Key result
Tai Chi lowers systolic blood pressure ~12 mmHg in patients with metabolic syndrome.
Why the study?
Does a 12-week Tai Chi exercise program improve autonomic nervous system activity and metabolic syndrome risk factors in adults with metabolic syndrome?
Does a 12-week Tai Chi exercise program improve autonomic nervous system activity and metabolic syndrome risk factors in adults with metabolic syndrome?
Absolute Event Rate: 126.56% vs 138.19%
p-value: p=0.018
A 12-week Tai Chi exercise program partially mitigates metabolic syndrome risk factors such as systolic blood pressure and waist circumference, though it may not significantly alter autonomic tone.
May improve metabolic syndrome components; hypothesis-generating for autonomic effects and requires randomized trials.
Purpose: This study was to examine the effects of 12-week Tai Chi exercise on the autonomic nervous system activity and risk factors of metabolic syndrome in patients with metabolic syndrome. Methods: A single group pre-posttest was used. Subjects were 16 participants aged 51~71 years with metabolic syndrome. All of the subjects were met the criteria of the National Cholesterol Education Program-Adult Treatment Panel III (NCEP-ATP III). The Tai Chi exercise consisted of 19 movements from Yang and Sun styles provided twice a week for 3 months. Metabolic syndrome risk factors including waist circumference, blood pressure, glucose, triglyceride, high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-cholesterol) were measured. A heart rate variability device was used to measure the activity of autonomic nervous system. Results: After 12-week Tai Chi exercise, systolic pressure, waist circumference, and HDL-cholesterol improved significantly. Tai Chi exercise had no effect on the autonomic nervous system activity. Conclusion: The 12-week Tai Chi exercise was partially effective in managing risk factors of metabolic syndrome. A larger study with longer period to improve the autonomic nervous system activity in patients with metabolic syndrome is needed.
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Kong et al. (2016) studied Metabolic Syndrome (n=16). Tai Chi exercise (Yang and Sun styles) was evaluated on Systolic blood pressure at 12 weeks (p=0.018). A 12-week Tai Chi exercise program significantly reduced systolic blood pressure and waist circumference, and increased HDL-cholesterol, but had no significant effect on autonomic nervous system activity in patients with metabolic syndrome.
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