Many claims have been made about the benefits of tai chi.

Studies have found, for example, that tai chi improves balance and prevents falls, a key issue for older people, since falls can lead to a hip fracture and fear of going outdoors independently.

Research has also suggested that tai chi may be good for reducing pain, for example in people with rheumatoid arthritis. And it can also help prevent cardiovascular diseases, be effective in the rehabilitation of coronary heart diseases and help relieve breathing difficulties in people with a long-term lung problem.

Additionally, it has been suggested that tai chi may improve mental health by reducing symptoms of depression and anxiety and improving overall stress management. Research has also suggested that it could help improve the way you feel physically and mentally.

However, despite these reported benefits, much of the previous research on tai chi has been of poor quality, with unclear results or a high risk of bias due to the way the studies were carried out, for example, not ensuring that people are randomly assigned to a tai chi or control group. This is important, as there need not be any differences between people in the two groups, other than whether they do tai chi or not. Without such controls, it is difficult for researchers to draw accurate conclusions. So while current studies suggest that tai chi may offer health benefits, more evidence is needed to really say whether this is the case.

Tai chi and dementia

Tai chi has also been touted as a possible method to help prevent dementia or to slow the progression of the disease. Studies, for example, have shown that it can improve cognitive functioning, such as better performance on tests of speed to understand and respond to information, attention, and memory for current tasks.

And tai chi is also considered to have the potential to slow the decline in cognitive functioning associated with dementia. In fact, a 2015 study found that people who did aerobic exercise or a mind-body exercise like tai chi were less likely to have dementia six years later.

Recently, I led a team to study the benefits of tai chi for people with dementia. The people in our study were able to learn tai chi and enjoyed the sessions; Research shows that finding a form of physical activity that you enjoy increases the likelihood that you will start and maintain a physically active lifestyle. We also found that tai chi had great potential to reduce falls and maintain good quality of life in older people with dementia.

We avoided the risks of bias in previous studies by conducting a gold standard study (a randomized controlled trial). Although it was a small study to determine if it is worth investing in a larger, more expensive randomized controlled trial. So we hope to conduct another study in the future to confirm our results in a larger study.

Although the evidence so far does not strongly support a particular idea of ​​why tai chi can improve brain health and only a few studies have been conducted with people who have dementia, there are several theories about why tai chi can improve brain health. For example, tai chi involves learning and remembering new movements. Requires sustained attention and multitasking. Its relaxing aspect is like mindfulness or “meditation in motion.” The aerobic exercise aspect could also improve the efficiency and flexibility of neural connections in the brain. But it is not yet known whether tai chi is better at improving these aspects over other types of exercise and mindful activities.

However, what is clear is that tai chi should be encouraged as it is safe, easy to learn, enjoyable and has great potential to provide holistic health benefits. What is needed now is more high-quality research that allows us to draw firm conclusions about how much it improves our overall health.

_{This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.}