ISSN: 2456-8090 (online)

DOI: 10.26440/IHRJ/0601.04532

 

“TaiChi” Exercise for Elderly Care

SIU KAN LAW1*, DAWN CHING TUNG AU1, ALBERT WING NANG LEUNG2, CHUAN SHAN XU3

 

Cite this article as: Law SK, Au DCT, Leung AWN, Xu CS. “TaiChi” Exercise for Elderly Care. Int Healthc Res J. 2022;6(1):LE1-LE2. https://doi.org/10.26440/IHRJ/0601.04532

 

Author Affiliations:

1. Faculty of Science and Technology, The Technological and Higher Education Institute of Hong Kong, Tsing Yi, New Territories, Hong Kong
2. School of Nursing, Tung Wah College, 31 Wylie Road, Ho Man Tin, Kowloon, Hong Kong
3. Key Laboratory of Molecular Target and Clinical Pharmacology, State Key Laboratory of Respiratory Disease, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences & Fifth Affiliated Hospital, Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou 511436, China

 

Contact Corresponding Author at: siukanlaw[at]hotmail[dot]com 

 

Dear Editor,

“TaiChi” is a traditional Chinese exercise for over a thousand years ago in China. This is a mind-body sports activity for maintaining the body's health. It also consists of motion in quiescence or active which is suitable for the elderly as an exercise. “TaiChi” concept is similar to the traditional Chinese medicine “Yin-Yang” theory. The exercise inspires the internal energy (Qi) to achieve body regulation for enhancing the defence and combat diseases.1

Growing evidence has shown that “TaiChi” benefited physical function and health-related diseases quality for the elderly. This was improved body balance, flexibility, and muscle strength as well as promoted confidence in the elderly less robust.2 The long-term practice of “TaiChi” was effective to prevent and treatment of diseases (Table 1). 

 

Alternative Link to Tables/Figures (Copy/Paste link a new browser window): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lYac7EEvLphvBiz_3iFrMMDfU7icV3C4/view?usp=sharing

The above information demonstrates that a “TaiChi” exercise is good for elderly care because this is a non-pharmaceutical therapy to prevent diseases and keep the body healthy. It is more suitable and further developed to combine with other therapies for preventing and combating diseases.    

Author contributions: All authors contributed to the concept, acquisition, and analysis of data, drafting of the article, and critical revision for important intellectual content. 

Conflicts of interest: The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose. 

Funding/support: The authors received no funding source/grants or other materials support for this study. 

REFERENCES

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  2. Zhang JG, Ishikawa-Takata K, Yamazaki H, Morita T, Ohta T. The effects of Tai Chi Chuan on physiological function and fear of falling in the less robust elderly: an intervention study for preventing falls. Arch Gerontol Geriatr. 2006;42(2):107-16.
  3. Nguyen MH, Kruse A. The effects of Tai Chi training on physical fitness, perceived health, and blood pressure in elderly Vietnamese. Open Access J Sports Med. 2012;3:7-16.
  4. Lo HM, Yeh CY, Chang SC, Sung HC, Smith GD. A Tai Chi exercise programme improved exercise behaviour and reduced blood pressure in outpatients with hypertension. Int J Nurs Pract. 2012;18(6):545-51.
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  6. Lyu J, Li W, Rong X, Wei L, Huang N, Champ M, Xiong Q, Chen X, Li M, Li F. Efficacy of practising Tai Chi for older people with mild dementia: protocol for a randomised controlled study. BMJ Open. 2018;8(5):e019940.

© Siu Kan Law et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License CC-BY-NC 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the use is not commercial and the original author(s) and source are cited.

Submitted on: 06-Apr-2022;  Accepted on: 28-Apr-2022