Drayson Center Offers New Class to Improve Balance

LOMA LINDA >> The Loma Linda Drayson Center will be hosting a T’ai Chi Ch’uan class, starting April 7 and continuing every Thursday night at 7:30 p.m. The class is designed for those of all ages and will follow the same curriculum used in the October 2015 Loma Linda University Research Study, which proved T’ai Chi can help improve balance in diabetic people and balance in people overall. Additionally, the class is aimed to help lower blood pressure, reduce stress, and increase aerobic capacity in seniors. The symmetrical Yang style of T’ai Chi Ch’uan will be used. The research study similarly used this style of T’ai Chi Ch’uan to reach the conclusion that this form of exercise, combined with mental imagery theory, can help improve balance in the diabetic and elderly population, which is affected with impaired balance and increased chance of falling. Abdulrahman Alsubiheen, Jerrold Petrofsky, Noha Daher, Everett Lohman, and Edward Balbas reached their conclusions by recruiting 17 healthy subjects and 12 diabetic subjects, whose ages 40-80 years old. All 29 subjects attended a T’ai Chi class, similar to the one the Drayson Center will soon be offering, for two sessions a week for eight weeks, totaling 16 hours and 16 sessions. During the course of the sessions, which were taught by Harvey Kurland and his assistant Myra Allen, the subjects took balance platform tests, an Activities-specific Balance Confidence Scale, a one leg standing test, functional reach test and hemoglobin A1C (HbA1C). These were taken twice for each group, before and after the study was conducted. After the information was gathered and the eight weeks were complete, the researchers concluded there was an improvement in balance in both groups. No significant change was shown in HbA1C for the diabetic group, however, there was no significant difference between the two groups in terms of how much balance had improved, which led the researchers to believe the exercise benefited the diabetic group more, as their balance impairment was more severe. The researchers hypothesized the success behind combining T’ai Chi with mental imagery being due to the Activities-specific Balance Confidence Scale somatosensory system, which was enhanced by the “re-learning” process applied in the class. Other clinical studies have shown T’ai Chi exercise helps to improve balance and function but those studies were more rigorous and did not include a focus on mental imagery. Mental imagery was part of the reason the researchers chose the Yang style of T’ai Chi Ch’uan, in fact, which will also be used in the Drayson Center’s new class. According to the study, the Yang style was fitting because it had important characteristics that were cohesive with mental imagery and somatosensory enhancement. During the class sessions, subjects focused on the slow coordinated movement, stretching, and mental concentration that are common to T’ai Chi. The subjects applied the “re-learning” process mentioned earlier when they concentrated specifically on the pattern of each movement after first watching the instructor perform the exercise. With the visual aid of a mirror, the subjects then executed the movement themselves. The instructor stood by to correct any movement and help the subjects perform the movement better, if need be. Another result reflected in the study was the effect mental imagery has on changing brain structure, which is also known as brain morphometry, through long-term T’ai Chi practice. Though Loma Linda University's study was considered short term and only affected balance, the results aligned with previous conclusions reached that brain structure can be affected by similar mental imagery methods. According to the study, the researchers concluded that "physical therapists are encouraged to recommend TC exercise for diabetic and geriatric patients. The results of this study suggested that teaching the patient to focus on mental theory while doing T’ai Chi exercise is the best way to promote and accelerate the ‘re-learning’ process in order to improve balance."