Salma Tanveer Qi Gong : A physical Intervention ( Complementary Therapies )

The word Qi means “breath of life”, Chinese explained it as life energy in human body. It has been evolved as central concept in Chinese medicine as a life force and flow on energy which is essential to sustain human health and life. Qi,’’ a person’s vital energy force that circulates in the body through channels, supposed to be produced by visualization and affirmation. Due to limitations and side effects of conventional medical treatment, patients are increasingly utilizing complementary therapies. However, evidence for the safety and efficacy of qi-gong treatments is limited. The purpose of the current review was to investigate evidence for the role of Qigong in supportive care. Literature review is conducted using the search engines, Pubmed, Google scholar, Springer Link and CINHYL. Only scientific published articles were retrieved from the year 2001-2016. The effects of qigong on physical and psychosocial outcomes were examined in 28 studies and the effects on biomedical outcomes were examined in 15 studies. RCTs with larger sample sizes reflected positive results for the role of qigong in improving mood and fatigue parameters, fibromyalgia, cancer, diabetes mellitus, Arthiritis, Parkinson’s disease and reducing inflammation. Moreover, qigong exercise in combination with conventional methods had significant improvement in immune function. Hence, Introduction Qigong has encouraging results in many of the progressive and poor prognosis diseases, hence, utilization of Qigong by the health care providers should be supported in quality improvisation. The term qigong is composed of two words: ‘qi’ means energy flow and ‘gong’ means skill or achievement (Li, Chen, & Mo, 2002). The history of qi-gong dates back to about 5000 years. There were many terms given to such kind of exercise before, like xing-qi (promoting the circulation of qi), fu-qi (taking qi), dao-yin (guiding the energy flow), tui-na (exhaling and inhaling), zuo-chan (sitting in meditation), yang-shen (nourishing the spirit) and jing-zuo (sitting still) (Ehling, 2001). It was not until 1953, when Liu Gui-zheng published a paper entitled "Practice On Qigong Therapy", that the term qi-gong was adopted widely as a formal name for this type of exercise (Chen, & Yeung, 2002). Qi-gong is thought to have originated as a form of "remedy dancing" created for healing and health preservation purposes. Qigong has become a popular form of complementary and alternative medicine. Proponents of qigong recommend it for a wide range of conditions, symptoms and situations, including stress management, hypertension, chronic pain, depression, insomnia, cardiac rehabilitation, immune function and for enhancing the quality of life (QOL) of cancer patients(Astin at al.,2003; Chen et al., 2006; Chen et al., 2008; Chen, & Yeung, 2002; Li, Chen, & Mo, 2002). Qigong has been practiced for many years in the East to improve health, prevent disease and prolong life (Ernst, Pittler, Wider, & Boddy, 2008). There are numerous distinct forms of qigong which can be categorized into two main groups, internal qigong and external qigong. Internal qigong refers to a physical and mental training method for the cultivation of oneself to achieve optimal health in both mind and body. Internal qigong is similar to tai chi but its main differences are coordination of different breathing patterns and meditation (Lee, Pittler, & Ernst, 2009). External qigong refers to a treatment where qigong practitioners direct or emit their qi-energy to the patient with the intention to clear qiblockages or balance the flow of qi within that patient (Lee, Pittler, & Ernst, 2007). Qigong has its underpinnings in Eastern medicine and philosophy. So far, it has not been explained