Research Spotlight: Qigong Shows Promise in Treatment of Type 2 Diabetes

A Bastyr University researcher has discovered a groundbreaking new application for the 5,000-year-old Chinese healing modality of qigong (chee gong).

Guan-Cheng Sun, PhD, has put Bastyr in the national spotlight by launching the first randomized, controlled study in the United States to use this ancient therapy in the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus.

Dr. Guan-Cheng Sun, PhD
"The physiological responses are quantifiable …
this can have an enormous impact
on diabetes patients."
— Guan-Cheng Sun, PhD

Of the more than 24 million Americans who suffer from diabetes, about six million don't know they have the disease. Diabetes can affect every system of the body and cause blindness, heart disease, stroke, kidney failure and nerve damage. In this country, much of the recent increase in the prevalence of type 2 diabetes is related to increased obesity. More than 80 percent of type 2 diabetics are overweight.

Qigong is a traditional Chinese energy medicine practice that combines breathing, movement and meditation. Dr. Sun refers to it as "bio-energy medicine." Preliminary research results indicate that qigong therapy is beneficial in reducing both the stress and metabolic risk factors associated with type 2 diabetes. The therapy showed two statistically significant findings:

1) Qigong had a measurable ability to reduce blood-sugar levels in the sample population.
2) All participants in the pilot study showed reduced stress levels.

Many of the study participants also lost weight as a result of their qigong treatments.

"It's very gratifying to see the body respond to this treatment – not only mentally, but biologically," Dr. Sun says. "The physiological responses are quantifiable … this can have an enormous impact on diabetes patients."

Qigong can be done at any time, in any place. It is a totally natural, non-invasive process with no side effects. No costly equipment or special materials are required.

"We provide patients with the technique and methodology to create energy from their own bodies," Dr. Sun explains.

He credits Dr. Jennifer Lovejoy, Bastyr's former dean of the School of Nutrition and Exercise Science, for mentoring and inspiring him, sponsoring his research, and serving as "the bridge" between him and Bastyr.

"Dr. Lovejoy is not only an excellent research scientist, but also a reiki master, and mind-body medicine expert. Her advice and guidance have been essential to my work," says Dr. Sun.

Abstracts of his work have been accepted at two mainstream medical conferences: the 2009 North American Research Conference on Complementary and Integrative Medicine in Minneapolis in May and the 2009 Experimental Biology conference that took place in New Orleans in April.