SaveYourself.ca • Sensible advice for aches, pains & injuries
published 10/08/10
Curse you, NEJM! Twice in as many months! The New England Journal of Medicine is muddying the medical waters for the second time recently, this time making tai chi sound more special than it is and giving “alternative” medicine an inappropriate boost because of a study showing that tai chi has some beneficial effects for fibromyalgia patients.
As explained by Dr. David Gorski for ScienceBasedMedicine.org, “Fibromyalgia, like many chronic conditions, truly sucks,” but:
… why on earth [are these findings presented as being] the least bit ‘alternative’ or ‘complementary’? Stripped to its essence and particularly stripped of its woo elements about qi, all tai chi is exercise and relaxation, and we already know that exercise can be useful for fibromyalgia!
Tai chi and fibromyalgia in the New England Journal of Medicine: An “alternative” frame succeeds, Gorski (ScienceBasedMedicine.org)
Indeed! I am an experienced tai chi practitioner — I practiced routinely for about 20 years, and to this day it grates on my nerves to see the steady stream of self-conscious dabblers butchering it. As both a tai chi practitioner and a former alternative medicine practitioner, I agree with Dr. Gorski: it’s bizarre and ridiculous for the NEJM to present this evidence as some kind of a victory for alternative medicine.
Tai chi is routinely “claimed” by alternative medicine. For instance, the The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine — which is kind of like a world headquarters for alternative medicine — calls tai chi “a mind-body practice in complementary and alternative medicine.” What nonsense! You might as well claim fly-fishing, golf and chopping veggies as part of alternative medicine. They're meditative, sure, but not “medicine.”
Tai chi is not prescribed or taught by alternative medicine practitioners: they are certainly all in favour of it (often for the wrong reasons), but the idea that it is some kind of staple of alternative medicine prescribing is simply wrong. The closest tai chi comes to actually being a part of alternative medicine is in the form of casual recommendations to try it, in the same way that your doctor might say, “Maybe it’s time for a heart-smart vacation?” And even that’s fairly rare.
For that matter, I’ve known mainstream physicians to suggest tai chi. Why wouldn’t they? This is the point: it’s gentle exercise, not magic.
Ironically, I actually did teach tai chi to my patients. I ran a beach tai chi class for my first couple years as a Registered Massage Therapist in Vancouver — patients were students, and students were patients. People just loved it, and were quite disappointed when I stopped doing it. The whole thing was quite unusual, not even remotely typical of alternative medicine. If it were, maybe you could say that tai chi is a part of alternative medicine. But it’s not, and it isn’t.
The huge majority of tai chi students outside of China were introduced to it by the International Taoist Tai Chi Society, an impressively effective organization with vast membership in thousands of active clubs around the world. The style of tai chi taught by the ITTCS is notably pragmatic and slanted toward the simple benefits of gentle movement exercise. A large proportion of their students are older adults referred there by physicians who see it as a straightforward source of gentle exercise. The ITTCS is well aware of this and generally presents tai chi in just that way. Their website’s page about the health benefits of tai chi keeps it real and does not even refer to chi as a spooky force in the body (see Do You Believe in Qi?). The text sticks to the basics: “improved circulation, balance and posture; increased strength and flexibility; and reduced stress.”
Sure, tai chi certainly comes with a lot of superstitious baggage, and in China it is thoroughly intertwined with their folk medicine. But I can eat sushi without bushido, and I can take what I like from tai chi and ignore the rest.
I roll my eyes at NEJM’s tacit endorsement of tai chi as alternative medicine.
