As America’s population continues to age, with thousands more people living longer lives, the number of people with dementia continues to increase. Not only are more seniors developing dementia, health professionals are identifying more types of dementia. Among the list are Alzheimer’s, Creutzfeldt-Jakob, frontotemporal, Huntington’s, Lewy body, mixed, normal pressure hydrocephalus, Parkinson’s and vascular. By far, the most common and well-known is Alzheimer’s.

Most forms of dementia impact three key areas of the brain – decision-making, language and memory. Currently, depending on what type of dementia one has, they are often treated with some form of multiple dementia drugs. Like most drugs, these come with a variety of side-effects, including – agitation, aggression, diarrhea, dizziness, feeling faint, hallucinations, headaches, itching, loss of appetite, muscle pain, nausea, sleep problems, tiredness and vomiting. All of these can seriously impact the ability of dementia patients to function and complete everyday normal tasks, regardless of the dementia they suffer from.

Many family members and other dementia caretakers are always asking if there is anything that they can do to help their dementia plagued loved ones and patients or even make their lives better, more tolerable or less dangerous. A new study says there is:

Bournemouth University research has found that Tai Chi brings positive health benefits to older people with dementia.

The TACIT Trial looked at the benefits that Tai Chi can bring for people with dementia, specifically looking at whether Tai Chi could prevent falls and improve quality of live.

Dr Samuel Nyman, a Principal Academic at Bournemouth University, led the study and said, “We were really interested to see if Tai Chi improves balance and prevents falls among people with dementia. This is an important issue because people with dementia are twice as likely to fall, and twice as likely to have injuries as a result of falls.”

The research studied two similar groups of dementia patients and followed them as they carried out their normal activities. The one difference was that one group went through a six-month program of Tai Chi.

Dr. Nyman explained the findings:

We found that those who did Tai Chi really enjoyed the classes and meeting up with others who have dementia and their family carers. We found Tai Chi to be an incredibly safe and gentle exercise, and family carers were happy to support their loved ones with the classes and home practice. Although we found no improvements in scores on balance tests, there was a strong trend for those in the Tai Chi group to have fewer falls.

It only seems reasonable to expect such a program to help improve some aspects of dementia sufferers. The next step is to expand the study to include more dementia patients to further determine the beneficial impacts of Tai Chi on those suffering from dementia.

In the meantime, if you have anyone close to you with dementia, you may want to look into a Tai Chi class to see if it will help them.