Study: Tai Chi May Help Prevent Shingles
Sunday, April 8, 2007 0612 PDT

LOS ANGELES, California -- Tai chi is already
known as a good low-impact exercise for older
people. Now a recent study suggests it offers
benefits beyond improving fitness and balance:
It may help prevent shingles, a painful skin
condition in older adults.

Researchers found older people who performed the
slow, graceful movements of tai chi had a better
immune response against the virus that causes
shingles than those who only got health
education, according to the most rigorous test
to date.

It's unclear how tai chi, an ancient Chinese
martial art that has become increasingly popular
in the West, affects the immune system. But
health experts were encouraged by the positive
results.

"The message is that older people need to
maintain healthy behavior," said Andrew Monjan
of the National Institute on Aging, which helped
fund the research. "It's nothing that our
mothers haven't told us, but we're seeing it
certainly holds up to scientific inquiry."

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.

The results weren't surprising to tai chi
instructor Howard Chuck, who owns a tai chi
academy in Sunnyvale, Calif.

Although none of his students are trying to ward
off shingles, Chuck said the exercise is popular
among his older people who prefer tai chi's
meditation aspects.

"Tai chi requires a lot of mind power not just
muscle power," he said.
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On the Net:

Shingles page:
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/diseases/list_varicl.htm

UCLA: http://www.ucla.edu