Recently, there has been a great deal of excitement within the alternative health community relating to a technique known as, Qi-Gong, and how it can be used to benefit heart-health.
The technique, which originates from China, has been practiced for over 4,000 years, and is a holistic discipline that combines physical activity, with philosophy, and therapeutic, health care. The term, Qi means core-essence, whilst the term, Gong, means work and achievement. Within Chinese Medicine, systems are balanced by the inter-play of the forces that govern them – resulting in equilibrium, and practitioners believe that the inter-play between Qi and Gong can provide relief for a range of mental and physical ailments, such as: depression, detoxification, cancer, stress, heart-disease and chronic body-pain.
Whilst there are many different variations of the technique, all forms focus on the positive-stimulation of life-energy. This is achieved by a combination of exercise and highly-systematic breathing that allows the participant to achieve a meditative-state, which can often result in the evaporation of stress, anxiety, worry and concerns. These factors can often lead to hyper-tension, which can have a damaging effect on heart-health and mental wellbeing.
The discipline has been found to exhibit, highly-effective effects when it is combined with other techniques such as Tai-Chi – which combine an intense internal-focus with physical activities that can optimise the body’s functions and performance. Recent studies have revealed that the regular practice of Qi-Gong can help treat high-blood-pressure, one of the key causes of heart-disease. Studies have been carried out in Korea, India and Italy, and each one has revealed how the technique can lessen the risk of heart-disease and other chronic conditions.
In a nutshell, the technique is specifically designed to lower pulse-rate, blood-pressure, metabolic-processes and the body’s demands for oxygen. It can achieve this by balancing the body’s life-energies – which improves blood-circulation and reduces proneness to hyper-tension.