HHS HealthBeat (May 28, 2007)

Tai chi versus shingles

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

Can you fight shingles with an ancient Chinese meditation and exercise practice? A researcher says tai chi chih, a westernized version of Tai Chi, seems to act like a booster for a vaccine against the painful disease.

Michael Irwin of the University of California, Los Angeles bases that on a look at 59- to 86-year-olds.  They did 16 weeks of tai chi chih, and got a vaccination against the virus that causes shingles.

Irwin says the exercisers got a lot better immune response.

"Tai chi provides further benefit for those active older adults for improving immune function, and potentially decreasing their risk for certain viral infectious diseases, and particularly shingles." (11 seconds)

The study in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Learn more at hhs.gov.

Last revised: May, 29 2007