The Effect of Tai Chi on Negative Emotions

August 26, 2019 - Tai Chi as a typical mind-body practice has been investigated for its preventive role on negative emotions and has demonstrated its efficacy in healthy populations. However, the results are not consistent.

As reported by International journal of environmental research and public health in August 2019, a group of Chinese researchers performed a meta-analysis and systematically evaluated the effect of Tai Chi on selected negative emotions (i.e., anxiety and depression). Fourteen experimental studies from three English-and two Chinese-language databases were evaluated.

The results showed that the positive effects of Tai Chi on negative emotions were moderately to largely significant. In addition, although Tai significantly improved negative emotions in both the young adults and the older adults, old adults benefited more from Tai Chi than young adults. These findings suggest that Tai Chi is a worthy complementary non-pharmacological resource towards depression and anxiety and, thus, has great implications for the public health domain.