Therapeutic benefits of qigong exercises in combination with drugs

This article reviews clinical studies from the Qigong Bibliographic Database, developed by the Qigong Institute, a nonprofit organization. This database was started in 1994 and holds approximately 1300 references going back to 1986, covering medical applications, scientific, and experimental studies on qigong from China, the United States, and Europe. Records in English have been compiled from International Qigong conferences and seminars, scientific journals, magazines, dissertations, MEDLINE, and other databases. The therapeutic role of qigong exercises combined with drugs is reported for three medical conditions that require drug therapy for health maintenance: hypertension, respiratory disease, and cancer. In these studies, drugs were administered to all patients who were divided into two groups, a group that practiced qigong exercises and a control group that did not. Taken together, these studies suggest that practicing qigong exercises may favorably affect many functions of the body, permit reduction of the dosage of drugs required for health maintenance, and provide greater health benefits than the use of drug therapy alone. For hypertensive patients, combining qigong practice with drug therapy for hypertensive patients resulted in reduced incidence of stroke and mortality and reduced dosage of drugs required for blood pressure maintenance. For asthma patients, the combination therapy permitted reduction in drug dosage, the need for sick leave, duration of hospitalization, and costs of therapy. For cancer patients, the combination therapy reduced the side effects of cancer therapy. Also reported is a study showing that the practice of qigong helps to rehabilitate drug addicts. The reported studies do not necessarily measure up to the strict protocols required for randomized controlled clinical trials.