Tai chi improves mood, quality of life for patients with systolic heart failure
Excerpt from http://www.latimes.com/health/boostershots/la-heb-tai-chi-heart-failure-20110425,0,7868914.story:
Researchers from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital looked at 100 patients diagnosed with systolic heart failure. Half of them were placed in a 12-week tai chi exercise program, performing such moves as “washing the body with qi,” “grasp sparrow’s tail” and “wave hands like clouds.” The other half were placed in a 12-week educational program where they were taught about heart-failure-related issues, including low-sodium diets and heart-rhythm problems.
They found that those who took tai chi saw their depression-related mood score drop from 2 to 0 (which is a good thing), while those who had [not] taken the class actually saw their scores go up, from 3 to 4. The tai-chi practitioners saw their vigor rise slightly from 8.5 to 9, while those on the heart-failure lesson plan actually saw their measured vigor drop from 8 to -2. Ouch.
For a report with more details about the study and the results, see http://www.clinicaladvisor.com/tai-chi-benefits-heart-failure-patients/article/201431/
