Tai Chi Chuan: Mind-Body Practice or Exercise Intervention? Studying the Benefit for Cancer Survivors

Abstract

Tai chi chuan (TCC) has been used as a mind-body practice in Asian culture for centuries to improve wellness and reduce stress and has recently received attention by researchers as an exercise intervention. A review of the English literature on research in TCC published from 1989 to 2006 identified 20 prospective, randomized, controlled clinical trials in a number of populations, including elderly participants (7 studies), patients with cardiovascular complications (3 studies), patients with chronic disease (6 studies), and patients who might gain psychological benefit from TCC practice (2 studies). However, only the studies of TCC in the elderly and 2 studies of TCC for cardiovascular disease had adequate designs and size to allow conclusions about the efficacy of TCC. Most (11 studies) were small and provided limited information on the benefit of TCC in the settings tested. There is growing awareness that cancer survivors represent a population with multiple needs related to physical deconditioning, cardiovascular disease risk, and psychological stress. TCC as an intervention may provide benefit to cancer survivors in these multiple areas of need based on its characteristics of combining aspects of meditation and aerobic exercise. However, little research has been conducted to date to determine the benefit of TCC in this population. We propose a model to study the unique characteristics of TCC compared to physical exercise that may highlight characteristic features of this mind-body intervention in cancer survivors.

The Need for Attention to Dose in Mind–Body Interventions: Lessons fromT'ai ChiClinical Trials

“…5 TCC may improve the risk of falling in elderly persons, balance for vestibulopathy patients, and cardiovascular outcomes, physical functioning, and pain in patients with chronic conditions. 6 Based on the current review, it is clear that although the majority of interventions teach participants for an average of 2877 minutes over the course of the intervention (typically 1-hour-long sessions 3 times per week), there is no consensus on how much TCC practice would be necessary to see a benefit in the various conditions studied.…”

“…Search terms included "Tai Chi," "clinical trial," "randomized controlled trial evaluation study," "meta-analysis," "cross-sectional studies," "follow-up studies," "cohort studies," "cohort analysis," "prospective studies," "case-control studies," "controlled study," and "comparative study" and have been used previously. 6 The inclusion criteria for the selected group of studies was defined as: randomized prospective study of TCC-naïve participants, defined TCC intervention, at least one control group, and adequate sample size allowing for statistical analysis of study outcomes.…”

“…A review of selected TCC interventions reported that the number and length of training sessions vary widely across studies. 6 Thus, the primary objective of this study was to review the variation in the number and length of training sessions investigated in randomized clinical trials of TCC. A secondary objective was to examine the reporting of participants' attendance rates to scheduled intervention classes.…”

Exercise Approaches to Ameliorate Fatigue in People with Multiple Sclerosis

“…Multiple studies have also shown an improvements in balance and reduction of falls in the elderly following Tai Chi practice [31]. Surprisingly, while a substantial body of literature exists on the role of Tai Chi on well-being in patients with cancer [32][33][34][35], chronic fatigue syndrome [36], and fibromyalgia [30,37,38], there are only a limited number of studies focusing on the effects of Tai Chi on fatigue in patients with MS (Table 2).…”

Mind-Body Practices in Integrative Medicine

“…Tai Chi as a complement to existing exercise intervention can be useful in low and intermediate risk patients in cardiac rehabilitation [136] and cancer patients [137]. It appears to have beneficial health effects, but due to the small number of studies and the lack of a theoretical foundation, it is difficult to draw firm conclusions [138].…”