Tai Chi

A six-month program of Tai Chi exercises helped people with various stages of Parkinson's disease improve stability, their ability to walk and reduced the frequency of falls. A study released this week in the New England Journal of Medicine compared a six-month tailored Tai Chi program to resistance training and stretching to see which was most effective at improving functional movement, walking and balance for Parkinson's patients. Researchers randomly assigned 195 men and women ages 40 to 85 who were in stages one to four of Parkinson's disease (on a scale of one to five)

A six-month program of Tai Chi exercises helped people with various stages of Parkinson's disease improve stability, their ability to walk and reduced the frequency of falls. A study released this week in the New England Journal of Medicine compared a six-month tailored Tai Chi program to resistance training and stretching to see which was most effective at improving functional movement, walking and balance for Parkinson's patients. Researchers randomly assigned 195 men and women ages 40 to 85 who were in stages one to four of Parkinson's disease (on a scale of one to five)

People with fibromyalgia have to think creatively for relief from their symptoms. There are only a few approved medications for the condition, which causes chronic aches and pains, sleep disturbances, fatigue and depression. Many patients opt for a combination of medications, lifestyle changes and cognitive behavioral therapy to remain functional. A study released Wednesday suggests that tai chi, a Chinese form of martial arts, significantly improves symptoms . Tai chi is a mind-body practice that uses gentle movement, breathing exercises and relaxation to move energy -- called qi -- throughout the body.

It was a crisp, sunny morning when Stephen LeRoy, 53, wandered into the new garden at the West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs campus with a playful Akita named Yuki. "I love it here," said the retired Army specialist, who participates in a transitional program for troubled vets. "It's a nice, peaceful surrounding. " That sentiment was just what the doctor ordered. The Historic Women Veterans Rose Garden, just north of Wilshire Boulevard, was created by the nonprofit Veterans Park Conservancy in partnership with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs' West L.A. campus.

If you're suffering from chronic systolic heart failure, tai chi may help. Although it may not improve your performance on a six-minute walk test, it will probably improve your mood, your daily activity and quality of life, according to a new study published online Monday in the Archives of Internal Medicine. Researchers from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital looked at 100 patients diagnosed with systolic heart failure.

Teaming Master Ren Guang-Yi with friend and disciple Lou Reed on the exercise DVD "Chen Taijiquan" would seem like an inspired idea -- injecting a hefty dose of iconoclastic star power into the standard-formula exercise tape. But for those expecting to see Reed do Taijiquan, forget it. And for those hoping to hear a cutting-edge Reed soundtrack, forget it.

The benefits of tai chi, with origins as a Chinese martial art, seem to be adding up. Evidence that the exercise might help people with heart failure feel less depressed and more energized is but the latest in a string of positive findings about tai chi’s health effects. The light exercise, whose origins go back about 5,000 years, may also improve mood, quality of life and well being in other groups as well.  The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine offers an introduction to tai chi along with information about its use, research and what to ask potential instructors.

OK, doing aerobics is too much jumping and bouncing. And besides, you feel a little goofy doing knee lifts with your arms in the air. But you still need your exercise. And wouldn't it be great to reduce your stress level while improving muscle tone and concentration? The West San Gabriel YMCA in Alhambra may have the answer. It's called Tai Chi Chuan, a Chinese martial art that's at least 250 years old. It has combat applications but is better known for its slow, graceful movement.

The city's Senior Center is offering ongoing classes in tai chi from 10 to 11 a.m. on Fridays. Tai chi is a meditative exercise in which students perform simple movements designed to control stress, increase balance and boost energy. The fee for each class is $2, and participants may join at any time. The center is at 500 S. Sievers Ave. Information: (714) 990-7750.

Often called "moving meditation" or "the art of creating energy," tai chi began as a martial art in China about 2,000 years ago. Over the past century, it has become extremely popular as an exercise for older adults and is practiced by millions each morning in parks across the United States. But tai chi's graceful movements are so slow and deliberate that researchers from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore assumed it couldn't have much impact on blood pressure.

