If you've never had a headache, consider yourself lucky. I had a low-level headache for years and thought the only way to deal with it was to take a pill. Then I started learning tai chi and chi gung, not to control my headache, but to boost my ailing immune system and get healthier.  Five months later, I woke up one morning and noticed I didn't have a headache. Unless I got very stressed out, the headaches had disappeared.

Now there's a clinical study that shows that tai chi is very effective in decreasing headaches and has other benefits over conventional pharmaceutical treatments.

Tension headaches

These types of headaches are located at the back of the neck and are associated with tension (stress), or face, neck, shoulder muscle contractions. They can last hours, weeks or months.

If the headache is intense, it can be hard to distinguish from a migraine.  And for sure, when headaches get bad, you think someone is holding you in a vise. The more uptight or stressed out you get, the more likely the headache will intensify. You don't feel like relating to family and friends, going to work, etc. You'd just as soon curl under the covers until it goes away.

Mayo Clinic on Tension Headaches

According to the National Headache Foundation, tension headaches are an expensive problem, affecting more than 45 millions of Americans. Costs of approximately $50 billion a year result from absenteeism at work, medical expenses and sales of over the counter meds.

Tai Chi Brings Relief: Summary of the Clinical Study

Forty-seven participants that were suffering from tension headaches participated in the study. Some were randomly assigned to a 15-week course in Yang Tai Chi; others were assigned to a wait list control group. None had previously studied tai chi or chi gung (qigong). Medical assessments were taken before, during and after the study.

The study concluded that tai chi helps alleviates headache symptoms, lowers stress, and reduces health risks and side effects associated with taking meds. Decreasing the dependency on doctors and meds helps lower treatment costs.

Researchers speculated that tai works to reduce headaches because it dealt with "one of the underlying causes of pain, namely stress."

The study concluded that tai chi, "Offers a holistic approach to patient care that differs from conventional treatment."

Short summary on clinical study

Full article

Long article on clinical study

Tai Chi: How and Why It Works

In his book, Tai Chi: Health for Life, author Bruce Frantzis explains how people tend to hold tension in the neck and shoulders, which shuts down circulation, and eventually leads to headaches. As you do the movements of tai chi, the nerves gradually relax, which helps the muscles (and other parts of the body to relax) and the circulation to increase. This progression is slow and steady, which is why after I started doing tai chi, I very seldom had headaches. My shoulders don't hunch up to my ears; I keep my head aligned over my spine; and I'm pretty relaxed. Pretty good for what looks like a just a slow, benign movement.

More About Tai Chi for Health

 Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites