. The 24 individual studies in this review were widely different, and most results are based on one to a few studies. Variations across the studies included: The type of tai chi, the overall duration of the intervention, and the frequency and duration of individual sessions.   The type of disease and severity, even within the same chronic disease category – for example, most cancer studies were in breast cancer, but even these varied in their stages, while another was just i...
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