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Tai Chi Boosts Immunity to
Shingles Virus
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The practice of Tai Chi is said to promote health, relaxation, balance, flexibility
and strength.
Furthermore, the centuries old Chinese discipline is touted to help relax and
strengthen the muscular and nervous systems and release tension.
Now there's one more reason to take up the exercise.
A new study says the traditional Chinese exercise may help older adults avoid
getting shingles by increasing immunity to the varicella-zoster virus (VZV) and
boosting the immune response to varicella vaccine in older adults.
The study is the first rigorous clinical trial to suggest that a behavioral
intervention, alone or in combination with a vaccine, can help protect older adults
from the virus, which causes both chickenpox and shingles.
Shingles, or herpes zoster, affects the nerves, resulting in pain and blisters
in adults. After a case of chickenpox, a person’s nerve cells can harbor the virus,
which can reactivate years later and lead to shingles.
“One in five people who have had chickenpox will get shingles later in life, usually
after the age of 50, and the risk increases as people get older,” says Richard J.
Hodes, director of the National Institute on Aging (NIA).
In the study, 112 healthy adults aged 59 to 86 (average age of 70) took part in a
16-week program of either Tai Chi or a health education program that provided
120 minutes of instruction weekly.
Tai Chi combines aerobic activity, relaxation and meditation, which the
researchers note have been reported to boost immune responses. The health
education intervention involved classes about a variety of health-related topics.
After the 16-week Tai Chi and health education programs, with periodic blood
tests to determine levels of VZV immunity, people in both groups received a
single injection of VARIVAX, the chickenpox vaccine that was approved for use in
the United States in 1995.
Nine weeks later, the investigators did blood tests to assess each participant’s
level of VZV immunity, comparing it to immunity at the start of the study. All of the
participants had had chickenpox earlier in life and so were already immune to
that disease.
Tai Chi alone was found to increase participants’ immunity to varicella as much
as the vaccine typically produces in 30- to 40-year-old adults, and Tai Chi
combined with the vaccine produced a significantly higher level of immunity,
about a 40 percent increase, over that produced by the vaccine alone.
The study further showed that the Tai Chi group’s rate of increase in immunity
over the course of the 25-week study was double that of the health education
(control) group. The Tai Chi and health education groups’ VZV immunity had
been similar when the study began.
In addition, the Tai Chi group reported significant improvements in physical
functioning, bodily pain, vitality and mental health. Both groups showed
significant declines in the severity of depressive symptoms.
Hodes said that while more research is needed, this study "suggests that the Tai
Chi intervention tested, in combination with immunization, may enhance
protection of older adults from this painful condition.”
Andrew Monjan, another NIA official, said the research demonstrated that "Tai
Chi resulted in a level of immune response similar to that of a modern biological
intervention, the varicella vaccine, and that Tai Chi boosted the positive effects of
the vaccine.”
The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health and published in the
Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.
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