Tai chi proven effective as a therapy for fibromyalgia

According to a research published on Thursday August 19 in The New England Journal of Medicine tai chi may be effective as a therapy for fibromyalgia.

The participants in the study had fibromyalgia. Those who took Tai Chi twice a week for three months experienced less pain, stiffness, and fatigue than a control group that attended lifestyle education and stretching sessions. They also slept and felt better

Symptoms of fibromyalgia include fatigue, body pain, and tender points in joints, muscles and other soft tissues. It is most common in middle-aged women. 

Meditation and exercise - a Western Medicine perspective

In a monastery, monks spend long periods of time in meditation or prayer. This is very similar to what we do during Sesshin. As far as the body is concerned, there is no difference between Meditation or Prayer, keep still and quiet...

But monks, Buddhists or Christians, work physically and vigorously, gardening, cleaning, building... This helps loosen their joints and stretch tendons and muscles.

During Sesshin, people who usually have sedentary jobs with little physical activity, sit (shikantaza) for long periods. Their joints freeze and lock up.

Too much quiet and stillness results in stiffness and physical pain. This aggravates the mind which becomes restless. However, too much action has the same effect (until exhaustion occurs – but this is an other story which we will cover later about Kendo.)

Here again, the opposites meet. What is important is to find a middle way.

The practice of meditation should incorporate proper exercises to help alleviate the stiffness and pain due to immobility. Because the mind better operates in a slightly energized body, these exercises should not be violent or mobilize huge muscle masses but rather concentrate on stretching joints and tendons.

Tai Chi with its slow and ample moves is an excellent solution.

Pain and Meditation

About 6 years ago I visited a Buddhist temple in the vicinity of Fort Walton Beach. The monks were from Thailand. They were very friendly and showed us around the temple. Then the Abbot invited to sit with them and ask questions about Buddhism.
I remember asking him the proper way to meditate. As he described the Lotus or Semi lotus position, I explained to him that my left knee and hip being damaged, I could not even think of the Lotus, and the 1/2 lotus would be extremely painful to me.
His answer was to not pay attention to the pain which would eventually go away.

I listened for a while after that, because he was interesting and friendly. But I left disappointed, knowing that I was not going to even try it.

If you start sitting at 13 or 16 as or Thich Nhat Hanh did, chances are that you can easily go past the pain of the Lotus position, because your joints and even bones are more flexible than they will be 20 years down the road. You never experienced the type of pain that occurs in a 50 years old knee damaged by 2 motorcycles and one martial art incidents.

If pain becomes so intense that it clutters the mind, sitting is useless, you are loosing your time.

Lately, I realized that I was able to sit in the Burmese position. I was surprised, as I never thought my knees would agree to this. It could be that after 2 years of sitting in Seiza my hips and knees became slightly more flexible. When I sit, there is a slight discomfort that disappears after 4 to 5 minutes. So in essence, I forget the pain. 3 years ago, I could not have done this. It is the result of 2 years of (almost) painless sitting in Seiza position.

It is just like in Tai Chi : the notion of "No Pain, No Gain" does not apply. If you hurt, your body is telling you something is wrong.

Pay attention to pain. A little pain will probably subside after a few minutes of sitting in any position. If it does not, then change positipon.

If you try at all cost to forget the pain, you won't be able to focus, and may hurt your joints beyond any possible repair. You are losing your time and damaging your body. And it is the only one you have to practice with.

Zen meditation keeps pain at bay.

Washington, Feb 4, 2009 : Zen meditation - a centuries-old practice that helps people gain mental, physical and emotional balance - can keep pain at bay, according to Universite de Montreal researchers.

According to a Psychosomatic Medicine study, Zen meditators have lower pain sensitivity both in and out of a meditative state compared to non-meditators.

Along with Pierre Rainville, a professor and researcher at the Universite de Montreal, Joshua A. Grant, a doctoral student in the Department of Physiology co-authored the paper.

The main aim of the study was to examine whether trained meditators perceived pain differently than non-meditators.

"While previous studies have shown that teaching chronic pain patients to meditate is beneficial, very few studies have looked at pain processing in healthy, highly trained meditators. This study was a first step in determining how or why meditation might influence pain perception," says Grant.

To reach the conclusion, the scientists recruited 13 Zen meditators with a minimum of 1,000 hours of practice to undergo a pain test and contrasted their reaction with 13 non-meditators. Subjects included 10 women and 16 men between the ages of 22 to 56.

The administered pain test was simple: A thermal heat source, a computer controlled heating plate, was pressed against the calves of subjects intermittently at varying temperatures. Heat levels began at 43 degrees Celsius and went to a maximum of 53 degrees Celsius depending on each participant’s sensitivity. While quite a few of the meditators tolerated the maximum temperature, all control subjects were well below 53 degrees Celsius.

Grant and Rainville noticed a marked difference in how their two test groups reacted to pain testing - Zen meditators had much lower pain sensitivity (even without meditating) compared to non-meditators. During the meditation-like conditions it appeared meditators further reduced their pain partly through slower breathing: 12 breaths per minute versus an average of 15 breaths for non-meditators.

"Slower breathing certainly coincided with reduced pain and may influence pain by keeping the body in a relaxed state. While previous studies have found that the emotional aspects of pain are influenced by meditation, we found that the sensation itself, as well as the emotional response, is different in meditators," Grant said.

The ultimate result was that Zen meditators experienced an 18 percent reduction in pain intensity.

Ancient Chinese Exercise Relieves Knee Pain

Released October 22, 2008

Tai chi is effective in the treatment of pain and physical impairment in people with severe knee osteoarthritis, according to research presented this week at the American College of Rheumatology Annual Scientific Meeting in San Francisco, Calif.

Read the full article at : http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/545482/

Source: American College of Rheumatology (ACR)