Given the
well known benefits of Qi Gong and Tai Chi and due to the great
need in America for wellness, disease prevention and vitality
enhancement, a collaboration of key institutions has convened
to help resolve the "Health Care Crisis".
•
The Archstone
Foundation
• University
of Illinois, Office of the National Blueprint for Physical Activity
• The National
Council on Aging (NCOA)
• The Institute
of Integral Qigong and Tai Chi (IIQTC)
In 2003 the
National Council on Aging funded The Healer Within Foundation,
the non-profit education and research arm of the Institute
of Integral Qigong and Tai Chi, to implement a pilot
study of its Tai Chi Easy program™. Tai Chi Easy™
combines Qi Gong and Tai Chi in a program that is easy and
fun.
Nearly 400
participants completed pre and post assessments and the findings
were very positive (read report) through the statistical analysis
provided by the University of Illinois. The pilot findings were
reported by James Firman, Director of the National
Council on Aging and Roger Jahnke, Director of the Institute
of Integral Qigong and Tai Chi, in the spring of 2004, at the
joint conference of the NCOA and American Society on Aging (NCOA/ASA)
in San Francisco, CA.
Dr. Wojtek
Chodzko-Zajko of the office of the National
Blueprint for Physical Activity was then able to engage the
Archstone Foundation
which contributed a $250,000 grant to convene the National Expert
Meeting on Qi Gong and Tai Chi at the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign in November 2005. The Consensus
Document that emerged from these proceedings and a set of
recommendations were released at the 2006 combined conference
of the NCOA/ASA in Anaheim, CA.
This historic
expert meeting and the events that follow it have the potential
to impact significantly the challenges of health care costs, chronic
disease and the problems of medical accidents and negative drug
interactions by fostering a major trend towards greater physical
activity and productivity of all ages through the ancient wellness
practices of Qi Gong and Tai Chi.
