Roger Jahnke, who has visited China five times to learn more about the country’s medical traditions, never misses a chance to ask government officials and physicians about the most vital part of the health-care approach in China.
“The answer is always the same,” Jahnke said at the recent National Wellness Conference here. “They explain the most important health-care strategy is to retain the qigong (pronounced `chi-gong’) cultural practice, especially among the younger generations.”
Qigong is what Jahnke calls a “self-care” practice, one that is more than 3,000 years old. Each morning, starting before dawn and peaking in the hour after sunrise, an estimated 80 to 100 million Chinese individuals pour into parks and other public places to perform qigong movements and breathing exercises.
“People are out there no matter if it is cold or wet,” Jahnke told hundreds of professionals who manage health and wellness programs for companies, hospitals, communities and school districts. “And guess what? This key health strategy doesn’t cost the government any money. There aren’t even any prizes, no gym bags for showing up.”
The lecture hall filled with laughter. These administrators know all too well how difficult it can be to motivate many Americans to take active steps toward better health.
Jahnke, who is based in Santa Barbara, Calif., has practiced acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine for two decades. His new book, “The Healer Within” (HarperSanFrancisco), reflects a conscious mixture of Chinese and American cultures. It divides qigong into four accessible parts: movement, self-massage, meditation and breathing.
According to the Chinese belief system, qi is a naturally occurring energy or life force within the body. The act of cultivating, refining or mobilizing this life force for healing purposes is called gong. Maintaining an optimal state of natural healing energy, then, is qigong.
Tai chi, which is one type of qigong practice, often gets simplified in the U.S. as a movement-oriented discipline offered by health clubs and fitness facilities.
“Qigong is much more,” he said. “The Chinese extend the practice to include music, fragrances, tastes and even visitations from elders who have passed on.”
Qigong has its highly practical side, judging from a translated English-language book published by Foreign Languages Press in Beijing and recently discovered in a Saigon, Vietnam, bookstore. It reviews many everyday applications for qigong: treating gray hair, loosening a stiff neck, reducing insomnia, preventing leg cramps, reducing cold symptoms and strengthening bones and teeth.
Breathing down through the abdomen is the most accessible cornerstone of qigong practice, Jahnke said. “It simply means getting more oxygen, taking 10 seconds out of your day to breathe properly. It doesn’t mean attending a dance class,” he said.
“A deep breath alone will not bring you more oxygen; you must get yourself into a state of relaxation to benefit from deeper, more purposeful breathing. Then you can turn on the inner healing.”
When Jahnke suggested qigong breathing helps his patients with multiple sclerosis, fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome, an audience member (“she’s not a plant,” he quipped) raised her hand to endorse the idea. The woman stood up and explained she had used deep-breathing techniques every morning for 25 years to move from “being virtually paralyzed from the neck down every morning to moving freely by afternoon.”
Jahnke demonstrated other parts of his four-part qigong plan. One gentle movement started by breathing in and pulling the palms up and toward the chest while raising the heels of the feet. It finished with the hands moving down and away during exhalation while the toes are raised.
A self-massage session of the hands drew sighs of relief from the audience. Jahnke suggested using steady thumb pressure to knead and massage the opposite hand, exploring for any sore spots in the palms and fingers. These areas correlate with various body parts and organs not in optimal health. Chinese medicine charts explain what areas represent the heart (on the left hand only), lungs, liver (right hand), pancreas, kidneys, adrenal glands, stomach, intestines, bladder, appendix and thyroid.
Next was several minutes of rubbing and pulling the ears. Acupuncturists target these areas for stress-related disorders.
“Some of the practices seem silly or simplistic,” said Jahnke. “People have trouble believing qigong can heal incurable diseases. But research is going to emerge. It will eventually persuade the doubters.”
