BACKGROUND Post-menopausal osteopenic women are at increased risk for skeletal fractures. Current osteopenia treatment guidelines include exercise, however, optimal exercise regimens for attenuating bone mineral density (BMD) loss, or for addressing other fracture-related risk factors (e.g. poor balance, decreased muscle strength) are not well-defined. Tai Chi is an increasingly popular weight ...

CONTEXT Arthralgia is common and debilitating for a significant proportion of breast cancer survivors (BCSs) and leads to poor adherence to aromatase inhibitors (AIs). Despite increased recognition of the negative impact of arthralgia on function and the poor adherence that results, very few interventions have been developed to target this side effect. OBJECTIVE This study aimed to determine ...

BACKGROUND Preliminary evidence suggests that meditative exercise may have benefits for patients with chronic systolic heart failure (HF); this has not been rigorously tested in a large clinical sample. We sought to investigate whether tai chi, as an adjunct to standard care, improves functional capacity and quality of life in patients with HF. METHODS A single-blind, multisite, parallel-grou...

OBJECTIVE This study aims to qualitatively evaluate the feasibility of using a pragmatic network of community-based Tai Chi schools to deliver 9-month exercise interventions to women with osteopenia and to explore the impact of this design feature on facilitators and barriers to trial recruitment and participant adherence during and after the trial. METHODS In a randomized trial comparing 9 m...

OBJECTIVES To determine whether an intense tai chi exercise program could reduce fear of falling better than a wellness education (WE) program in older adults who had fallen previously and meet criteria for transitioning to frailty. DESIGN Cluster-randomized, controlled trial of 48 weeks' duration. SETTING Ten matched pairs of congregate living facilities in the greater Atlanta area. PART...

AIM This paper reports a study to determine changes in the physical fitness (knee and ankle muscle strength, balance, flexibility, and mobility), fall avoidance efficacy, and fall episodes of institutionalized older adults after participating in a 12-week Sun-style Tai Chi exercise programme. BACKGROUND Fall prevention has a high priority in health promotion for older people because a fall is...

INTRODUCTION Although pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) is associated with significant clinical benefits in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and has been recommended by guidelines, PR with conventional exercise training has not been widely applied in the clinic because of its inherent limitations. Alternative exercise such as Tai Chi has been investigated and the results are promising. ...

BACKGROUND Patients with schizophrenia are characterized by high prevalence rates and chronicity that often leads to long-term institutionalization. Under the traditional medical model, treatment usually emphasizes the management of psychotic symptoms through medication, even though anti-psychotic drugs are associated with severe side effects, which can diminish patients' physical and psycholog...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE In Parkinson's disease (PD), wearing off and side effects of long-term medication and complications pose challenges for neurologists. Although Tai Chi is beneficial for many illnesses, its efficacy for PD remains uncertain. The purpose of this review was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of Tai Chi for PD. METHODS Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of Tai Chi for P...