For foster children, the prospect of ever completing college is remote: 24% of the general population will someday wear a university cap and gown, but fewer than 3% of all foster children ever earn a degree. But a privately funded pilot program at UCLA hopes to improve the odds. The First Star UCLA Bruin Guardian Scholars Summer Academy is a 5 1/2-week program that sponsors and fundraisers hope will one day develop into a year-round boarding school for college-bound foster children in Los Angeles County.

The benefits of tai chi, with origins as a Chinese martial art, seem to be adding up. Evidence that the exercise might help people with heart failure feel less depressed and more energized is but the latest in a string of positive findings about tai chi’s health effects. The light exercise, whose origins go back about 5,000 years, may also improve mood, quality of life and well being in other groups as well.  The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine offers an introduction to tai chi along with information about its use, research and what to ask potential instructors.

If you're suffering from chronic systolic heart failure, tai chi may help. Although it may not improve your performance on a six-minute walk test, it will probably improve your mood, your daily activity and quality of life, according to a new study published online Monday in the Archives of Internal Medicine. Researchers from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital looked at 100 patients diagnosed with systolic heart failure.

Hall Thompson Businessman helped build Shoal Creek Country Club Hall Thompson, 87, a prominent Alabama business leader who developed Shoal Creek Country Club but sparked controversy two decades ago with comments about the admission of blacks as members, died Wednesday, according to officials at the club in Shelby County, south of Birmingham, Ala. The cause of death was not given. In 1957 he founded Thompson Tractor Co., which became one of the leading companies of its kind.

People with fibromyalgia have to think creatively for relief from their symptoms. There are only a few approved medications for the condition, which causes chronic aches and pains, sleep disturbances, fatigue and depression. Many patients opt for a combination of medications, lifestyle changes and cognitive behavioral therapy to remain functional. A study released Wednesday suggests that tai chi, a Chinese form of martial arts, significantly improves symptoms . Tai chi is a mind-body practice that uses gentle movement, breathing exercises and relaxation to move energy -- called qi -- throughout the body.

For more than a decade, Cheryl Clark has lived with the chronic pain that accompanies fibromyalgia. After years of suffering with severe flu-like aches and pains, she finally found some relief — but it didn't come from a pill or a shot. It came from exercise. Several times a week, Clark heads to the warm-water pool and the gym at Casa Colina Centers for Rehabilitation in Pomona. Her pain, she says, has gone from a six or seven on a 10-point scale scale down to a one or two. "It would kill me to walk from the car to the doctor's office.

"It's joy through movement," says Justin F. Stone, who originated it. "It's a moving meditation," says Bill Pierce, who practices it. "It's the exercise of the '90s," says Corinn Codye, who teaches it. It's t'ai chi chih, the practice of a series of simple, elegant movements said to enhance the flow of the "chi," or life force, through the body. By performing these non-stressful, non-aerobic movements, t'ai chi chih adherents claim to circulate energy that creates a feeling of well-being.

I was surprised when I saw a sign announcing tai chi classes on a grassy town square in Truro, a tiny burg of barely 1,800 residents near the tip of Cape Cod. Tai chi in little Truro? The ancient exercise regimen, it seems, has finally come of age in this country. Tai chi is one of several closely related exercises that include qigong and related martial arts like kung fu, taekwando, judo, karate and jiujitsu.

Standing on a swaying length of flat nylon slung like a tightrope, my knees shake as I try desperately not to fall. But every time I take a tentative step, I lose my balance. Fortunately for me, this isn't a circus act performed several stories up; I'm slacklining -- and the ground is a mere 12 inches away. A trio of experts are attempting to show me how it's done. With the backing of a German manufacturer of slacklines, the men are trying to raise the sport's profile by touring the U.S. giving demonstrations.

It was 7:12 p.m. when I started to worry. Hah! Whom was I kidding? I panicked. Our sons had gone off that morning to summer camp in Beijing. I'd never been to this camp. We didn't speak Chinese, and we didn't know our way around. I tried not to imagine anything horrible. Our boys, Sam, 13, and Galen, 11, had rejected my offer to accompany them that first morning -- they just climbed into a van and rode off, reminding me that they would be home around 6:30 or 7 p.m.