The UK is facing a “tsunami” of joint pain with an aging population and the numbers of arthritis cases expected to soar, a leading expert has warned.

Arthritis cases are expected to double by 2030, Arthritis Care (a charity) has predicted. One person in eight complains that at times their arthritis is unbearable.

Philip Conaghan, professor of musculoskeletal medicine in Leeds said “Britain is facing a tsunami of pain due to osteoarthritis as the number of people over 50 increases dramatically and obesity levels continue to rise. Action is needed immediately – we have to bust this myth that painful joints are an inevitable part of getting older that we have to put up with.”

Not only is unpleasant for arthritis suffers, but also the extra cost to the NHS is likely to run into billions of pounds a year, putting greater stress on the health service. In addition many of the people questioned said that they had had to give up their jobs because of the condition putting even greater stress on the sufferers. Again, this has adverse affect for the economy.

Professor Conaghan complained that many people become less active when diagnosed with arthritis with evidence suggesting that this is the worst thing that you could do, just keeping moving can actually strengthen joints.

Tai Chi Eases Joint Pain

As one of our valued readers you will know what I am going to say- Tai Chi is good for joint pain, fact. There has been so much research on the effectiveness of Tai Chi and joint pain that you would think that everyone would know by now. Research has found that Tai Chi is good for painful knees, backs and joints in general. Just holding the Tai Chi posture can give the necessary support and exercise that can ease, and in some cases, even cure some back conditions. One of the most common of arthritis conditions, painful knees, responded very well to regular Tai Chi practise. The excellent posture that Tai Chi gives you, added to the slow, low impact controlled movements helps strengthen joints and build supporting muscles.

Nutrients that Help Ta Chi

In addition to the excellent Tai Chi exercise, certain nutrients have been found to have profund effect in diminishing joint pain. Many drugs used in arthritis are what are known as Cox 2 inhibitors, which prevent an enzyme causing the pain and inflammation. There are also nutrients that also are Cox 2 inhibitors. These include;

Turmeric - the yellow herb that gives curries their distinct colour, is a potent anti-inflammatory. Don’t worry if you do not like curries, this beautiful yellow herb is neither spicy nor hot tasting. You can obviously add to your cooking or take as a capsule that you can buy from most heath food shops.

Zyflamend – a herbal nutrient that you can purchase on line. A great deal of research was done on this 10 herb combination, containing all potent Cox 2 inhibitors. The scientific reviews were very good.

Hope you have found this short post of interest if you suffer from any form of joint pain. Remember to ask your health care professional before engaging in any form of exercise.

Have a good week

Kind Regards

John Hine

Tai Chi is now hugely popular in the UK and practised for relieving stress, boosting health and increasingly helping with arthritis.

Tai Chi increases Elasticity of the arteries

The researchers found that the arteries became more elastic when people regularly practised Tai Chi and in addition, increased Knee strength.  With age the arteries tend to harden, which can cause an increase in blood pressure with all its problems of strokes and heart attacks.

What did the research comprise?

The people involved in the research had an average age of 78 and were already doing Tai Chi at least one and a half hours per week.  A further 36 people were also recruited from local centres who were active, but had no Tai Chi experience.

The Tai Chi group showed greater elasticity in their arteries and knee muscular strength.

The Tai Chi group had significantly lower blood pressure than the control group.

Elastic Arteries for Everyone?

Although the people taking part in the research were elderly, the same softening of the arteries through Tai Chi would also be the case for the young and middle age.  Damage to the cardiovascular system can begin in youth so Tai Chi practise at any age will be beneficial.

Tai Chi is Amazing

Arterial elasticity is yet another benefit from practising Tai Chi.  Add to this Tai Chi benefits to;
Stress, Anxiety, High Blood Pressure, Back Pain, Diabetes, Strengthening Immune System, Improved Sleep and so much more there can be little doubt Tai Chi is very effective for improving health generally.

An investment of just twenty minutes a day can pay such high dividends, for so little time spent doing it.

Have a great week

All the best

John Hine

One of the biggest problems that affect the world today is lack of energy – the feeling where you just cannot get up and go. If it’s the weekend, that is not such a big problem, but if you have to go to work, or run your business, it certainly is.

Tai Chi and Energy

There is plenty of research on the beneficial effects of Tai Chi for increased energy. Much of that research is focused on elderly people, but the young and middle aged can benefit just as much too. With our pressured lives is it any wonder that people feel at bit under the weather a lot of the time?

How can Tai Chi Build Energy?

