Study: Medical Qigong improves the quality of life, mood and energy from cancer patients
Study: Medical Qigong improves the quality of life, mood and energy from cancer patients
The following study deals with the influence of medical Qigong on the quality of life, fatigue, mood and inflammation in cancer patients. It is a randomized controlled study with 162 patients from different types of cancer. The patients were examined before and after a 10-week intervention, in which they had two 90-minute medical Qigong sessions per week and should carry out 30-minute meetings at home a day. The results showed that the quality of life, the tiredness, the mood and the inflammatory biomarker in the intervention group were significantly improved compared to the control group. The study underlines the potential advantages of Qigong as supplementary therapy for cancer patients, although certain restrictions such as the short duration of studies and the lack of blind studies should be observed.
Details of the study:
reference
Oh b, Butow P, Mullan B, et al. Influence of medical Qigong on quality of life, fatigue, mood and inflammation in cancer patients: a randomized controlled study. ann oncol. 2010; 21: 608-614.
design
randomized controlled study with 162 patients with different types of cancer. The average age was 60 years (area 31–86). All patients had a forecast of> 12 months and had never made Qigong before participating in the study. Results, including quality of life (QOL), fatigue, mood and an inflammatory biomarker, were measured before intervention and 10 weeks after the intervention. The intervention consisted of two 90-minute, monitored medical Qigong (MQ) meetings per week and assigned 30-minute meetings that should be carried out every day at home. The assessment was carried out using "Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy - General"; QOL, quality of life (fact-g); Functional assessment of cancer therapy-fatigue (fact-f); Profile of the mood (poms). The inflammation was assessed using serum measurements of the C-reactive protein.
most important findings
The quality of life and all subdomain dimensions (physical, social, emotional and functional well-being), measured by FACT-G, were significantly improved in the intervention group compared to the non-treatment group after 10 weeks ( p = 0.001). The intervention group also recorded a significant improvement in cancer-related fatigue, measured by Fact-F ( p = 0.001). The improvements in the general mood measured by Poms were also significantly improved in the intervention group ( p = 0.021) compared to the control group. The C-reactive protein was also significantly improved in the intervention group ( p = 0.044).
Effects on the practice
Qigong is an old naturopathy from China that uses an approach described in western use as a spirit-body approach to improve physical and intellectual well-being. From an eastern perspective, this improvement naturally focuses on the improved energy flow or "Qi" throughout the body. The program used in this study was a tailor -made medical Qigong, which was developed by the main author, "to be specifically involved in the needs of cancer patients and to control emotions and stress and to improve physical function". It consisted of "15-minute discussion about health issues, 30-minute gentle stretching and body movement to stimulate the body along the energy channels, 15-minute movement while sitting ... and 30-minute meditation including breathing exercises."
The program used was specially tailored to the needs of cancer patients to control emotions and stress and improve physical function. It should be noted that these different techniques may have improved the effectiveness of the overall treatment. Each section of the 90-minute monitored routine can have its own independent therapeutic value; It is therefore more likely that the bundling of these therapies is useful for a considerable number of patients. However, this should not reduce the meaningfulness of the results. There is already indications that Qigong can improve the quality of life of people with chronic diseases. 1 In addition, the systemically soothing effect of Qigong has been demonstrated in studies on heart rate and blood pressure. 10px; "> 2.3 The authors of the current study had proven a similar trend in a pilot study published in 2008. 4 Thirty participants received a similar MQ program for eight weeks. Trends were observed to an improved quality of life, but no statistical significance was achieved with the small number of patients. The importance of the current publication is that it is the first with a sufficient meaning to demonstrate a statistically significant improvement in the quality of life with MQ in patients with a cancer diagnosis. It should also be noted that no opposite studies have been published. Chinese doctors can consider this study as evidence of the obvious, since it is expected that Qigong will make the improvements of physical and emotional well -being observed in this study. Like so many studies, this publication offers an "evidence -based" support of old wisdom and/or practices. In our daily practice, many practitioners already lead patients to techniques for spirit, body and soul. Together with confirming publications, this study can support our discussions with colleagues and help patients to adhere to our recommendations for Qigong in particular and spirit-body techniques. Due to the tailor -made and unique program developed by the main author, it will be difficult to reproduce this study from other researchers. The study may have a certain degree of distortion of selection, since the participants volunteered for the study. The duration of the study was limited to only 10 weeks and long -term effects cannot be extrapolated from the data. After all, this study was neither for participants nor for researchers. restrictions