Exercise Is Medicine, T’ai Chi/Qigong and the National Physical Activity plan

October 22, 2017 Joe Brady

Healthy, happy, fully functional people are money in the bank for our whole society. Although Tai Chi and Qigong have a thousand year history of preventing and treating disease, they are just now getting deserved attention as a result of an initiative of the American College of Sports Medicine called Exercise Is Medicine™. The purpose of the ACSM’s Exercise Is Medicine™ initiative is to make physical activity and exercise a standard part of medical treatment in the United States. There is a growing consensus that increasing awareness, knowledge and participation in T’ai Chi and Qigong, both as alternative medicine and as physical activity for fitness and overall wellness, will benefit the public health.
A“health promotion industry vs. an illness care industry”.

As health care costs continue to skyrocket, the dire need for new approaches to preventive medicine can no longer be ignored. Increasing physical activity levels in the population has the potential to prevent disease and disability and create enormous savings in health care costs. We have inadvertently created an illness care system when what we need is a health promotion industry. In reality I think health care should not be an industry at all, we all have a stake in living a healthy productive and vigorous life.

Scientific review study, confirms Tai Chi and Qi Gong is Medical Exercise!

Carol Rogers et al, looked at 36 research reports with a total of 3,799 participants were included in this review. Five, categories of study outcomes were identified, including falls and balance, physical function, cardiovascular disease, psychological and additional disease specific responses. Significant improvement in clusters of similar outcomes indicated interventions utilizing TC&QG may help older adults improve physical function and reduce blood pressure; fall risk; and depression and anxiety.. this and other studies have found strong evidence that Tai Chi and Qigong offer benefits for:

  • cardio-respiratory fitness
  • physical function and bone health
  • balance and fall prevention
  • mental health and quality of life
  • Read the article >

Tai Chi and Qigong have many health benefits, and therefore, should be considered a high priority when integrating Exercise Is Medicine™ into the health care system. It should also become a high priority in your life. We invite and  encourage you to commit to as many of the following practices as possible;

Talk to your Doctor about Exercise Is Medicine™ and Tai Chi during your next office visit. *
Look up a Tai Chi class in your neighborhood at taichidenver.com.

Get on our e-mail list for Tai Chi practitioners who support using Exercise as Medicine. taichiproj@earthlink.net
Share information about Tai Chi and Qigong and the idea that Exercise Is Medicine™ with your family and friends.

Encourage them to visit this site EIM@acsm.org for more information and talk to their health care provider about exercise/physical activity.

Please join us in this exciting effort! The more Tai Chi and Qigong practitioners we are speaking up about the benefits of Tai Chi and Qigong, the more influence we will have on changing the course of country’s health system. To find out more about becoming a part of this exciting opportunity, contact Joe Brady or Jacqui Shumway in Denver, Colorado at the Tai Chi Project website www.taichidenver.com or directly at the TCM College of Sports Medicine taichiproj@earthlink.net

303-744-7676.