Qigong and a Tale of Two Back Complaints
July 24, 2018 - Chronic back pain is one of the leading causes of disability and decreased quality of life for people in both their personal and professional lives. In addition to modern medical intervention, many individuals seek relief through complementary and alternative therapies.
D'Youville College in Buffalo, NY and Village of Healing and Wellness in St. Catharines, Canada, jointly conducted face-to-face interviews with two volunteer subjects who each had a medical diagnosis of chronic back pain to see how Qigong has helped them with the pain.
There is pressure for pain medicine to shift away from reliance on opioids, ineffective procedures and surgeries toward comprehensive pain management that includes evidence-based nonpharmacologic options. This White Paper details the historical context and magnitude of the current pain problem including individual, social and economic impacts as well as the challenges of pain management for patients and a healthcare workforce engaging prevalent strategies not entirely based in current evidence.
Both individuals practiced a daily, standardized regimen of 24-Posture Qigong. Both individuals experienced clinically significant symptomatic relief and functional benefit from their practice of Qigong.
Such positive outcomes are theoretically attributed to relief of inflammation systemically and locally, reversal of sensitization and structural restorative reparation. These results, published by the journal Medicines, provide justification for further prospective, controlled, long-term investigations.