The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) presents the Integrative Medicine Research Lecture Series. The series provides overviews of the current state of research and practice involving complementary health approaches and explores perspectives on the emerging discipline of integrative medicine.

Dr. Wayne will discuss the interdependence of cognitive and motor decline in older adults and the potential for mind and body interventions such as tai chi to help with rehabilitation and preservation of function.

A growing body of research suggests that risks for fall-related injuries and cognitive decline in older adults are highly interdependent; and processes like executive function, gait health, and balance are correlated and predictive of one another. This emerging view supports a unique role for mind and body exercises like tai chi, which strategically target both cognitive and motor processes, as well as their coordination (e.g., through training in attention shifting, multitasking, and goal setting). This presentation will summarize evidence for the use of tai chi in preserving and rehabilitating some age- and chronic disease-related decline, experimental studies indicating mechanisms of tai chi’s impact and pragmatic studies informing its cost effectiveness. Dr. Wayne will review suggestions for future research, including the potential for technology to enhance monitoring and delivery of community-based mind and body interventions.

Peter Wayne, Ph.D. is Research Director of the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School and Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. His research focuses on evaluating mind and body related complementary and integrative medicine therapies for rehabilitation, management, and prevention of chronic health conditions. He is the author, with Mark L. Fuerst, of The Harvard Medical School Guide to Tai Chi.

For more information go to https://nccih.nih.gov/news/events/IMlectures