Tai Chi promotes deeper breathing, naturally – by gently exercising your body it stimulates respiration which, in turn, helps clear the lungs and increases metabolism. This quickening of your system helps build your energy.

Tai Chi Calms You Down – by reducing tension Tai Chi leaves you with much more energy to do the things that you need or want to do. It’s surprising just how much energy is used up by being tense. You quickly notice just how much more energy you have as your body starts to relax and slow down.

Tai Chi Reduces Stress – the stress hormones released by our frantic lives sap your energy and leave you feeling washed out. Stress is a killer being implicated in heart disease and cancer. Research suggests that being under stress for three months can lead to serious illness. Stress causes the adrenal glands to produce adrenaline, which was only meant to be released in times of great need – best known as Flight or Fight response. When our ancestors were being chased by Sabre Toothed Tigers, or attacked my marauding tribes, it came in really useful. They either ran really fast or defended themselves ferociously. Once the situation had passed their bodies quickly returned to normal. They could then put up their feet, smoke a Havana cigar and watch some prehistoric TV. Of course I am joking, they didn’t make Havana cigars that long ago! The stressful period was short lived and they quickly returned to a relaxed state. However, today chronic stress is constantly making our bodies work overtime. For many people the problem is that they do not even know they’re stressed as it has become so normal.

The adrenal glands are small nodules that sit on top of the kidneys, but are literally powerhouses producing masses of hormones that regulate the body in many ways.

Tai Chi and Traditional Chinese Medicine

In traditional Chinese medicine the adrenals play a major role in your health. When your Kidney Qi is strong it leads to a long and healthy life, whereas weak Qi suggests a shortened life and ill health. Tai Chi can have a profound effect on the body’s wellbeing and specifically its energy levels. By practising good Tai Chi regularly, you are helping to insure you have a long and healthy life where you have enough energy to work and play.

Have a good week,

Kind Regards,

John Hine

One of the greatest teachers I ever trained with said to me that when he first came to the UK he trained outside, just like in the Far East. Unfortunately, he had to come indoors after just a few minutes training as he could barely breathe. It was winter and the humidity in the UK is very high. Trying to do Tai Chi, or Qigong, in those conditions is not good for you. Cold and dry is perfectly ok, but cold and damp is bad for your health. Britain has a very high incidence of rheumatism and lung conditions, both caused by cold/damp.

Training in the UK winters.

My advice would be, in the winter you should train in a warm, well ventilated room. If you want to go the whole hog you could have an ionizer in there too, to help charge the air. After all, this is why you train outside, to try and take advantage of the negatively charged ions in the air. If you get a day where it is dry and comfortable to train then by all means do so outside.

Do You Have to Train in the Morning?

No. Again, in a perfect world, you would train in the morning, outside to take in the fresh morning air filled with negative ions from all of the trees. However, many of us start out for work early and to get your Tai Chi in would mean waking up at 5am, which is not exactly fun for most people.

Could you train at lunch time?

Of course you could, you would then get the benefits of some really good exercise, loosening up the joints and deepening your breathing. Then you can return to work feeling really energised and raring to go.

What about Training in the Evening?

It is perfectly ok to do your Tai Chi and Qigong in the evening when the day is done and you can relax. By the evening you have really loosened up and will probably move better.

The advice given in the classics about when and where you should train is a guideline, not a rule. The guidelines were written hundreds of years ago, in a country which had a very different way of life in a different time. Since then the world has gone through many changes and we have adapted. Tai Chi has adapted too.

Have a great week,

Kind Regards,

John Hine (Sifu)

If you write a blog I am sure you know how hard it can be creating fresh new blogs without any feedback from your readers. Luckily, that is not the case with my lovely readers, who helpfully ask lots of questions and feed me future blog posts. One of our regular readers asks;

I have done Qigong before, how is 12 Precious Cloths Qigong different from the rest?

The answer to your question is that there are literally thousands of versions of Qigong, but many of them are derived from just a few major routines with a twist to make them appear to be different. Not all Qigong routines are born equal, with some giving a great deal more than others. These major routines I would divide into division One or division Two.

Division One Qigong routines are very potent and give a lot of energy for the time taken on them. Division Two Qigong routines take as long to do without giving the same reward, at least in my opinion. How did I come to this conclusion, simple I tried them? Earlier in my career I spent decades collecting different forms of Qigong to see what the differences were and whether I preferred some more than others.

