Qigong and Tai Chi Help Cancer Rehabilitation, but Should Not Be Relied On Entirely

I am often asked: are health exercises such as qigong and Tai Chi helpful for cancer rehabilitation? The answer is yes. I also encourage cancer patients to take part in these activities; besides qigong and Tai Chi, running, swimming, ball games, and mountain climbing all have a positive effect on cancer rehabilitation. Cancer patients may choose one or more forms of exercise according to their personal preference and physical condition and keep it up long-term.

There are even a few cancer patients who, through such exercise, have achieved long-term survival after cancer; the media have also reported individual cancer patients who beat cancer by traveling around the world or planting forests. But these are extremely rare cases, and the great majority of those who imitate them do not have a satisfactory outcome.

Many modern high-incidence diseases such as cancer, diabetes, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia are related to lack of exercise. Increasing exercise—especially increasing moderate or moderately intense exercise—is genuinely beneficial for cancer patients whose physical strength can still support it. For patients already very weak, exercises such as qigong and Tai Chi are more suitable.

Besides effectively lowering the recurrence rate in cancer patients and lowering indicators such as blood glucose and blood lipids, group exercise also helps cancer patients build a healthy psychological support system. Many cancer patients are gloomy and their psychological pressure is not well released within the family; but when they merge into a group of fellow sufferers, they are like a changed person. So families with the means should encourage their cancer-stricken relatives to join such group exercise programs rather than reject them.

Some young people, seeing their cancer-stricken parents join Guo Lin qigong or Tai Chi groups, strongly oppose it, feeling their parents are being deceived. Little do they know that this only reflects their own shallow ignorance; they know nothing of the elderly's spiritual needs and are themselves powerless in this regard. Merely because they know a bit of modern science, they self-righteously oppose the elders' behavior, making family relations tense—which is harmful and not helpful to the recovery of the sick family member.

The comfort of one fellow patient is worth the care of ten relatives. We should understand that our own loved ones have not only material needs but also spiritual needs, especially when they face the trial of life and death.

Moreover, exercises such as qigong and Tai Chi have fairly gentle movements and are suitable for cancer patients with weak bodies. The diet and exercise guidelines published by the American Cancer Society also encourage cancer patients to actively participate in all kinds of exercise. Exercise contributes greatly to promoting the patient's digestion and excretion and to boosting immunity; if patients can actively take part in various exercises, the dosage of many drugs can be reduced.

The loneliness and panic of patients are hard for families to fully comprehend. In the Book of Changes, the 'Fellowship with Men' hexagram says: 'Fellowship only within the clan—shame.' From ancient times to the present, everyone has realized that it is hard to find true like-minded people within one's own family. Merging into some organizations of fellow sufferers is of immeasurable help to cancer patients. At no time should you overestimate your own role, nor underestimate the role of others.

The American doctor Dr. Thomas, while caring for elderly patients, tried to improve treatment results by turning his nursing institution into a community. When he built the nursing institution under his care into an active community, the drugs he prescribed dropped by more than half, yet the patients' lifespans lengthened; new vitality stirred in them again, and even the very oldest gained vigor and smiles on their faces.

Modern medicine has moved beyond the outdated understanding of decades ago, which regarded disease simply as a bodily lesion, to a higher stage; the medical community has realized that disease is not merely organic bodily lesion. Disease is also closely related to the patient's marriage and family, social relations, religious belief, and psychological factors. In recent years, about one quarter of the questions on the U.S. medical school entrance exam concern psychology; that is to say, a doctor who lacks psychological common sense and does not know how to adjust a patient's psychological state is an unqualified doctor.

Group activities such as qigong and Tai Chi combine the functions of physical exercise and psychological adjustment. Setting aside whether they are national treasures, judged only by their fitness and social functions in modern urban life, they are far better than looking up some medical material on Baidu.

But patients cannot rely entirely on these fitness programs; some patients over-believe in qigong or Tai Chi and delay their treatment, which is also a bad bargain. As an adjunctive means of rehabilitation, qigong or Tai Chi cannot replace regular medical care; for major diseases such as cancer, standardized treatment must remain the mainstay.

A few years ago, when passing through Chengdu, a patient with dual cancers—breast and thyroid—consulted me, and I gave her some medical advice. But at that time she was immersed in the obvious and huge improvement that Tai Chi had brought to her body, so after taking the Chinese patent medicine for two months she stopped treatment and practiced Tai Chi exclusively. By a follow-up review early this year, she found that the condition was progressing. Fortunately, recently she has again taken the medication according to my advice for a period, and the tumor has shrunk.

Exercise such as qigong and Tai Chi can improve the patient's bodily sensations and relieve many clinical symptoms (of course, running and swimming can do the same). This often gives patients the illusion that their illness can be completely cured through these exercises, which in reality is very difficult. Improved bodily sensation is not the same as the tumor being controlled; the two cannot be equated.

Patients who recover successfully entirely through practicing qigong and Tai Chi are not nonexistent, but they can only be described as extremely rare (and many of them were simultaneously under a doctor's care); compared with standardized treatment, the success rate of these adjunctive therapies is far lower. Personally, I see no need to stake one's life on such an all-or-nothing gamble.

So my personal attitude toward these kinds of fitness and exercise programs is: strongly encourage and support them (though there is no need to join programs charging exorbitant fees), and advise patients' families to support their sick members in joining such group exercise and socializing. But I do not encourage patients to abandon treatment and rely solely on these to achieve rehabilitation.