IMAGINE doing those flowing Tai Chi moves early in the morning at the Fuente Circle to regain your failing breath or treat your chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Or, you can go Hindi with yoga’s tantric “uhms.” Thus, it is Eastern meditation against a diagnosed serious clinical condition.
Sounds far-fetched, right?
However, six researchers (Lu-Ling Wu, Zheng-Kun Lin, Hui-Dan Weng, Qiao-Fang Qi, Jun Lu and Kai-Xiong Liu), from four health institutions in a recent highly influential far-neighbor today, did venture into studying how the encounter could turn out. They chose three meditative traditions (tai chi, yoga and qigong) and published their results in the 2018 issue of the International Journal of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.
COPD is a common lung disease that makes it difficult for the person to breathe.
It has two forms, though. First, chronic bronchitis is a long-term condition wherein the person always coughs mucus. Second, emphysema involves lung damage progression with time. The study was indirect, however. They simply gathered large studies on the interaction between these meditative practices and COPD, and studied them for efficacy. The condition is often associated with habitual smoking from a younger age.
It is estimated that a person with stage I or II COPD had lost five years of his life by the age of 65. Meanwhile, those with stages III or IV, had lost at least six years of their lives.
Tai chi (Tai chi chuan) is an internal-oriented, defensive Chinese martial art, which is popular in Chinese movies. It attempts to harness the healing benefits of life forces, which Chinese tradition refers to as the ying and the yang. It is essentially Taoist and Confucian in philosophical foundation. Meanwhile, the qigong is essentially a physical and breathing exercise, and not a martial arts exercise. It also attempts to harness the life forces or the “chi.”
Unlike tai chi and qigong, yoga is essentially a spiritual exercise rooted in the Hindu religious tradition. It is essentially a breathing exercise in a fixed physical position, which may be changed after a relatively long fixed period.
Results indicated that, overall and together, the three meditative exercises had improved lung function and physical movements of COPD patients, which makes it a promising non-drug intervention. However, the results failed to differentiate among the three medications in terms of relative efficacy against COPD.