"isit an urban park in China any given morning or late afternoon and youre likely to find elderly people engaged in a slow elegant dance their arms and legs lifting and circling in unison. Tinny traditional music might be playing from a batteryrun cassette player. The seniors are focused and at ease in their daily ritual and its soothing to watch them. The movement is tai chi an ancient martial art turned exercise and a study httparchinte.amaassn.orgcgicontentfull out this week in Archives of Internal Medicine says it may help people suffering from heart failure http feel better about life. In a quality of life questionnaire the researchers gave out those who practiced tai chi scored significantly higher than those who hadnt been doing the movement. The tai chi group also reported an improvement in mood. Heart failure is a tough disease to live with the shortness of breath and low energy that can come because the heart cant pump enough blood make physical activity unappealing. Historically patients with chronic systolic heart failure were considered too frail to exercise http_big_fat_lie_of_exercise.html and through the late s avoidance of physical activity was a standard recommendation the studys authors write. Article continues after this message from our sponsor The Chinese developed tai chi thousands of years ago but it has recently piqued the interest of Western medicine as an alternative mindbody therapy to treat disease. According to a Harvard Medical School newsletter http_Womens_Health_WatchMayThehealthbenefitsoftaichi tai chi is increasingly seen as a form of medication in motion. Its been shown to be useful in treating a wide range of diseases from breast cancer to Parkinsons. The National Institutes of Health httpnccam.nih.govhealthtaichiintroduction.htm has also jumped on board and is funding a variety of studies on tai chi for chronic disease. The Archives of Internal Medicine study is the first large clinical trial to look at whether a tai chi program can do anything for people with heart failure. The researchers recruited  people with the chronic condition from heart clinics in Boston. About half were randomly assigned to receive a week tai chi exercise program. The other half got a heart health education program. The tai chi program started off with some traditional warmup exercises of arm swinging gentle stretches breathing and visualization techniques. Then patients learned five simple movements designed to release tension in the body increase awareness of breathing and relax the body and mind. Patients got an instructional video tape and were encouraged to practice at home at least  times a week. The study authors say theres a usually a strong relationship between depression and heart failure so the fact that tai chi helped cheer people up was an especially good sign."