One of the more exciting prospects of advancing healthcare is the integration of Western and Chinese medicine. As cultures share information, medicine can evolve to provide more effective health care. This paper will review several critical studies that report that patients who combined qigong practice with drug therapy improved far more than patients who received drug therapy alone.
Several clinical studies reported that a combination therapy of drugs with personal practice of qigong provided a better outcome than drug therapy alone. Several of these clinical studies will be reviewed. (1)In a 20-year study of hypertensive patients, Kuang, Wang, et al reported that patients who practiced qigong exhibited more stable and lower blood pressure than the control group. The dosage of hypotensive drugs could even be decreased in the qigong group, while it had to be increased in the control group. Xian also reported that hypertensive patients in a qigong group needed smaller doses of a hypotensive drug than the control group. (2) In the case of patients with advanced cancer, Sun & Zhao reported that a combination of drugs and qigong resulted in greater improvement of symptoms (e. g. strength, appetite, diarrhea free, weight gain) than the control group. (3) Omura reported that drug delivery is enhanced by qigong. For example, in the treatment of infections, drug uptake was enhanced by applying 'qigongized' paper, e. g. qi emitted to paper, to the afflicted area of the body.
The explanation of the superiority of the combination therapy is based on the theory of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). TCM, which includes qigong, is a holistic practice that promotes free flow of qi and blood throughout the body. Where tissues are under stress because of injury or disease, qigong can enhance qi and blood circulation to that area so that nutrients may more efficiently be delivered to the affected cells and also waste products in the stressed tissue can be removed more readily. This dynamic situation promotes self-regulation of the functions of the body, permitting self-healing. If drugs are needed to promote healing, qigong appears to enhance the delivery of the drug to cells of the body. This mechanism of enhanced drug delivery suggests that qigong could make possible smaller dosages of drugs, which would cause less adverse side-effects. For example, qigong is reported to restore estradiol levels in hypertensive, menopausal women, leading to the possibility that estrogen replacement therapy might not be necessary or might be used at reduced levels.
The papers reviewed are a few of the numerous clinical studies in China that report the health and healing benefits of qigong. English abstracts of most of these studies are included in the computerized Qigong Database, which contains about 1000 citations. The author has used the Database as a reference source for several reviews showing that qigong improves many functions of the body.

Qigong & drug therapy is superior to drug therapy alone