Tai Chi May Help Heart Failure Patients

These are extracted from the whole article published in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
Article by Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, April 25 (HealthDay News) -- The ancient Chinese exercise of Tai chi may improve quality of life for people suffering from heart failure, Harvard researchers report.Tai chi combines flowing circular movements, balance and weight-shifting, breathing techniques and focused internal awareness. It has already been shown to be helpful with a number of medical conditions, including hypertension (high blood pressure), balance and musculoskeletal diseases, and fibromyalgia, the researchers noted."Tai chi training improved important parameters of quality of life, mood and confidence to perform exercise in patients with heart failure," said lead researcher Dr. Gloria Yeh, from the division of general medicine and primary care at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.

For the study, Yeh's team randomly assigned 100 heart failure patients to a 12-week Tai chi program or to educational sessions about heart failure.The researchers found that although both groups had similar oxygen use during six-minute walks, those who practiced Tai chi showed greater improvements in quality of life, which was measured using the Minnesota Living with Heart Failure Questionnaire.In addition, those taking part in Tai chi also showed improvement in mood and improvement in the number of calories burned each week, compared with those in the education program, the researchers added.People with chronic heart failure suffer from the inability of the heart to pump blood efficiently to meet the body's needs. The condition causes shortness of breath, coughing, chronic venous congestion, ankle swelling and difficulty exercising.

"As a complement to standard medical care, this study has demonstrated that Tai chi enhanced quality of life, mood and exercise self-efficacy," Fonarow said. "Tai chi appears to be a safe alternative to low- to moderate-intensity conventional exercise training in patients with heart failure. Further studies are needed to compare Tai chi to aerobic exercise training, and to determine if participation in Tai chi will have a favorable impact on risk of hospitalization or survival in patients with heart failure."