研究發現:太極對心腦血管疾病有積極作用大綱

People living with heart disease, high blood pressure or stroke may benefit from practicing traditional Chinese exercises such as Tai Chi, showed a study published last Wednesday in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

根據上週三在美國心臟學會雜誌上刊登的一份研究指出，經常習練中國傳統運動比如太極，對心臟病、高血壓及中風患者有益。

"Traditional Chinese exercises are a low-risk, promising intervention that could be helpful in improving quality of life in patients with cardiovascular diseases -- the leading cause of disability and death in the world," study author Yu Liu, dean of the School of Kinesiology at Shanghai University of Sport in China, said in a statement.

文章作者、現任上海體育學院運動科學學院院長劉宇在一份研究中指出，心血管疾病是當今世界致殘甚至致死的“頭號殺手”，而中國傳統運動對於改善這類疾病患者的生活質量是一種低風險、有積極促進作用的方法。

"But the physical and psychological benefits to these patients of this increasingly popular form of exercise must be determined based on scientific evidence."

“但是，這種越來越流行的鍛鍊方式對於病人身心的益處還需要通過科學研究的證明。”

In the new study, the researchers reviewed 35 research articles, which included 2,249 cardiovascular disease patients from 10 countries. They found Chinese exercises helped reduce the participants' systolic blood pressure, the top number, by more than 9.12 mmHg, and diastolic blood pressure, the bottom number, by more than 5 mmHg on average.

在這項新研究中，研究人員參考了35篇涵蓋來自十個國家的2249名心血管病患者的相關文獻。研究人員發現這項中國的傳統運動可以使患者收縮壓，即高壓平均降低至少9.12毫米汞柱，使患者舒張壓，即低壓平均降低至少5毫米汞柱。

The study also revealed small, but statistically significant drops in the levels of bad cholesterol, or low-density lipoprotein, and triglycerides. Chinese exercises also seemed to improve quality of life and reduce depression in patients with cardiovascular disease, they said.

研究同時發現一項細微但在統計上顯著的功效，那就是太極還能降低有害膽固醇、低密度脂蛋白以及甘油三酯的含量。研究人員還表示，中國傳統運動也有可能提高心血管疾病患者的生活質量及緩解他們的壓抑情緒。

However, traditional Chinese exercises did not significantly improve participant's heart rate, aerobic fitness level or scores on a general health questionnaire.

然而，中國的這些傳統運動並不能顯著得提高患者心率及心臟有氧機能，同時也不會使病人的身體狀況得到明顯改善。

Next, Liu and his team planned to conduct new randomized controlled trials to confirm the effect of different types of traditional Chinese exercises on chronic diseases.

接下來，劉宇和團隊成員計劃進行新的隨機對照試驗，以確定不同的中國傳統運動形式對此類慢性病的具體功效。