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Tai-Chi boosts immunity: study

tai chi

At 109-years-old, one of the China's oldest men Lu Zijing from central China's Hubei Province demonstrates Tai-Chi in Hong Kong December 3, 2001 (Kin Cheung / Reuters)

The Chinese exercise practice of Tai-Chi can significantly boost the body's immune system response to virus infection and may, in particular, help ward off painful shingles outbreaks in older people, a new study has found.

The research, by Dr Michael Irwin of the University of California Los Angeles and colleagues is reported in the current issue of the journal Psychosomatic Medicine.

The controlled study in the U.S. on 36 men and women with an average age of 70, showed that those who used Tai-Chi's combined elements of movement and meditation over several months enjoyed a 50% increase in immune cells that target the shingles virus. The research is thought to be the first to show that a behavioural intervention can positively influence a virus-specific immune response: "Our findings offer a unique and exciting example of mind over matter," Irwin said.

The herpes virus - known as varicella - that causes chickenpox in younger people remains alive in nerve cells in the body and is the cause of shingles later in life. Shingles outbreaks can occur when an infected individual's immune system is weakened by stress, illness or advancing age, allowing the virus to re-emerge and cause skin rashes that can remain painful for months or years.

"There is no standard medical treatment to prevent shingles, or medical means to boost the immune system and decrease the risk of shingles," Irwin told ABC Science Online. "Novel interventions or treatments are needed to decrease the risk of shingles in older adults at risk for this viral disease."

None of the study subjects had suffered from shingles but all had chickenpox earlier in life. Half were randomly selected to take a Tai-Chi course for 45 minutes, three days a week, for 15 weeks, while the remaining half acted as a control group and did not do Tai-Chi.

A week after the end of the study period, physical check-ups and immune-system tests showed that on average the Tai-Chi group did not simply feel healthier but had sharply increased levels of memory T-cells that specifically recognise and attack the varicella virus, although individual responses varied.

Tai-Chi involves making slow and precise movements co-ordinated with controlled breathing. Subjects in the Tai-Chi group also showed improvements in physical functioning, especially those who before the study had problems with common tasks, such as walking and climbing stairs. For them, Tai-Chi's benefits were "comparable or exceeded that reported for hip-replacement surgery or for heart-valve replacement in older adults," said the researchers.

Tai-Chi Chih - as it is formally known - is a westernised version of Tai-Chi Chuan, an exercise form that has existed as a martial art in the Chinese culture for 2,000 years and as an exercise for elderly people for around 300 years, Irwin told ABC Science Online.

Irwin cautions that the study group was small and that a placebo effect might account for the results: "What is important about this study is [the effect] that this 'power of the mind' - if that is the effect of Tai-Chi Chih - had on objective measures of immune function."

More research is needed to discover whether Tai-Chi's effects on specific immunity are long-lasting and whether it might be useful in boosting the immune response to other infectious diseases.

