Baduanjin Can Improve Negative Emotion

Baduanjin qigong, also called Eight Brocades, is classified as a mild-to-moderate intensity aerobic exercise. Traditional Chinese exercise had progressively emerged as a widely recognised complementary therapy for cancer patients during treatment or recovery, with its positive effects on physical, psychological, and physiological parameters being well-documented.

Previous studies on Baduanjin not only included the psychological and physical state of healthy/sub-healthy individuals but also encompassed a wide range of diseases/conditions, such as chronic heart failure, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, schizophrenia, knee osteoarthritis, and post-stroke cognitive impairment, as well as middle-aged and elderly patients with neck pain.

Recent research supports regular Baduanjin practice to alleviate anxiety and depression in cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. Nine randomised controlled trials were reviewed comprising total 704 participants. This analysis demonstrated that Baduanjin significantly reduced levels of anxiety and depression among these participants with daily practice providing greatest improvement effect.

https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-024-08804-9

Other research supports long-term Baduanjin learning as an intervention and clinical treatment of individuals’ emotional disturbance, particularly depression.

Twenty-two participants with long-term Baduanjin learning (for more than one year), and 21 participants with short-term Baduanjin learning (for approximately three months) were recruited to do a complete 12-minute set of Baduanjin.

Before and after Baduanjin, their resting-state EEG signals were collected, plus, the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ) and the Profile of Mood States-Short Form (POMS-SF) were used to assess participants’ emotion regulation strategies and abilities.

The results of psychological measurement indicated that participants in the long-term group were more likely to use cognitive reappraisal as an emotion regulation strategy compared to participants in the short-term group. Cognitive reappraisal is a type of cognitive change that involves interpreting a potentially emotion-eliciting situation in a way that changes its emotional impact. Several studies have demonstrated that cognitive reappraisal has a significant positive impact on negative emotions. Therefore, cognitive reappraisal is frequently viewed as an adaptive emotion regulation strategy.

The results indicate that long-term Baduanjin practice could help participants choose more effective cognitive reappraisal strategies and significantly improve their emotion regulation. From a neuroscientific perspective, Baduanjin exercise promoted left frontal alpha lateralization, which reflected changes in the neuroplasticity of the brain in terms of emotion regulation.

https://doi.org/10.2147/PRBM.S436506

If you are looking for a taichi program to improve knee osteoarthritis, try a Wulong class today. Click here to see all our class locations and timings.

Taichi & Qigong Reduce Pain from Knee Osteoarthritis

Recently published research into exercise therapies for knee osteoarthritis has found taichi and qigong can reduce pain.

Wuqinxi (or Five Animals Frolic) qigong is a traditional Chinese exercise designed by a famous physician Hua Tuo at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty (25 to 220 AD). It can increase muscle tone and blood flow, thereby relieving pain. Long-term Wuqinxi can significantly enhance the physical function of chronically ill patients, improving their strength, bone density, balance, joint flexibility, mental vitality, and psychological confidence.

A randomized controlled trial showed that from pretest to follow-up, knee osteoarthritis patients in the Wuqinxi group showed significantly improved, knee flexion, and extension strength, timed up and go test, 6-min walk test, 30s chair stand test, and their pain was much relieved. This research showed that Wuqinxi promotes balance and pain relief in knee osteoarthritis patients more effectively than traditional physiotherapy exercises. Also that the stability test, the static postural stability test, and the dynamic fall index test results of elderly, female knee osteoarthritis patients improved after 24 weeks of Wuqinxi. In short, Wuqinxi can enhance the balance of knee osteoarthritis patients, reduce pain, and increase muscle strength.

Taichi, a gentle aerobic exercise, is derived from ancient Chinese martial arts that can relax the body and mind. Compared with other conventional physical therapy, taichi has a better treatment effect on reducing depression. A clinical experiment showed that taichi can change knee osteoartritis patients’ gait and plantar pressure load pattern during walking. Taichi can be an excellent physical training strategy for improving postural control and walking function in individuals with knee osteoarthritis. Taichi also has positive effects on muscular activities and proprioception of the leg and ankle, and it can improve balance on both rigid and foam surfaces.

The research found that taichi can significantly reduce pain and dysfunction, improve knee osteoarthritis patients’ physical and mental health, which can be an alternative to non-drug therapies in rehabilitation programs. In conclusion, Taichi is a popular mind-body exercise, which can relieve pain, reduce knee osteoarthritis dysfunction, and has significant effects on improving depression, training gait, and postural stability. Noting, the effect of taichi is slow, it always takes more than 2 weeks to get the effect.

https://doi.org/10.47191/ijmra/v7-i08-16

If you are looking for a taichi program to improve knee osteoarthritis, try a Wulong class today. Click here to see all our class locations and timings.