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
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