Veterans Fight PTSD with Tai Chi

To Control Pain, Battle PTSD And Fight Other Ills, Tennessee Vets Try Tai Chi
Nashville Public Radio
Blake Farmer
March 2, 2018

The VA acknowledges that there's very little proof that tai chi — or other alternative treatments like mindfulness and acupuncture — will do any good for PTSD or addiction, though there has been research into the benefits of tai chi related to quality of life among the elderly. Still, Aaron Grobengieser, who oversees alternative medicine in Murfreesboro, says the VA will attempt to track the effectiveness by the numbers.

Zibin Guo, a medical anthropology professor UT Chattanooga, developed a seated version of tai chi and launched at UTC.

Credit Blake Farmer / WPLN

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has been desperate to cut down on the use of powerful pills. So the mammoth agency has taken a sharp turn toward alternative medicine. The thinking goes that even if it doesn’t cure a mental or physical ill, it can't hurt.

In Tennessee, treatment for veterans is beginning to include the ancient martial art of tai chi. Zibin Guo leads a weekly session at the Alvin C. York VA hospital in Murfreesboro. He guides vets through slow-motion poses as a Bluetooth speaker blares a classic tai chi soundtrack.

"Cloudy hands to the right, cloudy hands to the left," he tells the veterans, seated in wheelchairs. "Now we're going to open your arms, grab the wheels and 180-degree turn."
read more here

Someone needs to tell the VA the proof is in how they feel and if they look forward to doing it!!! They do!

Kung Fu joins Tai Chi in helping PTSD veterans

Finding peace in ancient art
Kung fu helps turn around life of violence for struggling Army veteran

By Dana M. Nichols
Record Staff Writer
October 01, 2008 6:00 AM
VALLEY SPRINGS - David Foster got hooked on combat.

"At the time, it is a sense of euphoria," said Foster, who served in the Army during Operation Desert Storm (the 1990-91 Persian Gulf War) as well as in operations against drug dealers and slave traders. "Afterward, you crash."

Civilian life was a big crash for Foster. So he hunted for ways to regain the euphoric clarity of combat. For a long time, he lived in Stockton, picking fights with other rough characters ranging from gang bangers and drug dealers to people beating their dogs. "I probably got in two or three fights a week for 10 years," Foster said.


The Veterans Affairs Department finally caught up to Foster and forced him into a treatment program for post-traumatic stress disorder. That allowed him to kick the fighting habit and resume something closer to a normal life. But it didn't give him the spiritual healing he has found since through another path, an ancient art of which the VA doctors didn't approve: kung fu.
click post title for more

Tai chi teacher takes 5 medals home

Brooksby Village specialist brings home five Tai chi medals


By Jenny Amaral/The Daily Item

PEABODY-Peabody resident and Brooksby Village Fitness Specialist Lisa Kirshon recently won five medals (three golds and two silvers) at the USA Wushu Kungfu Federation National Championships held at Eastern Connecticut State University.

The 49-year-old has been practicing the Chinese martial art of tai chi and sword forms, as well as chi gong, a Chinese healing art, for the past 18 years.

“I began training because of ill health,” she said, noting disc pain in her lower back. “I was just kind of looking for my self-care piece.”

She started her search with acupuncture and various bouts of physical therapy, but she said something was missing.
click post title for more