Tuesday, April 08, 2008

Taiji Can Help Fight Diabetes!

Some 250 million people worldwide suffer Type-2 diabetes. Diabetes is a very common medical condition, but can be a very serious one, too.

Diabetes is characterized by excessively high blood sugar level. Food consumed is digested and released into blood as glucose (a form of sugar), to provide energy. When there is excess glucose, a hormone called insulin will convert and store glucose in the body for future usage. Diabetes is due to defects in insulin production (Type 1 diabetes), insulin action (Type 2 diabetes), or both, causing a buildup of blood glucose.

Patients with diabetes must be treated with medications in a timely manner to prevent them from escalating to more serious medical disorders like blindness, kidney failure, high blood pressure and heart disease.

Nevertheless, 2 newly-released studies indicated on April 1, 2008 that Taiji can actually help curb symptoms of Type-2 diabetes. Separate experiments conducted in Australia and Taiwan concluded that diabetics who performed Taiji for a few hours a week over a 3-month period showed significant health improvement compared to control groups.

Developed in China in the 13th century or earlier, Taiji combines elements of martial arts and meditation. Taiji is a very popular exercise nowadays, and it is practiced by millions of people in China and around the world.

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