Study shows Tai Chi is first known exercise to fight viruses

Actually it's long been known in china that tai chi can cure many diseases including high blood pressure, arthritis, ulcers, tuberculosis and heart disease
http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune....i_protect.html
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070408/...i_chi_shingles

Tai chi, a traditional Chinese form of exercise, boosts immunity to the painful shingles virus in older adults, according to a study sponsored by the National Institutes of Health and published this week in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

It’s the first rigorous clinical trial to suggest that a behavioral intervention, alone or in combination with a vaccine, can help protect older adults from varicella-zoster virus, which causes both chickenpox and shingles.

The study appears in the April issue of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society and was led by Dr. Michael Irwin of the University of California, Los Angeles.

Shingles is a painful skin rash that can pop up in people who have had chickenpox. The chickenpox virus can remain dormant in the body and resurface as shingles years later. It usually starts with pain and itching on the skin that later turns into an irritating rash.

An estimated 1 million Americans are afflicted with shingles every year and it commonly occurs in people 50 years old and older.

The UCLA study involved 112 healthy adults, ages 59 to 86, who have had previous cases of chickenpox.

Half of them took tai chi classes three times a week for three months and the rest attended health education classes where they were taught good diet habits and stress management. Then both groups were vaccinated with a chickenpox vaccine. Researchers took periodic blood tests before and after vaccination to determine their level of immunity against shingles.

After six months, the tai chi group had nearly twice the level of immunity against shingles than the education group.

Those who performed tai chi before vaccination had an immune response that was similar to what a vaccine would produce in a younger population. Tai chi combined with the vaccine showed a 40 percent increase in immunity than the vaccine alone, researchers found.

Scientific Study-
http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi...5.2007.01109.x

[Mog]

And once again Killik strikes in the middle of the night espousing his pseudo-scientific falun gong bullshit. Give it a rest, Killik.

This is completely legitimate indisputable hard scientific date

[Mog]

In your mind only, and seriously, slow down.. all you'll accomplish with all this is to get yourself banned.

[Philboid Studge]

Kilik, check out the efficacy of your Wu Tang Ca-ca magic vs. the cold, hard reality of a fist to the face:

You Tube

[Victus]

I'm in the lab today, but I'll read the paper when I get back. Just by going over the outline from the link you provided I have already found flaws in your argument. Also, spamming the forum isn't a good way to convince anyone of anything.

You found flaws in a scientific peer reviewed study?....uhhh, ok

69xxx wrote

You found flaws in a scientific peer reviewed study?....uhhh, ok

Believe it or not, they do exist. Sheesh, how naieve can you be? :rolleyes:

[Victus]

69xxx wrote

You found flaws in a scientific peer reviewed study?....uhhh, ok

Things aren't perfect simply because they're peer reviewed.

First, the article you cited has several mischaracterizations of the research which I will discuss below.

Article wrote

After six months, the tai chi group had nearly twice the level of immunity against shingles than the education group.

This is false. The rate of increase was nearly double for the TCC group than for the education group.

69xxx wrote

Tai chi combined with the vaccine showed a 40 percent increase in immunity than the vaccine alone, researchers found

False. Vaccine alone produced a change of about 15%.

Other notes. The analyses seemed to use a lot of t-tests, rather than an overall ANOVA. For independent measures, this inflates the Type I error rate (the probability of seeing something that wasn't there). Further, and for whatever reason, the reporting format of the tests is off of APA standards (no t values or degrees of freedom?). This isn't critical, but it certainly is odd. Finally, the researchers themselves acknowledge several limitations to their study, such as the fact that there was a ceiling effect before vaccination (can't make reliable inferences based on post vaccination scores).

[Smellyoldgit]

Victus - you are being far too patient, logical and accommodating to this shite.
You need to enrol immediately on the Choobus Advanced Course of cumchuggery, dadwankership and analworthyness to avoid any further overstressing of the already limited sever capacity.

Victus wins the thread. :cheers:

[Victus]

Don't get me wrong, I'm perfectly willing to accept that Tai Chi (not the technique itself, but the aromatic and light muscular exercise components as were described by the authors) has a physiological effect beyond what can be accomplished by 'health education' (which sounds entirely lame and useless to me). I'm simply not willing to accept that Tai chi has some mystical power to cure all ailments. Further, if you look closely at his post you see that he claims the technique can cure "high blood pressure, arthritis, ulcers, tuberculosis and heart disease", however all the study touches on is increases in a blood factor associated with shingles, not any of these diseases.