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Written by Bill Douglas
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I was quite surprised when I began searching for research on Tai Chi’s benefits for diabetes . . . it was very difficult to come by. Because on its face, Tai Chi seems to possibly offer many benefits to someone with diabetes. Tai Chi is known to stimulate microcirculation in practitioners, and is a highly effective stress management technique, and very gently burns a significant amount of calories. In fact, Tai Chi may actually help the body find homeostatic chemical levels. For example, in a study on sex hormones Tai Chi was found to have a “balancing effect” on the hormonal chemistry of participants, lowering the abnormally high estrogen levels in older men, while raising the abnormally low estrogen levels in older women.
These findings in other research led me to believe that there had probably been substantial research done on Tai Chi & Qigong’s benefits for those with diabetes, given that these findings in other studies at least initially suggest Tai Chi & Qigong may offer much to the diabetes patient. But, as I said, it doesn’t appear there is much out there in terms of “tai chi & qigong as an adjunct diabetes therapy,” at least from Western institutions.
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Written by C. Guan Soo
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Breathing is the source of life: if breathing stops, do does life. On average, an adult breathe 16-18 times per minutes, each time about 500ml of air exchanged in the lungs. When breathing in from the outside air, oxygen content is about 21% while carbon dioxide is 0.03%. On the other hand, breathing out produces about 16.5% oxygen and 4.5% carbon dioxide.
Based on the average of 16-18 breath per minutes, it can be estimated that the volume of air exchanged in the lungs is about 8000-9000ml. From this, the content of both oxygen and carbon dioxide exchanged can also be calculated.
What is Ineffective Retention?
Ineffective Retention refers to the space between the lungs and the nose, that is, the space in the nasal, throat, trachea, and bronchus which contains residual air of about 150ml. The residual air in Ineffective Retention has more carbon dioxide and lesser oxygen compared to the air outside.
Each inhale of 500ml of air from the outside will include this 150ml residual air in the Ineffective Retention. This means the effective oxygen content in each inhale is in fact lesser than 21%! This means, for every minute, you will be taking in about 2400-2700ml of residual air in the Ineffective Retention space!
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Written by Stephen Todd
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Taoist Philosophy To understand the purpose of the form it is important to understand its basis and roots.
The origins of Tai Chi go back over 5,000 years and are based in Taoist philosophy developed and refined by the great Taoist thinkers such as, Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu.
The core concept of Taoism and Taoist philosophy is that everything in the universe is subject to change and when dealing with this change we should act not to fight it but work with it and avoid conflict.
The core Of Taoism is that action should always be effortless and come from spontaneous creativity, but this should not require mental or physical effort.
According to Taoist philosophy change is constant but, by understanding change and acting in accordance with the laws that govern it, we can work effortlessly to achieve our aims.
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Tai Chi Benefits 
