A Pioneer Research
One of the most debilitating problems encountered by people with multiple sclerosis (MS) is the loss of balance and coordination.
A new study by scientists from Slovakia and Czech is a pioneer effort outside of Asia that aimed to comprehensively evaluate the effectiveness of Tai-chi exercise in patients with MS.
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The Promising Results
This was a single-group longitudinal one-year study performed from the 1st of January 2019 to the 1st of January 2020.
Out of 25 patients with MS enrolled, 15 women with MS (mean age 44.27 years) were included for statistical analyses after completing the 12-month program.
After 12 months, significant improvements were found in all objective balance and gait tests: Mini-BESTest, static posturography measures (total area of the center of foot pressure), 25 Feet Walk Test, anxiety and cognition tests.
Measures of depression, cognition, and health-related quality of life showed a trend of improvement but were not significant, which could be the result of a small sample.
Conclusion
According to these preliminary results, this study indicates the possible beneficial effects of long-term Tai-chi training on patients with MS.
Although these findings need to be confirmed by further studies with a larger sample of participants of both genders and require more rigorous randomized controlled trials (RCT) design, they support the recommendation of regular and long-term Tai-chi exercise in patients with MS.
