Tai chi – the slow-motion ancient Chinese exercise – helps reduce the pain of fibromyalgia, a new study has discovered. The study worked with 66 fibromyalgia sufferers who practised the exercise daily for 12 weeks. They all reported a reduction in pain levels, fatigue, physical functioning, sleeplessness and depression. The benefits continued for weeks after they stopped exercising, and some said that there pain was dramatically reduced even three months later. Researchers from Tufts University say tai chi could be an important way of treating fibromyalgia, especially as conventional medicine has few answers to this perplexing disease. (Source: New England Journal of Medicine, 2010; 363: 743-54).
