|
WorldTaiChiDay.org News . . .
A Premiere Global Ezine Tai Chi & Qigong Magazine,
another free service from www.WorldTaiChiDay.org
Stringing Pearls - Silk Reeling - The Forbidden City, China
"You can never hurry up and relax. It doesn't
mean that it has to take a long time to let go
and relax, but the more you hurry to do it,
the longer it will take."
-- Bill Douglas, Founder of World Tai Chi & QG Day
Dear World Tai Chi & Qigong Day Supporters,
Tai Chi & Qigong make national media!
The cover of the coming edition of Spirituality & Health Magazine features "Moving Meditation - 10 Ways to Wake Up Your Body." Qigong master, Daisy Lee, who by the way will be a featured speaker at the coming National Qigong Association annual conference (see article below), was interviewed on the power of Qigong. Complete Idiot's Guide to T'ai Chi & Qigong author, Bill Douglas (who's also the founder of World Tai Chi & Qigong Day) was interviewed on the power of Tai Chi practice.
REMINDER: The National Qigong Association's annual conference is coming up, Friday, July 26 to Sunday, July 28th, in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania (USA). See below article for details and links.
Our second article below is based on this week's Time Magazine's report that ADHD (Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder) is not only epidemic in the U.S., but increasingly a global epidemic placing untold numbers of teenagers on psychotropic drug protocols. From our www.WorldTaiChiDay.org Medical Research Library, we cite research that shows that Tai Chi could be a safe, healthy, and permanent answer to these ADHD issues for many teenagers, and save society billions of dollars in future costs.
Our third article contains a video discussion between WTCQD Founders and Professor William Tsang of Hong Kong Polytechnic University on the value of developing Tai Chi "short" forms, to engage a wider public into tai chi and qigong practice. This segues with the first article on ADHD, for the Time Magazine article points out that American's attentions spans are narrowing, perhaps because of the increasing use of digital gadgets. For those who can't focus, a Tai Chi long form can be daunting. This article and accompanying video explores how Tai Chi "short" forms may be a way to engage more people into a lifelong Tai Chi and Qigong journey.
If you are a student of Tai Chi and Qigong, and have noticed significant benefits, you'll want to share this newsletter with your teacher(s) or school of tai chi and qigong, and encourage them to include you in their local part of the below global project.
This newsletter marks the launch of an international campaign to collect video testimonials of the health and life benefits people worldwide are enjoying from their Tai Chi and/or Qigong practice. This is a prototype of that campaign. We'll set up a web page at www.worldtaichiday.org to post youtube videos like this from around the world. See article below for more.
PROFOUNDLY MOVING VIDEO!
TAI CHI & QIGONG CHANGES PEOPLE'S LIVES!
 | | Tai Chi at Turning Point's Center for Hope & Healing, The University of Kansas Hospital |
The above video was originally a local project of WTCQD Founder, Bill Douglas, in collaboration with the Kansas University Hospital's Turning Point program, and the University of Kansas Medical Center's Landon Center on the Aging, that has inspired a global idea.
That idea is to begin collecting testimonial videos from Tai Chi and Qigong teachers worldwide, for a Tai Chi & Qigong TESTIMONIAL PAGE on www.WorldTaiChiDay.org. We are not quite there yet, but we suggest that tai chi and qigong teachers, schools, and groups consider doing video interviews, or more accurately, letting students talk about the life benefits tai chi and qigong have given them.
This is also linked to a Harvard Medical School Guide to Tai Chi project, see below article for details.
| |
|
|
ADHD is Epidemic in America & Beyond!
The Answer? TAI CHI!
This week's Time Magazine calls ADHD (Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder) epidemic in America, and say it may be because of the increasing use of digital gadgets in modern society.
There may be a cheap, effective, and profoundly beneficial solution to this problem -- TAI CHI. According to a study presented to the American Psychiatric Association in 2010, and another study done at the University of Miami School of Medicine, Tai Chi can significantly reduce ADHD symptoms.
The study cited at the American Psychiatric Association, was done by doctor Peng Pang, a resident in the psychiatry department at Maimonides Medical Center, Brooklyn, New York, who said,
"We found beneficial effects in controlling hyperactivity in the group as a whole, and adolescents with a diagnosis of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) also showed improvements in cognitive skills."
