The new biomedical technology including genomics and metabolomics will be applied to the subjects with TCC practice to investigate clinical symptoms and signs expression. The investigators will compare the related molecular pathways especially focusing on immune and inflammation between long term practice and beginner groups.
Tai Chi has been developed and spread in the eastern Asia, even the whole world for a long time. It is an exercise to coordinate mind, breathing and body movements slowly and continuously. Tai Chi is regarded as a good and useful sport to strengthen the body. In recent ten years, more and more evidence demonstrated the benefits of Tai Chi especially by meta-analysis studies. These studies revealed that Tai Chi can lower blood pressure, including systolic and diastolic blood pressure, fasting blood glucose, HbA1c, total cholesterol, triglyceride and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, as well as preventing bone mineral density (BMD) loss in special populations. Tai Chi also helps the patients with Parkinson's disease reduce falls due to improving balance and functional mobility, and improve the symptoms of depression and anxiety. Recently, people are currently facing how to reduce the risk factors of cardiovascular diseases, promote physical and mental health and strengthen muscles and bones, and so on. Regarding the role of Tai Chi in immunity, Tai Chi is helpful to improve immune function, however, the results are still inconsistent that it needs to be elucidated. Metabolomics technology is widely used in the fields of medicine and life sciences. Through mass spectrometry analysis, quantitative and qualitative changes in biomarkers can be used to identify biochemical metabolic pathways or effects that might be involved. The number of studies on metabolomics applications has grown rapidly over the past decade, however, little has been done to examine the physiological effects of Tai Chi practice. In addition, with the advancement of science and technology, the sensitivity and measurement method of the mass spectrometer have been improved, which is more suitable for understanding the physiological changes by Tai Chi exercises. After all, the exact cellular molecular mechanisms remain largely unknown after the practice of Tai Chi. In order to understand the health care of Tai Chi, the investigators designed this clinical control study to observe its clinical benefits from both traditional Chinese medicine and Western medicine. The investigators mainly compared long-term Tai Chi practitioners with beginner by TCM diagnosis and physical analysis to identify the differences and changes in TCM syndromes. At the same time, modern medical-related molecular biotechnology is used to detect changes in immunity and metabolomics analysis. Based on the views from macro to micro, it may provide important clues for clinical trials of related diseases with application of Tai Chi exercise in the future.
Study Type
OBSERVATIONAL
Enrollment
56
China Medical University Hospital
Taichung, North District, Taiwan
Serum metabolites
Collect blood and measure the level of serum metabolites .
Time frame: on the day of admission.
Plasma Cytokines
Collect blood and measure the level of plasma cytokines. Comparison of cytokine values between different groups.
Time frame: on the day of admission.
Constitution in Chinese Medicine Questionnaire (CCMQ)
Time frame: completed on the day of admission.
Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy (FACIT) Fatigue Scale (Version 4)
uses 13 short fatigue-related questions to measure an individual level of fatigue in daily life over the past week. Each rated on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 0 (not at all) to 4 (very much). The scores for each item are summed to obtain a total score ranging from 0 to 52. A score of less than 30 indicates severe fatigue, and a higher score indicates less fatigue.
Time frame: completed on the day of admission.
36-Item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36)
contains eight domains: physical functioning, physical health problems, bodily pain, general health perceptions, vitality, social functioning, emotional problems, and mental health. This is scored on a scale ranging from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating better health-related quality of life.
Time frame: completed on the day of admission.
Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI)
uses a self-administered questionnaire and fills in 19 items to evaluate sleep quality in the previous month
Time frame: completed on the day of admission.
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BDI-II score
consists of 21 sets of questions, each of which is self-administered with a score ranging from 0 to 3. Ultimately, a total score of 0-13 is considered minimal, 14-19 mild, 20-28 moderate, and 29-63 severe
Time frame: completed on the day of admission.