Division One Qigong

Of these 12 Precious Cloths Qigong is a classic Division One Qigong routine. It is a classic old school form of Qigong – like a vintage wine or classic Rolls Royce it has grown more valuable with age. 12 Precious Cloths is derived from the Shaolin Temple – but don’t let that fool you; there are very strong elements of Taoist Qigong too.

The Effects of 12 Precious Cloths Qigong

I learned this routine when I was eighteen years old and it made an instant impression on me, especially as I was the only person in the school who learned it. It made me feel stronger, healthier and much more clear headed. I was training hard in the martial arts six days a week and picking up injuries, as you do, with that level of physical activity. After training in 12 Precious Cloths I healed very quickly and recovered just as fast after exertion. My teacher at the time only knew one way of training and that was hard. I would travel to Central London from South London to train and in the process catch the London underground. Many times I remember falling asleep with the only thing holding me up was my staff. But the next day I would be raring to go again.

Microcosmic Orbit

If you have read more than one book on Qigong you will probably have heard about the legendary Microcosmic Orbit. It is quite often talked about in hushed tones as something only known by a few and achieved by even less. The Microcosmic Orbit is when you build up enough Qi so that you can circulate it through the main meridians of your body freely. We want to dispel this myth once and for all on our weekend retreat 24^th & 25^th, March when I will endeavour to help everyone achieve the microcosmic orbit.

Balancing the Qi

If you are training hard physically you need to be doing some form of Qigong to balance the activity. As the hard training takes it out of your body the Qigong puts it back in again. You must also remember that stress can deplete your system. You can become used to high stress situation, so much so, that you aren’t even aware that you are feeling the effects any more. Your immune system may, however, disagree with you and show signs.

If you are not training to that extent, this Qigong’s powers of recuperation are probably even stronger as you are not taking anything out of your system and still putting energy in.

That’s enough about 12 Precious Cloths Qigong, suffice to say that I am a great fan and anyone I have ever taught it too has enjoyed its great benefits.

OK that’s enough from me, have a healthy week.

Kind Regards,

John Hine

We have had a very good question from one of our students, Nick who has just started attending the advanced class.

I believe they (Tai Chi and Qigong) must be different otherwise surely only Qigong would exist as it is apparently much simpler to perform.

Great question, which I will try to answer as simply as possible.

Tai Chi form and Qigong

Firstly I will answer from Hine Tai Chi schools stand point. We do not try and regulate the breathing whilst doing the Tai Chi form (some schools do). This is for two reasons;

1) The Tai Chi form has an optimum speed and should be completed between 12 minutes (at its fastest to 15 minutes (at its slowest). The reason is that if you do the Tai Chi form faster than 12 minutes you will not get the calming effect of the form. If you take longer than fifteen minutes you will become too sluggish and will not enjoy the stimulating effects of the solo form. This is the balance between the two extremes for good health. This then brings us to trying to regulate the breathing to fit in with the form. Some Tai Chi schools teach that you should breathe in when the hands move back towards the body and out when you hands move out and so on. However this can only be done for a limited time. When you first begin Tai Chi your lungs are quite inflexible, so can accommodate this breathing pattern, but after practising for a while the lungs become stronger and more flexible therefore slowing the breathing naturally. That being the case would require you to slow the Tai Chi form down and take you outside the 15 minutes optimum time. If you attempt to stay within that time limit with controlled breathing, your body will quickly “overheat” and be unbalanced. From a traditional Chinese medicine point this is not good as it will eventually lead to illness. Also my grandmaster Yang Shou Chung stated that it was not a good idea to regulate the breathing while doing the form.

2) We practise Qigong in addition to the Tai Chi form which is the traditional way. We do not need to regulate the breathing as we do it already in our Qigong. This allows us to let the Tai Chi form breathe as the body sees fit. Originally Tai Chi training consisted of five sections;

Tai Chi Solo form, Qigong, Pushing Hands, Tai Chi Weapons (Sword etc) and Tai Chi Combat. By practising all aspects ensured a completely balanced person. However the amount of time it takes to complete all aspects of the form in this way put many people off and the solo form started being taught on its own without Qigong or the other aspects.

We do understand that with our modern fast paced lives that we sometimes do not have the time to do everything. However I think that with a little thought and practise a state of balance and great good health can be attained ask your instructor how.

Li Ching Yuen

Was born 1678 in northern China and in his youth travelled throughout China with three famous herbalists, they travelled on foot and lived off of the land. Li learned many secrets of an extraordinary long and healthy life. He also regularly trained in 12 Precious Qigong and Bagua.

