title: Acute Effects on the Counts of Innate and Adaptive Immune Response Cells After 1 Month of Taoist Qigong Practice.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Qigong is an ancient form of health maintenance, dating back thousands of years, which is part of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Numerous physical as well as mental benefits have been classically ascribed to this traditional mind-body method which integrates slow body movements, breathing, and meditation. Albeit we have already reported an immunomodulatory action of qigong in other investigations, measures were then assessed 1 day after the qigong program ended.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The aim of the present study was to assess the acute effects of Taoist qigong practice on immune cell counts in healthy subjects 1 h after training.
  
  
  METHODS
  Forty-three healthy subjects participated in the study of whom 25 were randomly allocated to the experimental group and 18 to the control group. The experimental subjects underwent daily qigong training for 1 month. Blood samples for the quantification of immune parameters (number and percentage of monocytes, neutrophils, eosinophils, total lymphocytes, B lymphocytes, and natural killer (NK) cells) were taken the day before the experiment commenced and 1 h after the last session of the training program ended. As statistical analysis, analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was performed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Statistically significant differences were found between the experimental and control groups, with the experimental group showing higher values in the number (p = 0.006) and the percentage (p = 0.04) of B lymphocytes, as well as lower values in the percentage of NK cells (p = 0.05), as compared to control.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study demonstrates that Taoist qigong is able to exert acute immunomodulatory effects on components of both innate as well as adaptive immune response.
authors.affiliation: Universidad de Málaga, Andalucía Tech, Departamento de Psicobiología y Metodología de las Ciencias del Comportamiento, Campus de Teatinos s/n, 29071, Málaga, Spain. pvera@uma.es.
authors.forename: Francisca M
authors.initials: FM
authors.lastname: Vera
authors.affiliation: Universidad de Málaga, Andalucía Tech, Departamento de Psicobiología y Metodología de las Ciencias del Comportamiento, Campus de Teatinos s/n, 29071, Málaga, Spain.
authors.forename: Juan M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Manzaneque
authors.affiliation: Unidad de Gestión Clínica de Laboratorio AGS Este de Málaga-Axarquía, Málaga, Spain.
authors.forename: Francisco M
authors.initials: FM
authors.lastname: Rodríguez
authors.affiliation: Universidad de Málaga, Andalucía Tech, Departamento de Psicobiología y Metodología de las Ciencias del Comportamiento, Campus de Teatinos s/n, 29071, Málaga, Spain.
authors.forename: Rebecca
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bendayan
authors.affiliation: Servicio de Inmunología, Hospital Regional Universitario de Málaga, Avenida de Carlos Haya s/n, Málaga, Spain.
authors.forename: Nieves
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Fernández
authors.affiliation: Servicio de Inmunología, Hospital Regional Universitario de Málaga, Avenida de Carlos Haya s/n, Málaga, Spain.
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Alonso
mesh_terms: D056704:Adaptive Immunity / Q000502:physiology*; D000293:Adolescent; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007113:Immunity, Innate / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D008516:Medicine, Chinese Traditional; D008875:Middle Aged; D064906:Qigong; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Holistic; Immune; Mind-body; Psychosomatic; Qigong