A group of researchers from the Oregon Research Institute has found in a research that tai chi that is a Chinese martial art could be essentially beneficial in addressing problems caused due to Parkinson’s disease.

Tai Chi is a martial art, which includes relaxation techniques to calm the mind and regular practice of deep breathing along with slow and gentle movements, told the researchers. They continued that the art is based on belief of the two opposing life forces i. e. yin and yang, which govern the health of a person, as per Confucian and Buddhist philosophies.

According to these philosophies, the imbalance in these two forces results in ill health of a person and it could be balanced only through internal energy flow through the whole body. And the study proves that it helps patients with Parkinson’s disease to balance their body as well as help them to walk.

It is being said by the team that the gentle martial art performed by patients suffering from Parkinson’s disease could help them to fight key clinical problems associated with the disease. The researchers enrolled almost 200 patients in the analysis and assigned them weekly sessions of tai chi, resistance-training or stretching twice.

The team concluded after the research that patients who performed the gentle martial art were successful not only in tests of balance but length of stride as well. It also told the reporters that those who performed tai chi fell comparatively less than martial art group. Resistance training group also experienced same number of falls.

Thus, lead author Fuzhong Li and the team concluded, “The improvements in the balance and gait measures that we demonstrated highlight the potential of tai chi-based movements in rehabilitating patients with these types of problems”.