Li lived long enough to see180 descendants over eleven generations. General Yang Shen was very interested in meeting the legendary herbalist, this is what he wrote;

“He can walk very quickly in the mountains, even though he is almost 250 years old. He is seven feet tall. His complexion is ruddy, but he is completely bald. His fingernails are very long”.

It would be very easy to dismiss accounts of great age and still being energetic, but recent breakthroughs in health research could prove you wrong. Just three years ago the Nobel prize was a awarded for work on Telemeres and their effect on aging. Teleomeres are “tails” in DNA which, as cells replicate, lose a piece of their tail each time. When all of the tail is gone the cells can no longer divide. The good thing is that the tails can be repaired to a certain degree by a few substances. I will write another blog soon about these substances, one of which is a famous Chinese herb.

12 Precious Cloths Qigong

I began studying this form of Qigong when I was eighteen from my master Chang Cheong Kung, a fearsome teacher of the Chinese martial arts. He normally did not teach Qigong to his students, but I constantly pestered him until he relented. Each week he would patiently sit me down teach me the routine. Qigong fascinated me, at a time when very little was taught or known about in the west. There were many stories about the strange, powerful and mystical abilities circulating within the Chinese schools that I trained in. I wanted some of that, just to see how far I could raise my abilities with Qigong practise. The truth is that it is not just the Qigong, but how much focus and effort you put into all of your training, but I digress.

Near the end of my Qigong training my teacher sat me down and said, “You are curious about how the Qi (Chi) will manifest itself in your life? At first you will not notice it, but there will come a time when you will do something quite extraordinary and you will know it”.

Did it come? Yes it did. It was Chinese New Year and our school had been invited to give a demonstration at a large university. Many of our students were Chinese from all over South East Asia so the venue was packed, seven hundred people I seem to remember. My teacher could not attend so gave his three senior students the job running the show. We knew we would get a good reception as they were a very good crowd and were there just to enjoy the show.

One of my set pieces was to run along jump over four bowed people and break a board before I landed. It was something that I had done many times before, but this evening was a bit different. We did not have our master with us and the atmosphere was electric. Everything we had done had worked brilliantly and the audience were having a whale of a time and urging us on. I was, strangely, a bit more keyed up than normal as I took my run up, I did not want to spoil the night by going base over apex on top of our helpers, something that had not occurred to me before. I placed my foot down and leaped. I felt incredibly light and appeared to be much higher off of the ground than normal. Time seemed to move very slowly and I remember looking down feeling a long way up. I cleared the group I had just leapt over and snapped my kick through the board landing safely. Wow I enjoyed that, big round of applause from the audience.

I had enjoyed that experience a lot, but quickly forgot it and went about my everyday life. Or at least until the following week. One of the students was a photographer for the BBC and had been at the demo taking photographs. He showed me the picture of my jump; I was surprised when I looked at it. I was indeed very high off of the ground; I thought it had been an illusion, one of those tricks that your mind plays on you – but it hadn’t. I remembered my teacher voice saying “there will come a time when you will do something quite extraordinary and you will know it”.

Someday it will happen to you, it may not be doing a very high jump, but it will happen just the same. Qi takes on many guises, especially in the internal arts, but you will know it when it comes.

What other things did I notice from this Qigong practise? Healing very quickly, even with quite deep cuts or bruises and good health. This Qigong definitely enhances your chosen martial art.

If you would like to learn the 12 Precious Cloths Qigong we will be running the very first weekend seminar on 24/25 March or would like information on this routine http://taichi-europe.com/tai-chi/tai-chi-weekend-retreat/

If you enjoyed this article you can find more here http://taichi-europe.com/the-ultimate-energy-workout/

Researchers at Department of Medical Research, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital at Kaohsiung, Taiwan found that regular practise of Tai Chi helped improve T cell function involved with Diabetes. (T cells assist the white blood cells in immunologic processes)

12 Week Course in Tai Chi

In the study they investigated the effects of a 12-week course of Tai Chi exercise on T cell helpers. A control group of 30 pairs of patients with type 2 Diabetes was used in the study. Measurements were taken before and after the 12 week course.

RESULTS:

The Diabetes group had higher fasting glucose levels prior to the Tai Chi 12 week programme. At the end of the programme the same levels measured again and the changes were significantly lower. Diabetics have problems dealing with the amount of glucose circulating in their blood steam that cannot be absorbed into the cells. After the 12 week Tai Chi course the participants had significantly less glucose circulating that had to be dealt with.

What is Diabetes?

