Clinical study of qigong on the evoked cerebral potentials in patients with senile cerebral arteriosclerosis

The method for keeping good health and longevity is one of the qigong advantages through the clinical practice over 2000 years. But experimental studies are lacking. The evoked cerebral potential is one of the new objective parameters in the study of the cerebral function. Thirty male patients (60-70 years old) of a qigong exercise group, who were diagnosed as having cerebral arteriosclerosis by specialists and 10 controls (60-72 years old) were involved in this study. The somatosensory evoked potentials (SEP) and visual evoked potentials (VEP) were detected. The results revealed that before doing the qigong exercise the incubation periods of the N[sub 3] wave of SEP and N[sub 1], P[sub 2], and N[sub 2] waves of VEP were longer than those of the controls (P<0.05 and P<0.01 respectively). This indicated that the cortical pathways of SEP and VEP were damaged by cerebral arteriosclerosis.

In the qigong exercise group, after practising for 6 months, the incubation periods of the P[sub 3] wave of SEP and N[sub 1], P[sub 2] and N[sub 2] waves of VEP markedly shortened than those before practice. The differences were statistically significant (P<0.01). However, the amplitudes showed no marked difference (P>0.05). The authors had randomly selected 15 patients from the 30 patients with cerebral arteriosclerosis of the qigong exercise group. Before and immediately after practice their SEP and VEP were detected. The amplitudes had physiological differences but the differences were not significant (P>0.05). After entering the calm state, the incubation periods of all the waves of SEP and VEP had changes. The incubation periods of N[sub 1], P[sub 2] and N[sub 2] waves showed marked difference before and after practice (P<0.001) This indicated that the practice could improve the degree of myelinization and functional state of the visual pathway. In the 30 patients the incubation periods of all the waves of the SEP,
except N[sub 3] wave of the SEP which was longer than normal, showed no significant difference from those of the controls. This suggested that the changes of SEP pathway were less marked than those of VEP pathway.

During practice the influences on VEP by the calm state and the posturing state were immediately detected, revealing that the incubation periods of N[sub 1], P[sub 2] and N[sub 2] waves of VEP shortened and the differences were significant (P<0.01). This indicated that the calm state could immediately improve the state of cortical VEP pathway. As for SEP, the incubation periods of P[sub 1], N[sub 1], P[sub 2] and N[sub 2] waves showed a move-up, delay and no change. Especially the N[sub 3] waves moved up significantly. This indicated that the calm state and the posturing state could promote the excitability of various cortical areas of the SEP pathway, revealing the shortening of the incubation periods or lower their excitability, revealing the delay or no change of the incubation period.

The experimental study indicates that the Taoist method for keeping good health and longevity can improve the cerebral visual pathway.