Tai Chi For Diabetes Treatment:
I have said for many many years that due to my own experience and experimentation with Tai Chi for my own diabetic condition, that the Tai Chi form and other Tai Chi exercises are excellent for the control of Blood Sugar levels. I have had articles in the UK's own Diabetic magazine "Balance" and am due for one in the July edition of the US Magazine "Diabetes Health". So now my own articles and scientific work may be listened to by the general public and doctors? It's a shame that they wait for 20 years later to find out from their own scientific evidence something that I have been telling them for years. Read on.
Tai Chi Chuan may benefit type 2 diabetes patients
Last Updated: 2007-03-08 16:25:42 -0400 (Reuters Health)
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A new study suggests that participation in the Chinese martial art Tai Chi Chuan may help boost immune function and improve blood sugar control in people with type 2 diabetes.
After completing a 12-week Tai Chi exercise program, men and women with the disease had statistically significant reductions in their levels of A1C, a measurement of long-term blood glucose control. The participants also showed increases in regulatory T cells, which help to keep the immune response in check, while their levels of killer T cells, which destroy abnormal cells in the body, decreased.
People with type 2 diabetes experience chronic inflammation, and while exercise has been shown to be beneficial, strenuous exercise may boost inflammation and cause other problems, Dr. Kuender D. Yang of Chang Gung Memorial Hospital in Taiwan and colleagues note.
Tai Chi, in which a person performs a series of poses in a flowing motion, improves balance and heart and lung function, and recently was shown to benefit immune system function in healthy individuals, they add.
To investigate whether Tai Chi might do the same for diabetic patients, Yang and his team had 32 men and women participate in three hour-long sessions of the martial art each week for 12 weeks.
Tai Chi could improve the immune system through its effects on cardiopulmonary health or the martial art might exert its effects by improving glucose metabolism, the researchers note.
They conclude: "An appropriate combination of the Tai Chi Chuan exercise program with diabetic medications may improve both glucose metabolism and immunity of type 2 diabetic patients."
SOURCE: Diabetes Care, March 2007.