The University of Miami School of Medicine study, reported:
Adolescents with ADHD (Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder) displayed less anxiety, daydreaming behaviors, inappropriate emotions and hyperactivity, and greater improved conduct, after a five week, two day per week class of T'ai Chi.
Tai Chi may save the globe billions in future spending on psychotropic medications, and enable countless teenagers to avoid any side effects from chronic drug use, while enjoying all the many positive benefits Tai Chi offers, including improved dexterity, focus, immune function, less depression, anxiety, and many other benefits being proven by amassing Tai Chi medical research.
It's an epidemic. In the U.S., 6 million children have been diagnosed with ADHD, making it the most common childhood behavioral condition. In fact, over the past decade, the number of kids diagnosed with the disorder surged by over 50%. And in the past six years, that rate has jumped about 15% alone, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. -- Time Magazine, July, 2013
Read more:
Back in 2007 UC Berkeley News wrote on this:
While the United States, Canada and Australia showed higher-than-expected rates of ADHD medication use between 1993 and 2003, a country-by-country analysis showed increases in ADHD drug consumption in countries including France, Sweden, Korea and Japan.
The study, published today (Tuesday, March 6) in the journal Health Affairs, examined ADHD medication use among 5- to 19-year-olds in countries belonging to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), whose members are largely North American, European and Northeast Asian nations ...
Said lead author Richard Scheffler, Distinguished Professor of Health Economics & Public Policy at UC Berkeley and director of the campus's Nicholas C. Petris Center on Health Care Markets and Consumer Welfare, "Given the global diffusion of ADHD medications, as well as the prevalence of this condition, ADHD could become the leading childhood disorder treated with medications across the globe," Scheffler said. "We can expect that the already burgeoning global costs for medication treatment for ADHD will rise even more sharply over the next decade." ...
Although the United States undeniably leads the world in ADHD medication spending ($2.4 billion in 2003), growth trends indicate that other countries are following in its tracks, according to the study. For example, global spending on ADHD medications increased nine-fold among OECD countries during the time period studied.
-- UC Berkeley News, March 6, 2007
Read more: http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/
releases/2007/03/06_adhd.shtml
| |
|
Tai Chi "Long" Form vs. "Short" Forms in an ADHD World!
Discussion with Hong Kong Polytechnic University Professor and Researcher!
 | | Discussion of Value of Tai Chi Short Form in Modern World w Hong Kong Polytech University Professor, William Tsang |
This video discussion with Hong Kong Polytechnic University Professor, William Tsang, about the advantageous of "Tai Chi Short Forms" in an Attention Deficit Disordered World, became very relevant given this Week's Time Magazine article on the global ADHD plague (see above article).
The title of this article is somewhat misleading. It was meant to be provocative, to get you to look at this article.
Its misleading in the sense that it seems to indicate a conflict between Tai Chi Long Form and Tai Chi Short Form practices. However, there is none, for this is not an either or discussion, but rather an all of the above.
For 15 years I taught nothing but Long Form Tai Chi in my classes. However, about 5 years ago I began teaching people dealing with pretty advanced Parkinson's disease, and therefore often found the Long Form to be untenable.
I developed a short form involving about 6 of the 64 postures of the Guang Ping Yang Style Long Form I'd taught for a decade and a half.
What I found was that this Short Form was HIGHLY effective, as evidenced by the Testimonial Video peppered throughout this newsletter. All of those in this video who experienced profound life and health benefits, were only practicing the "short" tai chi form I'd developed.
I still offer Long Form classes, and in fact, many of my Short Form students eventually switched to my Long Form class. But, I believe that many of them would never have stayed with Tai Chi if their only initial exposure was the Long Form. In this way, both I and my students get the best of both worlds.
For any teachers who don't have a short form, but may consider creating one, the criteria I used was such:
* Contains lateral, side to side, movement
* Contains katy-corner, 45 degree angular weight shifts and body movements FORWARD.
* Contains katy-corner, 45 degree angular weight shifts and body movements BACKWARD.
* Contains a nearly equal amount of left and right side movement
* Contains upper body motion in all 4 directions, right-front corner, left-front corner, right-back corner, left-back corner.
For the Guang Ping form I was working with, I used the 1st, 2nd, and then segued into the last final movements of the form.
