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Tai
chi chih boosts shingles immunity in older adults By Dan Page Center
for the Advancement of Health
/Eurekalert, September
22, 2003 Fifteen weeks of tai chi chih practice may have helped a
small group of older adults increase the levels of immune cells that help
protect their body against the shingles virus, according to a new study. The report in the September issue of Psychosomatic Medicine
is the first study to show that a behavioral intervention can influence
the virus-specific immune response, say Michael R. Irwin, M.D., of the
Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology at the University of Los Angeles,
California and colleagues. On average, the 18 adults who participated in the tai chi
chih program had an increase of nearly 50 percent in immune cell levels
one week after completing the program, although individual responses to
the exercises varied substantially in this group. Tai chi chih participants were significantly more likely to
increase their immunity than those who did not participate in the program,
however. Tai chi chih practice was also associated with improvements
in physical functioning, especially among those who had the most problems
with everyday tasks like walking and climbing stairs at the beginning of
the study.. Among those participants, tai chi chih's benefits were
"comparable or exceeded that reported for hip replacement surgery or
for heart valve replacement in older adults," say the researchers. "However, in light of the small sample, these findings
should be cautiously interpreted and viewed as preliminary in
nature," Irwin says. Thirty-six adults, ages 60 and older and living in La Jolla
or San Diego, participated in the study. All had either a history of
chickenpox or had lived in the United States long enough to assume that
they had been exposed to the chickenpox virus, which is similar to the
shingles virus. Exposure spurs the function of immune cells that
"remember" the virus and rally the body against reinfection.
However, this specific immunity weakens as people age, which may be why
older people have higher rates and more severe cases of shingles, Irwin
says. The researchers randomly assigned the adults to tai chi chih
instruction or to a waiting list. Those who received the tai chi chih
training learned the standard series of 20 "meditation through
movement" exercises from an instructor with 20 years' experience.
Irwin and colleagues monitored immune levels by through a series of blood
tests. Copyright
© 2002 Global Action on Aging |
