New Clinical Practice Guidelines Recommend Tai Chi

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February 21, 2017 - In two newly released guidelines from two separate medical organizations, Tai Chi has been recommended to be used in clinical practices.

The American College of Physicians (ACP) published their clinical practice guideline for treating non-radicular low back pain in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine. It recommends that patients with chronic low back pain start by undergoing non-drug therapy and exercising, as well as engaging in multidisciplinary rehabilitation, acupuncture, mindfulness-based therapies for stress reduction, Tai Chi, and yoga.

The ACP has reached their conclusions through a meticulous reviewing process that consists of several stages: a systematic review of the evidence available; a deliberation based on the evidence; a summary of the recommendations; grading the quality of the evidence; and issuing the recommendations. This is the first time when the ACP updated the guideline since it issued the previous guideline in 2007.

The other new guideline came from the Ottawa Panel, formed by University of Ottawa, University of British Columbia, University of Granada, Granada, Spain, the University of Melbourne, the University of Sydney, University of Applied Sciences, Amsterdam, Netherlands, Cochin Hospital of Paris, France, etc. Its guideline identifies effective mind-body exercise programs and provides clinicians and patients with updated, high-quality recommendations concerning non-traditional land-based exercises for knee osteoarthritis.

The Ottawa Panel Guideline strongly recommends a 20-week Sun style Tai Chi exercise program (20 to 40-minute classes three times per week) for the management of knee osteoarthritis.