-- Bill Douglas, WTCQD Founder, and Author of The Complete Idiot's Guide to T'ai Chi & Qigong (Alpha/Penguin 4th edition)
| |
|
Harvard Medical School Guide to Tai Chi Publisher Partners w/ Tai Chi & QG Teachers Worldwide!
World Tai Chi & Qigong Day Founder, Bill Douglas, used a local project with his Kansas University Hospital program, as a prototype that can serve as a model for all tai chi and qigong teachers teaching in medical and hospital systems.
Bill reached out to his department, to students, and to the community, to raise funds to purchase bulk copies of the Harvard Medical School Guide to Tai Chi. Bill's program is purchasing 50 copies.
The plan is to set up Bill to present on tai chi medical research to various departments, centers, and other physician & health professional's meetings throughout the Kansas University Hospital Program.
Bill's classes through Kansas University Medical Center's Landon Center on the Aging and his Turning Point, Center for Hope & Healing, a program of Kansas University Hospital, are free to the public. Bill is paid through funding grants obtained by the KU Medical Center and Kansas University Hospital.
So, the plan is three-fold, in that Bill's presentation to various departments will inform them of research relevant to their practice and their patients. Therefore, Bill's focus will be on Cardiac, hypertension, etc. for that department, Parkinson's, etc. for neurology, and so on. Then the second prong of this project involves Bill leaving a copy or two of the Harvard Medical School Guide with each center, group, or department for their further study after the meeting.
The third prong is a Testimonial Video like the below "Tai Chi & Qigong Testimonial Video" of Bill's Kansas University tai chi & qigong programs. This video will be shown at these physician meetings, in addition to the medical research presentation and the leaving of the Harvard Guide to Tai Chi, to show physicians in the health network you or your teacher teaches in that local people are already experiencing the benefits the Harvard Medical School Guide to Tai Chi's medical research indicates are possible.
The goal is to fill up all those free classes with physician referrals to Tai Chi, as doctors are brought up to speed on tai chi research. Ultimately, the goal is to gain more funding for such classes. WHY? See the below video of testimonials on how tai chi and qigong have changed people's lives forever, who've learned about and utilized the Kansas University system's tai chi and qigong classes.
We spoke to the publisher of the Harvard Medical School Guide to Tai Chi, and they said that any group ordering a minimum of a $200 order of Harvard Medical School Guide to Tai Chi can get copies for 50% off list price, plus shipping costs, because they believe in this project as being good for society.
If you, your group, or health system program wants to look into this, let us know by replying to this email w/ Harvard Med School Guide to Tai Chi in subject line, and we'll put you in touch with the contact at the publisher.
* Note: WorldTaiChiDay.org has no financial interest whatsoever in this Harvard Medical School Guide to Tai Chi hospital and medical school education project. We simply believe that this Harvard Medical School Guide to Tai Chi is a powerful tool that the tai chi and qigong community can and should be using to change the face of modern healthcare for the betterment of all of society. See below testimonials to see why.
| | Tai Chi at Turning Point's Center for Hope & Healing, The University of Kansas Hospital |
"Alone we can do so little ... together
... so much."
-- Helen Keller
| |
|
National Qigong Association's 18th Annual Conference Starts July 26!
World Tai Chi & Qigong Day's concept was first launched at an NQA National Conference, and the NQA has been a profoundly important supporting organization in the global event through all its years of expansion around the planet.
These conferences are unique opportunities to meet and share, learn and study, with some of the cutting edge voices in Qigong.
-- Bill Douglas, Founder of
World Tai Chi & Qigong Day
Register or learn more about this important conference at:
| |
|
|
Breaking Medical Research-Tai Chi & QG!
Qigong Eases Fibromyalgia Pain, AND MORE!
Are you aware of Worldtaichiday.org's globally popular Tai Chi Medical Research Library? A collection of medical research article links from popular health and media publications, showing how Tai Chi and Qigong can help with nearly 100 common health challenges.
Qigong Eases Fibromyalgia Pain!
After 8 weeks of regular practice of this "meditative movement," pain as measured on a 10-point scale decreased by 1.55 points, compared with a change of only 0.02 points in controls (P<0.001), according to Jana Sawynok, PhD, and colleagues from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
And on the 100-point Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire, which quantitates the effects of multiple disease components including pain, function, sleep, and psychological distress, there was a decrease of 18.45 points compared with a change of 0.93 points in controls (P<0.001), the researchers reported online in Arthritis Research & Therapy.
