IMPORTANT NOTE: This article is not about advising people to treat COPD with Tai Chi Ch’uan nor is it offering medical advice of any kind whatsoever. If you have COPD, you must confer with your licensed medical provider immediately. This article is only reporting the results of a random controlled study of Tai Chi Ch’uan with COPD patients.
Two things about me. First, I really like Tai Chi Ch’uan, mainly 108 movements Wu style, and that includes the sword form as well. The other is that I used to smoke and I really like it too. I quit almost 20 years ago using self-awareness and deep breathing to manage the nicotine fits of withdrawal. I primarily used bellows breath from yoga. So I’m also a big believer in the value of breathing techniques for physical and mental health. I quit when I was 49 because my lungs were making strange noises at night. It was very alarming and so I knew the time had come to part ways with cigarettes and pipes. I’ve never looked back or missed it since. And, to my utter amazement, I stopped without any real nicotine fits to plague my path.
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease is a side effect of smoking and it’s a really nasty condition. I was definitely on my way down that road when I took the detour into respiratory health and well-being. Thank goodness.
COPD is the fourth most common cause of death in the USA, and is the only disease state that is rising in morbidity and mortality amongst the top five killers. It was first noted in the medical literature in 1679. Our formal understanding the disease began in 1814 by Dr. C. Badham’s observations on bronchitis. His term for the condition of chronic cough was “catarrh” (Badham, 1814). It was eventually learned that COPD has multiple components with chronic bronchitis being only one. The other is emphysema. Early dissections of diseased lungs revealed they were hyper-inflated and so had limited function. COPD became officially recognized in 1959 when asthmatic bronchitis was added to the mix (Petty, 2006).
Tai Chi Qigong Study
Tai Chi Qigong (TQC) is a low-intensity, non-competitive, and non-impact exercise based on systematic body movements coordinated with breathing and guided by mental concentration. Its very low-stress form makes it ideal for subjects with chronic diseases and limited physical movement and stamina. A study using it along with walking exercise as a comparative treatment and a control group was undertaken in China using 206 subjects in treatment for COPD. Participants were between 55 and 88 years of age. Tai Chi Qigong and 6 minutes of walking exercise were the experimental variables over a three month period. Control group received usual care. The TCQ protocols were a variation of traditional Tai Chi Ch’uan using a custom-designed 13-form exercise. Subjects practiced matching their breathing with their movements. The exercise group used a combination of Pursed lip breathing and diaphragmatic breathing styles coordinated with their walking.
At the end of the experiment, the TCQ group showed steady improvement in exercise capacity and measurable improvement in lung functioning by about 17 percent. No improvements were found in the exercise group while the condition of control subjects worsened.
Closing Thoughts
This research is simple and straightforward, but must be considered carefully. COPD causes tissue damage and it is doubtful that movement and breathing will heal diseased tissue, but to determine that requires more study. It is more likely that the practice of Tai Chi enhanced the functioning of the healthy tissue, but again, it remains to be seen. In any event, the modest results are very encouraging. All of this points to the possibility that Tai Chi Qigong could be used as a complementary treatment protocol for COPD. I have personally found success in using breathing methods to affect mood, energy level, and reduce anxiety besides dispelling those annoying nicotine fits of many years ago. I also really like Wu style Tai Chi Ch’uan and its sword form. Breathing and movement protocols for therapeutic application are very unrecognized by the general public and so remain under-utilized in this country and that’s a pity. Hopefully, though, with more research into Tai Chi and yoga, that will change.
Paul Shane, Ph.D.
Director, Academic Content
References
Badham C. (1814). An Essay on Bronchitis: With a Supplement Containing Remarks on Simple Pulmonary Abscess, Second Edition. London, UK: J. Callow.
Chan, A., Lee., A., Lee, D., Suen, L., Tam, W., Chair, S., & Griffiths, P. (2013). The sustaining effects on physiological health for COPD patients: A randomized controlled trial. Complementary Therapies in Medicine 21, p. 585-594.
Petty, T. (2006). The history of COPD. International Journal of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease 1(1), p. 3-14.