Got Taiji?

Taiji practice is to your immune system what calcium is to your bones.

Taiji has been shown in several studies to boost the immune system. One such study found that each individual session of Taiji raised systemic immunity! 


Systemic (humoral) immunity is measured in terms of the number of antibodies present in the blood. These antibodies identify viruses and harmful bacteria and tag them to be eliminated.

"[Researchers] found positive changes in humoral activity attributed to a single episode of practice and indications of humoral immunity improvement associated with long-term Taiji practice. "1

Specific immunity to the virus which causes shingles was also shown to dramatically improve. Even more so than being given a vaccine for the virus! 

"Surprisingly, the Taiji group’s immunity index was slightly higher than the other group inoculated with vaccine."2 

!!!AMAZING!!!

And from a different study:

"a nearly 50% increase in varicella zoster virus [shingles virus] specific, cell-mediated immunity was found in the Taiji group as compared with demographically similar, wait-listed controls."1

This is just incredible... who'd have thought that a simple exercise, consisting of slow, co-ordinated movements that takes only 15 minutes to do, could boost immune function so dramatically. I mean... it makes sense - the blood and much of the immune system comes from the activities that happen inside of bones, and Taiji puts gentle stress on the largest bones in the body, the femur, as we shift the weight slowly back and forth between legs. It is then, just this gentle stress that heats up the bones enough to invigorate them and increase their functional capacity, thus boosting the immune system.  

~ Simply INCREDIBLE!!!

1 http://www.williamccchen.com/taiji1.pdf
2 http://www.examiner.com/tai-chi-in-st-louis/taichi-improves-old-adults-immunity-sleep-quality-and-many-other-health-issues