The people in the tai chi class move so slowly, smoothly and deliberately, it
looks like they’re moving under water.
“Don’t think anything,
except ‘chi’,” their instructor, Yajun “Thomas” Zhuang, tells them.
Chi,
he explained before class, is “life force, life energy.”
Tai chi, a form
of Chinese martial art, has become popular in the U.S. as exercise, with its
slow, continuous movements.
But this class, held in a room of Hatcher
Hall on the LSU campus, is different.
Launched almost six years
ago, it helps people with peripheral neuropathy, a disease that can cause
tingling, pain and numbness in the feet, legs, hands and arms and make it
difficult to balance and to walk.
Last semester, the program expanded to
offer the free classes to another group of people who have difficulties with
balance and walking — those with Parkinson’s disease.
The
neurodegenerative brain disorder impacts the production of a chemical that helps
with the control of body movements, according to several medical Web
sites.
“I would say, on the standpoint of balance and coordination
overall, I think it’s been an improvement,” said Glen Meyers, 61, of the tai chi
class he’s been in for several months at LSU.
Meyers learned he has
Parkinson’s in 2007, after several months of medical testing.
He said
medicine has been helpful. He has opted to keep his dosage lower to avoid some
side effects and lives with a tremor in his right arm, he said.
He tries
to never miss a tai chi class, he said.
“A little improvement is a lot
for me. In a disease that’s progressive, to be able to stall it or see some
improvement is a pretty big thing for me,” Meyers said.
“I certainly hope
it continues,” he said of the tai chi program.
Li Li, Ph.D., began the
Peripheral Neuropathy Studies in the summer of 2004, in LSU’s Department of
Kinesiology in the College of Education.
He said he believes the tai chi
intervention program is the only one of its kind in the country.
“There’s a lot of research out there showing tai chi helps balance” Li
said.
“We started the program to help them regain their balance. We got
great results,” said Li, the Jo Ellen Levy Yates Professor in LSU’s kinesiology
department.
“After about six months, their balance improves, their
gait improves. It’s less painful. A lot tell us they can feel the bottom of
their feet (again),” said Li of the participants.
Zhuang, the instructor,
has modified the tai chi for the two different groups, those with peripheral
neuropathy and those with Parkinson’s disease, Li said.
“Our biggest goal
is to help these people maintain their function,” said Jan Hondzinski, Ph.D.,
associate professor and director of the Sensorimotor Laboratory in the LSU
Department of Kinesiology.
She and assistant professor Arend Van Gemmert,
Ph.D., are working with Li on a study for those with Parkinson’s
disease.
“Both of these diseases are degenerative … if we can give some
of that function back, we love to see that,” Hondzinski said.
The
Parkinson’s program began in September 2009 with close to 10 participants, Li
said.
The class for those with peripheral neuropathy has grown from about
30 since its beginnings several years ago to about 60.
Spouses or friends
who drive the participants to class are invited to also participate and serve as
“controls” in the study, for comparative, research purposes, Li said.
For
several years, the program has been funded by a grant from the local Reilly
Family Foundation, Li said.
Patty Ross, 69, a member of the peripheral
neuropathy class, began having symptoms of the disease 10 years ago, although it
took some time for her to get a diagnosis, she said.
At one point, the
pain in her feet was so bad that she could only get relief by putting her feet
in a bucket of ice water, Ross said.
She began participating in the tai
chi program at LSU almost from the beginning, a little more than five years ago,
and still goes three days a week.
“If it wasn’t for Thomas, none of us
would be walking,” Ross said of the class’s instructor.
While she still
deals with pain in her feet, Ross said the tai chi has given her “more strength
in my feet … It’s helped my whole body to be stronger.”
The class
seems to have become a sort of community for participants over the years.
A few years ago, members traveled as a group with their instructor to
China.
On the trip, the Americans practiced their tai chi outdoors in
public places, once at the Great Wall of China, as the people in China do, said
Dennis Edmon,
who’s participated in the program at LSU since it’s
beginning.
Peripheral neuropathy is a very common disease, Li said, with more
than 20 million Americans suffering from it.
But it doesn’t seem to
receive a lot of attention, he said.
“This is a group of people who
desperately need help,” said Li, who also directs the Biomechanics Laboratory in
the LSU Department of Kinesiology.
The beneficial results of the tai chi
classes are encouraging, but the reasons for the improvements are unclear, he
said.
“To this day, I don’t know why” tai chi helps, Li
said.
“That’s the next part of the research,” he said.
Tai
chi classes for those with peripheral neuropathy are offered on Mondays,
Wednesdays and Fridays from 9:15 a.m. to 10:15 a.m. and from 10:30 a.m. to 11:30
a.m.
Classes for those with Parkinson’s disease meet at 11:45 a.m. on the
same days. All sessions are in Hatcher Hall on the LSU campus.
For more
information, visit the Web site of LSU’s Peripheral Neuropathy Studies at
http://www.pn.lsu.edu; call (225) 578--2036 or e-mail lli3@lsu.edu.
For
information about the local peripheral neuropathy support group, call Dennis
Edmon, (225) 292-6723 or (225) 202-5400. For Parkinson’s disease support group
information, contact Lee Mazzoli, (225) 275-8549).
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