Post by beebs on Oct 27, 2011 10:25:22 GMT -5
The article mentions Tai Chi, but Qi Gong, or any martial arts, will achieve the same results. Noted a significant improvement in sleep pattern, improved, and now sleeping 7 to 8 hours nightly, waking up a little more refreshed than for the last 15 years, It raises melatonin, as some studies have shown, and other good hormones!!
Dr. Irwin studied 112 people (ages 59 to 86). He split them into two groups. 59 people tried Tai Chi, while 53 began health education. Each program took a total of two hours each week and lasted for 25 weeks. Dr. Irwin assessed everyone's self-rated sleep quality after 25 weeks. He used the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). It's a tool that measures sleep in seven different areas. Patients simply fill out the survey and add the component scores together to get a global PSQI score.
The PSQI is very accurate. A study at the University Hospital of Luebeck in Germany shows it has 98.7 percent sensitivity in identifying insomnia.
Patients practicing Tai Chi showed major improvements in PSQI scores. Their sleep quality, efficiency, and duration all improved. Tai Chi achieved a rate of treatment response for poor sleep quality that is comparable to levels achieved by treatments of insomnia," says Dr. Irwin.
Dr. Robert J. Thomas is a professor at Harvard Medical School and also the Sleep Medicine Fellowship Director at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
Dr. Thomas did a sleep study on patients who experienced heart failure and had sleep difficulties. Ten patients received drugs with diet and exercise counseling. The other eight took hour-long classes of Tai Chi twice a week. Dr Thomas also concluded that Tai Chi practice enhanced sleep stability and quality of sleep in patients with chronic heart failure.
Learnig Tai Chi thoroughly takes a long time. For example , just learning the original long Yang form takes on the average 5 to 6 years.. Experienced Tai Chi teachers soon learn that most students can't learn Tai Chi because they don't devote enough time to practice alone, memory problems, etc. Seniors especially are taken advantage of by false advertising and their misconceptions about Tai Chi. Non-strenuos Qigong for health would be more beneficial, easier to learn and practice.
Many teachers, whose primary source of income Is Tai Chi or some other martial art, make up their own form of 5 - 10 moves or teach some other modified short form incorrectly.
Tai Chi research is frequently done by scientists who have little knowledge of Tai Chi and may select incompetent teachers for theri subjects. They are difficult to repeat since teachers claiming to teach the same form modify it. The investigations are usually too short for people to learn any form of Tai Chi and should really be entitled the effects of learning Tai Chi. Many studies do not have any control group and the same resuts might have been obtained by doing any form of relaxing exercise consistently.
Dr. Irwin studied 112 people (ages 59 to 86). He split them into two groups. 59 people tried Tai Chi, while 53 began health education. Each program took a total of two hours each week and lasted for 25 weeks. Dr. Irwin assessed everyone's self-rated sleep quality after 25 weeks. He used the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). It's a tool that measures sleep in seven different areas. Patients simply fill out the survey and add the component scores together to get a global PSQI score.
The PSQI is very accurate. A study at the University Hospital of Luebeck in Germany shows it has 98.7 percent sensitivity in identifying insomnia.
Patients practicing Tai Chi showed major improvements in PSQI scores. Their sleep quality, efficiency, and duration all improved. Tai Chi achieved a rate of treatment response for poor sleep quality that is comparable to levels achieved by treatments of insomnia," says Dr. Irwin.
Dr. Robert J. Thomas is a professor at Harvard Medical School and also the Sleep Medicine Fellowship Director at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
Dr. Thomas did a sleep study on patients who experienced heart failure and had sleep difficulties. Ten patients received drugs with diet and exercise counseling. The other eight took hour-long classes of Tai Chi twice a week. Dr Thomas also concluded that Tai Chi practice enhanced sleep stability and quality of sleep in patients with chronic heart failure.
Learnig Tai Chi thoroughly takes a long time. For example , just learning the original long Yang form takes on the average 5 to 6 years.. Experienced Tai Chi teachers soon learn that most students can't learn Tai Chi because they don't devote enough time to practice alone, memory problems, etc. Seniors especially are taken advantage of by false advertising and their misconceptions about Tai Chi. Non-strenuos Qigong for health would be more beneficial, easier to learn and practice.
Many teachers, whose primary source of income Is Tai Chi or some other martial art, make up their own form of 5 - 10 moves or teach some other modified short form incorrectly.
Tai Chi research is frequently done by scientists who have little knowledge of Tai Chi and may select incompetent teachers for theri subjects. They are difficult to repeat since teachers claiming to teach the same form modify it. The investigations are usually too short for people to learn any form of Tai Chi and should really be entitled the effects of learning Tai Chi. Many studies do not have any control group and the same resuts might have been obtained by doing any form of relaxing exercise consistently.