By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.
“Tai Chi has demonstrated usefulness in the prevention and treatment of certain problems such as back pain. Importantly, Tai Chi is non-invasive, relatively inexpensive, and gentle on the spine, so many people with back pain are starting to try it as an adjunct to (or sometimes instead of) traditional medical approaches to manage back pain. Furthermore, Tai Chi does not require any expensive equipment and can be practiced anywhere.” – Robert Humphreys
We all have to deal with pain. It’s inevitable, but hopefully mild and short lived. For many, however, pain is a constant in their lives. Chronic pain affects a wide swath of humanity. At least 100 million adult Americans have common chronic pain conditions. It affects more Americans than diabetes, heart disease and cancer combined. It is a significant public health problem as it’s the number one cause of disability and costs U.S. society an estimated $560-$635 billion annually. Quite frequently opioids are prescribed for chronic pain and prescription opioid overdoses kill more than 14,000 people annually.
Chronic pain accompanies a number of conditions. The most common form of chronic pain is low back pain affecting between 6% to 15% of the population. Osteoarthritis is a chronic degenerative joint disease that is the most common form of arthritis. It produces pain, swelling, and stiffness of the joints. In the U.S., osteoarthritis affects 14% of adults over 25 years of age and 34% of those over 65. Fibromyalgia is a mysterious disorder whose causes are unknown. It is characterized by widespread pain, abnormal pain processing, sleep disturbance, and fatigue that lead to psychological distress. It is very common affecting over 5 million people in the U.S., about 2% of the population.
Pain involves both physical and psychological issues. The stress, fear, and anxiety produced by pain tends to elicit responses that actually amplify the pain. So, reducing the emotional reactions to pain may be helpful in pain management. Mindfulness practices have been shown to reduce stress responses and anxiety, and to improve emotion regulation producing more adaptive and less maladaptive responses to emotions. So, it would seem reasonable to project that mindfulness practices would be helpful in pain management. Indeed, these practices have been shown to be safe and beneficial in pain management. Both Yoga and mindfulness has been shown to specifically improve back pain. Gentle movements of the joints with exercise appears to be helpful in the treatment of osteoarthritis. This suggests that alternative and complementary practices that involve gentle movements may be useful for treatment. Indeed, yoga practice has been shown to be effective in treating arthritis and mind-body practices in general have been shown to reduce the gene expressions that underlie the inflammatory response which contribute to arthritis. So, it would seem reasonable to look further into the effectiveness of alternative and complementary practices in treating osteoarthritis.
In today’s Research News article “Tai Chi for Chronic Pain Conditions: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.” See:
or below or view the full text of the study at:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4850460/
Kong and colleagues review the published research literature on the application of the ancient Chinese practice of Tai Chi, a mindful movement practice, on chronic pain. They found that the practice of Tai Chi reduced chronic pain significantly better than control conditions. These included osteoarthritis pain, low back pain, rheumatoid arthritis, and pain from herpes zoster. The results for fibromyalgia pain were not significant. Hence, they found that tai chi practice was a safe and effective treatment for most forms of chronic pain.
These are excellent results. They’re particularly encouraging as tai chi is a safe and very gentle practice that is applicable for all age groups including the elderly. It can also be practiced anywhere and after some initial instruction, without formal classes. In China it is frequently practiced either alone or in groups in public parks. But, it can also be practiced at home. So, it’s very inexpensive. Its safety, effectiveness, affordability, and convenience make tai chi practice an outstanding choice for the treatment of chronic pain.
So, relieve chronic pain with tai chi.
“Tai Chi is a form of exercise that has recently been gaining popularity as a way to relieve and/or manage back pain and neck pain. It is often easy to associate Tai Chi with groups of people in parks or gyms moving slowly and deliberately in synchronization. These people are using the same Tai Chi principles and movements created in ancient China and still practiced all around the world as a healing exercise.” – Robert Humphreys
CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies
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Study Summary
Kong, L. J., Lauche, R., Klose, P., Bu, J. H., Yang, X. C., Guo, C. Q., … Cheng, Y. W. (2016). Tai Chi for Chronic Pain Conditions: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials. Scientific Reports, 6, 25325. http://doi.org/10.1038/srep25325
Abstract
Several studies reported that Tai Chi showed potential effects for chronic pain, but its role remains controversial. This review assessed the evidence regarding the effects of Tai Chi for chronic pain conditions. 18 randomized controlled trials were included in our review. The aggregated results have indicated that Tai Chi showed positive evidence on immediate relief of chronic pain from osteoarthritis (standardized mean difference [SMD], −0.54; 95% confidence intervals [CI], −0.77 to −0.30; P < 0.05). The valid duration of Tai Chi practice for osteoarthritis may be more than 5 weeks. And there were some beneficial evidences regarding the effects of Tai Chi on immediate relief of chronic pain from low back pain (SMD, −0.81; 95% CI, −1.11 to −0.52; P < 0.05) and osteoporosis (SMD, −0.83; 95% CI, −1.37 to −0.28; P = 0.003). Therefore, clinicians may consider Tai Chi as a viable complementary and alternative medicine for chronic pain conditions.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4850460/