-- Medpage Today, August, 2012
Read more ...
Tai chi exercise may improve quality of life, mood, and exercise self-efficacy (belief in one's own abilities) in people with chronic heart failure, according to a 2011 study funded in part by NCCAM.
-- National Center for Complimentary & Alternative Medicine
Read more ...
Pulmonary Medicine:
COPD. Conventional pulmonary rehab. programs focus on aerobic exercise and strength training to improve exercise capacity, quality of life, and symptoms in patients with COPD. Tai Chi extends the breathing techniques taught in pulmonary rehab. by integrating novel elements, such as progressive relaxation, imagery/visualization, mindfulness of breathing and overall body sensations, postural training, and coordinated patterns of breathing and movement. These additional therapeutic elements make Tai Chi an effective adjunct to conventional rehabilitation.
-- The Harvard Medical School Guide to Tai Chi
Will Chinese medicine lead to a new diabetes cure?
As the blending of alternative and mainstream medicine gains traction worldwide, more studies emerge on the benefits of embracing both Eastern and Western philosophies. A recent one published in the journal PLOS ONE found that a conventional diabetes drug, when taken alongside traditional Chinese medicine herbs, was significantly more effective in treating type 2 diabetes.
The study by researchers from Peking University and Australia's University of Queensland involved 800 mainland patients with poorly controlled type 2 diabetes - which leads to complications including blindness, amputation and early death.
Patients were randomly assigned to get either the anti-diabetic drug glibenclamide alone or the "xiaoke pill", a compound of Chinese herbs and glibenclamide.
After 48 weeks, patients treated with the pill had a significant reduction in risk for hypoglycaemia (low blood sugar) and similar improvements in blood glucose control compared to patients who took only glibenclamide ...
-- The South China Morning Post, June 24, 2013
Read more ...
WorldTaiChiDay.org comment. Tai Chi students are also seeing benefits for their type 2 diabetes. In the below testimonial video, one student was put on 20 units of insulin after being diagnosed as diabetic. She changed her diet and began walking regularly, and was able to reduce her dosage to 18 units per day.
THEN, only four months after beginning at Tai Chi & Qigong program at the University of Kansas Medical Center's Landon Center on Aging, her blood sugar levels normalized, and her physician took her completely off of insulin. See video below.
This is stunning! Diet and walking only were able to lower her dosage from 20 units to 18 units, only 2 units difference. Tai Chi and Qigong classes, in only 4 months, enabled her physician to drop the remaining 18 UNITS, to get her completely off of insulin. Cases like this are why WorldTaiChiDay.org advocates much greater NIH spending on Tai Chi and Qigong medical research.
| | Tai Chi at Turning Point's Center for Hope & Healing, The University of Kansas Hospital |
| |
|
World Tai Chi & QG Day 2013 Events!
FEATURED VIDEO OF THE WEEK!
Melbourne, Australia has always been a major contributor to the global wave of World Tai Chi & Qigong Day events. Their circle qigong is a perfect metaphor for the global wave of tai chi and qigong wrapping the planet in 2013. See video..
 | | Bayside Tai Chi Centre WTCQD 27 April 2013 - Pt 4 |
Above is the result of WorldTaiChiDay.org's ongoing work. If you see value in our work, you can support our efforts via the Official World Tai Chi & Qigong Day Official Sponsor's store for Tai Chi & Qigong DVDs, CDs, Zen Alarm Clocks, Oriental Health Balls, Tai Chi Fans or Swords, Chinese Gongs and Chimes, Chinese Calligraphy Paintings, and more. Tell your friends about our unique Sponsor Store.
http://www.worldtaichiday.org/dvds_books_health_products.html
| |
| ,
How Do We Assess a Teacher's Skill?!
In my book, "The Complete Idiot's Guide to T'ai Chi & Qigong," I suggested that readers interview several teachers and see who they resonated with. My answer to the question, how do I know I've found a good teacher, was, "if you feel good after class, then you have found a good class."
In the past our lineage has been one of the big measuring sticks used to assess teachers value or skills. My personal lineage was recorded in the Guang Ping Yang style of T'ai Chi, as descending from Yang style founder Yang Lu-Chan, to his son Yang Pan-Hou, to a stable boy named Wang Jiao-Yu, to Master Kuo Lien-Ying, who brought this style to San Francisco where Gil Messenger learned from him, Jais Booth learned from Gil, and I, Bill Douglas, learned from Ms. Booth. Making me the 7th generation from the Yang Style of Tai Chi's original founder in China.
