Qigong Exercise May Reduce Serum TNF-α Levels and Improve Sleep in People with Parkinson’s Disease: A Pilot Study

Abstract

Background: Inflammatory cytokine levels are often elevated in people with Parkinson’s disease (PD). People with PD often experience sleep disturbances that significantly impact quality of life. Past studies suggest inflammatory cytokines may be associated with various symptoms of PD. Benefits of Qigong, a mind–body exercise, have been shown in different neurological conditions, but there is still a lack of clinical evidence in the PD population. Methods: Ten people with PD were recruited and randomly assigned into two groups receiving six weeks of Qigong (experimental group) or sham Qigong (control group) intervention. The levels of TNF-α, IL-1β, and IL-6 in subjects’ serum and sleep quality were measured before and after the intervention. Results: After the intervention, the serum level of TNF-α in the experimental group was significantly decreased in all subjects, while the level in the control group showed a trend to increase. Qigong exercise significantly improved sleep quality at night. There was a strong correlation between changes in the level of TNF-α and sleep quality. Conclusion: Qigong exercise decreased TNF-α level in people with PD and helped improve sleep quality. TNF-α may have a potential to influence the sleep quality in people with PD.

Qigong intervention for breast cancer survivors with complaints of decreased cognitive function

“…The gentle exercise participants were instructed only in the gentle arm movements and postures without the diaphragmatic breathing, clearing of the mind, or chanting of the six healing sounds. A very detailed description of the movements, postures, and sounds has been published previously [26].…”

Effects of Qigong Exercise on Non-Motor Symptoms and Inflammatory Status in Parkinson’s Disease: A Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial

“…In our feasibility study in a single-arm design (n = 7), a 6-week Qigong exercise program demonstrated an improvement in sleep quality measured by Parkinson’s Disease Sleep Scale-2 (PDSS-2), in which the results showed sub-scores of PDSS-2 were significantly improved or showed a trend of improvement including motor symptoms at night ( p < 0.05) and disturbed sleep ( p = 0.06) in individuals with PD [17]. Our recent pilot study, a randomized controlled trial (RCT), in individuals with PD showed a significant improvement in sleep quality, including PD symptoms at night ( p < 0.05) and total PDSS-2 score ( p < 0.001), after practicing the Qigong exercise for eight weeks (2-week training + 6-week Qigong exercise) [18].…”

“…The deep abdominal breathing may stimulate serotonin pathways by stimulating enterochromaffin cells that release serotonin [19] and interact with pro-inflammatory cytokines that contribute to neuroinflammation in the brain [20]. Our recent pilot study suggested potential benefits of Qigong exercise through changes in inflammation status, in which the results showed a significant decrease in serum level of TNF-α from 13.8 ± 0.6 to 12.3 ± 1.6 ( p < 0.05) that was significantly correlated with changes in sleep quality and serum TNF-α level (R 2 = 0.62) [18]. In various medical conditions, mind-body exercises such as Yoga, Tai Chi, and Qigong improved the immune system [21].…”

“…For the PD population, many studies were performed to investigate the effects of Qigong on motor symptoms in individuals with PD. However, to the best of our knowledge, only four RCTs have studied the effects of Qigong on non-motor symptoms in individuals with PD [16,18,26,27]. In those previous studies, although the results showed a potential of Qigong exercise to improve non-motor symptoms in PD, there was missing information such as rationale for sample size estimation, selection bias, attrition bias, and participant blindness.…”

Safety of Qigong

“…Several complementary medical therapies with some similarities to Qigong are practiced in hospitals in the west and are paid for by insurance. In recent years, existing systematic reviews have examined the clinical evidence of the beneficial effects of Qigong exercise on different medical conditions, such as tumor and cancer, [ 25 – 27 ] hypertension, [ 2 , 28 , 29 ] diabetes mellitus, [ 30 – 32 ] obesity, [ 33 , 34 ] chronic heart diseases, [ 35 , 36 ] Parkinson's disease, [ 37 – 39 ] dementia, [ 40 , 41 ] chronic fatigue syndrome, [ 42 – 44 ] menopause syndrome, [ 45 , 46 ] insomnia, [ 47 – 49 ] lower back pain, [ 50 – 52 ] chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, [ 53 – 55 ] fibromyalgia, [ 56 – 58 ] metabolic disease, [ 20 , 59 ] osteoarthritis, [ 60 – 62 ] mental disease, [ 14 , 19 , 63 , 64 ] and so on.…”