Diabetes is a chronic condition caused by too much glucose in the blood. It affects 2.8 million people in the UK. Experts believe that there are another million people who do not know that they have the condition. This disease can have adverse affects of the eyes, heart, kidney, nerves and feet.

What Causes Diabetes?

Under normal circumstances the amount of sugar in your bloodstream is controlled by Insulin secreted from the Pancreas. During digestion insulin removes the glucose from your bloodstream and into your cells to be broken down and turned into energy. However, for people with diabetes they cannot breakdown the glucose into energy. This inability to breakdown the glucose is either caused by too little insulin or it is not the right quality to successfully do the job intended. This is called insulin resistance.

http://www.diabetes.org.uk/

It’s a funny thing, you either love Christmas or hate it. At the moment I reckon it’s about 50 50, but the haters are growing every year. In days gone by, when people were less wealthy, it was special to have a couple of days break at Christmas. Yes, it was just a couple of days, not the two week marathon that many enjoy today. When you know that you only have two days to rest and relax you savour it.

I do not want to follow the media and talk about the true meaning of Christmas, that’s already been done to death. Let’s look at something a bit more practical, which is how to deal with it.

A nice cup of tea

After a long day hitting the shops in the mall you need a sit down to rest your feet and take a break. Unfortunately, I am not talking about the black tea we drink and love, but the green variety. Green tea contains quite high levels of a chemical called Theanine which has proven benefits for anxiety and high blood pressure. The Chinese use it for headaches and depression. In addition to Theanine, EGCG is a powerful anti-oxidant which inhibits the abnormal formation of blood clots. This is important in that they play a major part in heart conditions, which can be put under ever more pressure at stressful times like Christmas.

The French Paradox

The French, despite not liking us and consuming a rich diet of fat in their delicious food, have a lower incidence of heart disease than just about anyone else in the world. The answer lies in red wine, which contains a potent chemical called resveratrol, which helps nullify the harmful effects of the diet. However, researchers University of Kansas determined that EGCG was twice as powerful as resveratrol.

Helps your Gnashers too!

Yep while you are having your sit down and drinking your tea you’re benefiting your teeth too at the chemical in the tea strengthens your teeth.

Triggers the Long Life Gene

There are some researchers who have found that the chemicals in green tea can trigger dormant genes associated with long life, this is obviously at an early stage.

Green Tea Yuk!

This is often the reaction when you suggest drinking green tea, but if you add lemon it tastes delicious. I was not a great lover of green tea until lemon was added.

Qigong

Practise your Qigong. The deeper breathing associated with Qigong is associated with calm and relaxation and lowering your heart rate. Do not artificially slow your breathing as practising Qigong will do it naturally, without disturbing your breathing rate. Just five minutes will leave you calm and relaxed.

Tai Chi

The ultimate de stressor is Tai Chi, proven over and over for centuries. But, as we are still in the coffee shop in the mall it might be a little awkward doing Grasp the Birds Tail between the seats!

Have a great Christmas don’t eat too much. Of course you will, just joking.

John Hine

When you start your Tai Chi classes it’s easy to be able to judge for yourself how you are doing i.e. remembering the order of the moves, keeping your balance, getting your hands and feet to do what you want them too! As you progress on further into the Form it becomes more difficult for students to be able to do this. Your instructor will let you know and should also let you know the stages of development you will go through each week.

Students, naturally, start to compare themselves to other students, those in their group and those ahead of them and those behind. This is not an accurate gauge of how well you are doing as you cannot see yourself clearly and in an unbiased fashion. What you need is a training buddy. I get my students to pair up to practise certain moves at specific times in the Form. This allows them to all to practise the move first, to really relax into it and feel it, then they pair up and watch each other to see how this makes them feel in direct comparison to what they have just felt themselves. They see, in the other student, the things which are missing in their own Form plus, and this is the cleaver bit, they can see what they are doing right too.

Sometimes you can teach a student the same bit of the Form over and over and in different ways but, they will just not be able to understand. By buddying up they are able to actually ‘see’ what you are trying to point out, they seem more open to this. This is partly due to the fact that the person who is ‘teaching’ them is someone they have trained with for a while and be a witness to their progress. There is no hidden agenda, i.e. no judgement; they are only trying to help each other along.

So, next time you have a move or section in the Form which you are having problems with, go ask one of your colleagues how they do it, how does it feel to them, what is going through their minds while they perform the moves? In this way you will be able to communicate faster and at a deeper level which will make learning faster and have a much greater impact on your form.