Also, in the past, championships in Tai Chi athletic competitions were another measure of a teacher's value or skill, for some seeking classes.
These are all relevant things to consider when a new student is shopping for a Tai Chi style to learn, however they have limits. Anyone who's taught tai chi for decades, or has shopped around for a teacher to study with, knows that there is a wide divergence of approaches within any given style, and the different approaches among tai chi or qigong competition champions can be as wide as the grand canyon.
But, western science is beginning to give rise to a new measurement we can use to assess the effectiveness of ourselves as teachers. That is the measurable health and life benefits our students get from our classes. For example emerging research has used Helper T-Cell counts; BNP levels; Balance Measurement Statistics; Blood Pressure; Blood Sugar Levels; etc. to measure the effectiveness of Tai Chi or Qigong classes.
While scientific studies of our students is beyond the financial ability of tai chi and qigong teachers, unless we partner with a medical university or health industry, we can still learn some of these statistics regarding our students. Most students who have had chronic health challenges, including balance issues, etc., become experts regarding their BNP levels if they have heart disease, or their insulin dosage or A1c blood glucose levels if they are diabetic; etc. So, your students' lives become the laboratory, and they will inform you of progress on these levels. However, not necessarily. What we found was when we asked students for testimonials, they were very happy to give them, and often with great detail on their health stats.
Many teachers are unaware of their true value in this regard. I for example had no idea of the profound measurable health improvements students in my classes were getting.
What changed that was when, after being inspired by a Harvard Medical School video of testimonials of students in their Tai Chi and Qigong classes, I decided to interview my students on video. I was stunned to hear stories about how they'd healed from arthritis, stroke paralysis, diabetes, and found relief from MS and Parkinson's symptoms.
| | Tai Chi at Turning Point's Center for Hope & Healing, The University of Kansas Hospital |
In class, as a teacher, you get busy teaching, and you don't hear these stories. To hear them, inspired me, and will forever affect me as a human and a teacher. So, we decided to launch a global campaign to encourage other teachers worldwide to use our video testimonial project in Kansas City as a prototype, and to gather short video testimonials from students worldwide, recounting the health and life changes they've seen with Tai Chi & Qigong.
We invite all teachers to be a part of this exciting new project.
-- Bill Douglas, Co-Founder of World Tai Chi & QG Day
"The Tao is like water, which nourishes
all things without trying to."
-- Lao Tzu
 Waterfall, Guilin, China
| |
|
U.S. Consulate in Hong Kong, Very Supportive of WTCQD Efforts!
WTCQD co-founders, Bill Douglas, and Angela Wong Douglas in Hong Kong's Central District, just after their meeting with the U.S. Consulate's Cultural Affairs Officer.
WTCQD Founders were granted an audience with the US Consulate, and met with the US Consulate Cultural Affairs Officer stationed in Hong Kong to investigate ways the US Consulate could help our efforts to expand tai chi and qigong usage in Hong Kong, and elsewhere for world health and to expand goodwill international relations. The Consulate Cultural Affairs Officer was VERY supportive of our vision and global health education efforts, and made official introductions on our behalf, to help us make inroads with Hong Kong Government agencies, and to expand WTCQD efforts in Macau. More below!
| |
 | | U.S. Consulate General in Hong Kong Supports World Tai Chi & Qigong Day w Formal Intros to HK Govt. |
|
|
Together, changing the world one central
nervous system at a time.
|
 | | World Tai Chi & Qigong Day Press Release |
|
|
Contact:
World Tai Chi & Qigong Day
10100 Roe Avenue
Overland Park, KS 66207
913-648-2256
|
You Can Support World Tai Chi & Qigong Day's Global Health Education Work via Our Official Sponsor!
ZEN ALARM CLOCKS
DVDS
BOOKS
TAI CHI FANS
and more ...
CDs
CHINESE CALLIGRAPHY PAINTINGS MADE TO ORDER BY OUR OFFICIAL WTCQD ARTIST & CHINESE CALLIGRAPHY AUTHOR
ZEN ALARM CLOCKS
CHINESE GONGS & CHIMES
CLICK TO ORDER:
| |
|
