A preliminary study of the effects of Tai Chi and Qigong medical exercise on indicators of metabolic syndrome and glycaemic control in adults with elevated blood glucose

Liu Xin ^1*, Yvette D Miller ¹, Nicola W Burton ¹ and Wendy J Brown ¹

¹ The University of Queensland, Australia

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: liuxin{at}hms.uq.edu.au.

Accepted 22 January 2008

Abstract

Objectives: To evaluate the feasibility, acceptability and effects of a Tai Chi and Qigong medical exercise program that aimed to improve indicators of metabolic syndrome and glycaemic control in adults with elevated blood glucose.

Design, Setting, and Participants: A single group pre-post trial of 11 participants (3 male and 8 female; aged 42-65 years) with elevated blood glucose, conducted from August to November 2005 at a university in Australia.

Invervention: Participants attended Tai Chi and Qigong exercise training for 1 to 1.5 hours, 3 times per week for 12 weeks, and were encouraged to practice the exercises at home.

Main Outcome Measures: Indicators of metabolic syndrome (body mass index, waist circumference, blood pressure, fasting blood glucose, triglycerides, HDL-cholesterol), and glucose control (HbA1c, fasting insulin and insulin resistance).

Results: There was good adherence and high acceptability for the group based program. There were significant improvements in four of the seven indicators of metabolic syndrome including body mass index [mean difference -1.05 (95% CI: -1.48, -0.63), p<0.001], waist circumference [-2.80 cm (-4.97, -0.62), p<0.05)], and both systolic [-11.64 mm Hg (-19.46, -3.51), p<0.01)] and diastolic blood pressure [-9.73 mm Hg (-13.58, -5.88), p<0.001)]. There were also small improvements in HbA1c [-0.32 % (-0.49, -0.15), p<0.01)], fasting insulin [-9.93 pmol/L (-19.93, 0.07), p = 0.051] and insulin resistance [-0.53 (-0.97, -0.09), p<0.05].

Conclusions: The program was shown to be feasible and acceptable and the findings suggest that it may be helpful for control of indicators of metabolic syndrome and glycaemic control. Larger controlled studies are needed to confirm these promising results.