To Treat Pain, PTSD And Other Ills, Tennessee Vets Try Tai Chi
Every week in Murfreesboro, Tenn., Zibin Guo guides veterans in wheelchairs through slow-motion tai chi poses as a Bluetooth speaker plays soothing instrumental music.
鈥淐loudy hands to the right, cloudy hands to the left,鈥 he tells them, referring to the move traditionally known as 鈥渃loud hands.鈥 鈥淣ow we鈥檙e going to open your arms, grab the wheels and 180-degree turn.鈥
The participants swivel about-face and continue to the next pose. Guo modified the ancient Chinese martial art to work from a seated position. Even though many of those in his class don鈥檛 rely on wheelchairs for mobility, using the mobile chairs makes it easier for them to get through a half-hour of movement.
The Department of Veterans Affairs has given $120,000 in grant money to Guo to spread his special wheelchair tai chi course. He started in Chattanooga, Tenn., and has expanded his classes to Murfreesboro.
This idea of going beyond prescriptions 鈥 and especially beyond opioid painkillers 鈥 has been a key focus of the VA nationally.
In Tennessee,聽聽of all VA patients with an active medical prescription were on opioids in 2012. That number has dropped to 15 percent, but that鈥檚 still higher than in most other parts of the country.
According to聽, nearly every VA hospital now offers some kind of alternative health treatment 鈥 like yoga, mindfulness and art therapy.
Guo is teaching people in a half-dozen VA hospitals in Florida, Texas, Utah and Arizona to use his version of tai chi. He believes the focus on breathing and mindfulness 鈥 paired with manageable physical activity 鈥 can help ease a variety of ailments.
鈥淲hen you have a good amount of body harmony, people tend to engage in proactive life,鈥 he says, 鈥渟o that helps with all kinds of symptoms.鈥
Medical anthropologist Zibin Guo (center) adapted tai chi for people with limited mobility. Though there鈥檚 little research evidence confirming that tai chi eases drug cravings or symptoms of post-traumatic stress, the veterans in Guo鈥檚 class say the program helps them. (Blake Farmer/Nashville Public Radio)
While wheelchair tai chi would provide activity for those who鈥檝e lost some use of their legs, the exercise program is also geared toward helping vets who have mental health issues, including post-traumatic stress disorder.
Thomas Sales of Nashville, Tenn., recalls his most recent panic attack: 鈥淣ight before last, when we had the thunderstorm,鈥 he said. 鈥淭he thunder is a big trigger for some people.鈥
Sales still has panic attacks regularly 鈥 25 years after he fought in the first Gulf War with the Navy Special Warfare Command.
鈥淵ou鈥檒l find yourself flashing back to being out there with the fellas, and you鈥檒l just kind of snap,鈥 he said. 鈥淎nd I found myself, for some reason, thinking about doing the breathing techniques [from tai chi], and doing the 鈥榟eaven and earth,鈥 and then breathing deep and slow.鈥
Sales said he knows it must look crazy to some people when he reaches to the sky and then sweeps his arms to the ground. There was a time when he would have agreed. Most of the patients in this class had some skepticism going into the tai chi program. But Vietnam veteran Jim Berry of Spring Hill, Tenn., says he鈥檚 now convinced.
鈥淢y daughter sent me a T-shirt that sums it up,鈥 he said. 鈥淭ai chi is more than old folks chasing trees.鈥
Berry credits meditation and tai chi with helping him quit smoking. 鈥淣o cigarettes for three months now,鈥 he said.
Zarita Croney, a veteran with the National Guard, said tai chi has helped her, too, with chemical dependence. She now makes the nearly-two-hour drive from Hopkinsville, Ky., to Murfreesboro each week, and has reduced her use of opioids for pain..
鈥淢y whole life 鈥 revolved around, 鈥極h shoot, when can I take my next pill? When can I take my next pill?鈥欌 Croney recalled. 鈥淚鈥檝e gone from about 90 percent of my day being on my bed to being able to come out and be social.鈥
The Department of Veterans Affairs has been aggressively trying to wean vets from reliance on strong narcotics 鈥 partly by using prescription data聽聽across the country 鈥 while trying to make sure alternatives don鈥檛 cause their own harmful side effects.
罢丑别听聽at this point that tai chi or mindfulness therapy or acupuncture will do any good for PTSD or addiction, though recently there聽has聽been research into the quality of life benefits of tai chi聽.
But these alternative therapies have been in use by the department long enough that the VA aims to more closely track the treatments鈥 effectiveness. It is especially targeting people for alternative treatment who have only recently completed their military service.
The goal, proponents say, is to have veterans incorporate these techniques into their weekly routine, not just rely on a drug prescription to ease pain or anxiety.
鈥淲hole health, along with how many opiates are being prescribed 鈥 we鈥檙e going to look at how does this impact that,鈥 said Aaron Grobengieser, who oversees alternative medicine for VA hospitals in Tennessee.
鈥淚 believe this is going to be an avenue,鈥 he said, 鈥渢o really help address that group of folks that are really looking for ways to manage those types of conditions without popping another pill.鈥
This story is part of a partnership that includes , and Kaiser Health News.