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 Knee osteoarthritis, a leading cause of pain and disability in older
adults, occurs when flexible tissue at the ends of bones wears down.
While it can’t be cured, physical therapy or anti-inflammatory
medications are often prescribed to relieve pain and improve
mobility.
To see if tai chi – a Chinese meditation practice that combines deep
breathing and slow, fluid movements – might be a good alternative to
physical therapy, researchers randomly assigned about 200 people
with knee osteoarthritis to try one of these options for three
months.
Both groups experienced similar reductions in pain at the end of the
three months, and after a year, the study found. People in the tai
chi group, however, reported greater improvements in wellbeing and
mental health than the participants assigned to physical therapy.
The findings suggest that the growing number of U.S. patients
practicing tai chi to address musculoskeletal and mental health
issues are on to something, said lead study author Dr. Chenchen
Wang, director of the Center for Complimentary and Integrative
Medicine at Tufts Medical Center in Boston.
“Tai chi is a multicomponent traditional Chinese mind-body practice
that may systematically promote health . . . by integrating
physical, psychosocial, emotional, spiritual and behavioral
elements,” Wang said by email.
In the study, Wang and colleagues assigned about half of the
participants to attend hour-long tai chi classes twice a week for 12
weeks. The others got six weeks of 30-minute physical therapy
sessions twice a week and were then told to continue with exercises
at home at least four times a week for another six weeks.
Participants were 60 years old on average. They were typically
overweight or obese and had been suffering from knee osteoarthritis
for around eight years.
While neither group had perfect attendance, 79 percent of the people
in tai chi and 78 percent of patients in physical therapy went to at
least half of the scheduled sessions, researchers report in the
Annals of Internal Medicine.
Because patients knew what treatment they received, it’s possible
that preconceived notions about the potential benefits of tai chi or
physical therapy may have influenced the changes in symptoms that
participants reported, the authors note.
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The study was also done at a single academic medical center, making
it hard to say whether the results would be similar in other
settings.
Even so, the findings suggest that tai chi may offer some relief to
patients without the potential cost of attending physical therapy or
side effects of medications, said Romy Lauche of the Australian
Research Center in Complimentary and Integrative Medicine at the
University of Technology Sydney.
“Finding effective and safe interventions is a top priority,” Lauche,
who wasn’t involved in the study, said by email.
“Any kind of exercise including tai chi may benefit patients by
improving functional disability, and they also impact coping
skills,” Lauche added.
The controlled movements that are a hallmark of tai chi can be good
for joints because they allow fluid in the joints to move in and out
of cartilage, improving flexibility, noted Jean-Michel Brismee, a
researcher in physical therapy and rehabilitation at the Texas Tech
University Health Sciences Center in Lubbock.
“Both tai chi and physical therapy should have the goal to educate
patients in doing the healing movements at home daily,” Brismee, who
wasn’t involved in the study, said by email.
(Corrects formatting in paragraph 6, no change to language)
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/1Tm0kFV Annals of Internal Medicine, online
May 16, 2016.
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