Tai Chi is a Chinese tradition which involves aerobic physical exercise of the body parts. It is also a Chinese martial arts, which is practiced for defense, physical strength, good health and as an alternative of medicine and drugs. People in the past were far more active than the young people today, they used to prefer physical grind.
They believed that the power their own body parts can provide, cannot be achieved through any other measure. They preferred physical workout for their own defense and treatment instead of taking aid from weapons and medicines. This physical practice resulted in many reflexes of body movements and body stretches which includes deep breathing and requires a focused brain.
Is Tai Chi similar to yoga?
Tai chi and yoga are similar in many ways, both include body stretching with controlled breathing movements. To set your focus and energy to achieve a state of balance and peace is common in both exercises. But difference is there, as Tai Chi originates from martial arts, while yoga finds its origin in spiritual discipline.
Medical benefits of Tai Chi in strengthening kidney function
Tai Chi is an old yet useful method of treatment, even today, many people prefer this method over drug treatments of disorders. Tai Chi helps in strengthening your body and muscles and soothes your brain and nerves. It includes various postures and reflexes, you can practice these reflexes by joining some martial arts studio or else Youtube is always an option. If you are already a person who practices Tai Chi, you might be encountering less physical problems as compared to others. The benefits of practicing Tai Chi are given below:
· Body strengthening
Body exercises are always recommended for active and healthy life. Tai Chi includes movements of body parts in different angles, it provides your body a greater stretch and physical control. Your muscles and bones become strong and can bear more stress easily.
· Mental calmness
Tai Chi requires a focused brain during workout, your capacity to focus on a particular thing increases. It involves meditation, which lowers your burden and soothes your brain, so you feel light and calm. Actually, the main purpose of Tai Chi is to relax the brain, as the brain holds all the burden and majority of the disorders occur due to restlessness. Tai Chi has been proved beneficial and helps you with following problems;
- Stress
- Depression
- Anxiety
- Trauma
- Minor headache to strong migraine
- Restlessness
- Recovery after some head injury or some accident
· Breathing control
Tai Chi involves long and deep breaths while practicing, this increases your lung capacity to endure stress conditions. Patients with respiratory disorders should surely try Tai Chi, they will witness positive results. Shortness of breath can be overcome by this method.
· Lipid control
Body exercises help in lowering the body fat and help in maintaining your ideal weight. Fats are lipids in nature, lipid metabolism occurs more smoothly with the help of Tai Chi. It lowers the quantity of LDL (bad cholesterol) and elevates HDL (healthy cholesterol), thus keeping your body in absolute balance. Cholesterol is also lipid in nature and elevated levels of cholesterol are destroying human health. 80% of the heart and kidney problems arise due to high blood cholesterol or uric acid levels. Blood cholesterol level is adjusted by exercising your limbs on regular basis.
Does Tai Chi really help in strengthening kidney function?
As discussed in above section, Tai Chi helps in muscle strengthening and eradicating bad fats from the body. Kidney’s major function is cleaning of blood and urine formation. The complexities that may occur in kidney function are given below;
· Less cleaning or filtration of blood
Waste accumulation in the blood may result due to improper working of kidneys. Kidneys do not filter blood in usual, precise manner due to some blockage in arteries. This blockage may be of fats or cholesterol.
· Problems in urine formation
Parts of kidney may not work efficiently due to various factors, the flow of blood may sometimes be so fast, that glomerular filtrate may not get filtered properly. So, urine thus formed, contains less waste and body becomes more toxic.
· Accumulation of cholesterol
High fat or cholesterol consumption is always unhealthy and can cause renal and coronary disorders. Cholesterol level increases and accumulates in various parts of body and block pathways of blood.
· Formation of kidney stones
Accumulation of cholesterol, phosphates and oxalates in kidney result in small or big stones, that are very painful. Some stones may move and change their location from kidneys to ureters or urinary bladder, while some stones stuck in renal cortex or renal medulla.
· Destruction of renal medulla or renal cortex
High urea or cholesterol levels result in the blockage of renal arteries and renal veins, which disturb the blood circulation in nephrons. This causes kidney cells (nephrons) death, furthermore, cause obstruction in urine formation.
The above situations arise due to sedentary life style,unhealthy eating habits and dehydration. Lack of physical activities and exercise lead to fat accumulation in body, thus, levels of urea and cholesterol increase up to dangerous extent in body.
Are Medical treatments better than Tai Chi to strengthen the kidney function?
Today, science and technology have revolutionized our era collectively. Advanced treatments have been proved very successful but there is always a side effect of medicines or treatments as discussed below. So, many people prefer non surgical treatments, which may include physical workout such as Tai Chi.
· Medicines and drugs
Initial or low intensity cases of kidney problems are dealt by taking medicines and prevention from food products containing cholesterol is necessary. But long term drug intake may be unsafe for health, it can increase the load on liver and kidney for detoxification. So, people want a non medicinal way to treat their illness.
· Laparoscopy
If there are stones in your kidney, most of the times, it is advised to drink a lot of water which may remove small sized stones. In severe case, a laser technique is used to crush the stones from outside the body, so the sand like residue of broken stones can pass with urine. This technique is laparoscopy, as it is a laser treatment, it should be avoided. Laser rays penetrate deep inside the body and may affect other parts or organs of the body. Harmful rays can be the cause of skin cancer in the body.
· Surgery
The severe cases of large kidney stones cause a lot of pain and stones are unable to pass through urine. So, doctors recommend a surgery, which is a big risk to health and recovery takes a lot of time. The cuts and then stitches leave permanent bruises on skin and there is always a risk of infection in these stitches.
· Dialysis
Dialysis is procedure that includes cleansing of blood. In this process, blood passes through a dialyzer and waste from the blood is removed and then cleaned blood again enters the body. This is very painful and expensive procedure, patient needs this treatment 2 to 3 times a week. Too frequent visits to hospital prove really arduous and painful.
· Kidney transplant
The end stage kidney failure requires kidney transplant which is an expensive and surgical procedure. First of all, a matching donor is required, then there is a risk of transplant rejection everytime. This is the most painful procedure.
Easy prevention and cure by Tai Chi
Tai Chi is always preferred in the above described cases as it only involves physical exercise and attention. You can enjoy a healthy life if you practice Tai Chi from the very beginning i.e. young age. It keeps your weight under control, muscles of kidney remain strong, cholesterol level remains in safe limits. Prevention is much better than cure so, it is advisable to adopt a hygienic and active lifestyle.
Can End stage kidney failure be cured by Tai Chi?
Tai Chi helps in every stage of kidney problem. Biologists conducted an experiment,in which half of the kidney patients were treated by medicine and half of them were advised to practice Tai Chi on regular basis. The patients used to practice Tai Chi 3 to 5 times per week and control group had medicine on regular basis. After 12 weeks, their medical tests were taken, the reports showed that the patients practicing Tai Chi were recovering more speedily as compared to the control group patients.
Chinese mostly prefer Tai Chi over other treatments for many diseases. This treatment is now being used worldwide due to its benefits and no side effects. Even chronic kidney dysfunction can be treated by normal exercise practices in Tai Chi. You can see recovery within 3 to 4 months and you need to keep practicing it, you may feel it difficult due to severe kidney pain but this pain will soon be gone. Even end stage kidney failure does not require any dialysis treatment or kidney transplant, if you do regular exercise recommended by a Tai Chi expert.