Tai Chi Increases Stability in Parkinson's Sufferers

For hundreds of years, the Chinese have been practicing a martial arts and training exercise called Tai Chi. After becoming interested in this routine, experts at the Oregon Research Institute were able to demonstrate that it can contribute to alleviating the symptoms of Parkinson's disease.

This condition affects the neural system, causing uncontrollable shaking, loss of balance, and ultimately death. In patients with moderate symptoms, researchers have demonstrated that practicing Tai Chi helps improve balance, and significantly reduces the number of falls.

The team suggests using this exercise as an add-on to current physical therapies applied to Parkinson's patients. As one who has practiced Tai Chi for seven years (and now forgotten it), I can testify to its calming, beneficial effects.

Tai Chi “is a low-cost activity that does not require equipment, it can be done anywhere, at any time, and the movements can be easily learned,” the team says, quoted by PsychCentral.