Continued from here, where we've been talking about the nasty and painful effects of shingles.

There is, apparently, some stress component to shingles, as a recent study has shown that people who practice the relaxing combination of mind and muscle that is tai chi have a significantly high level of immunity to the Varicella zoster virus.

The study published in this month's issue of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society says it's not clear what the link is between tai chi and the immune system, but stressed that it's vital for older people to maintain healthy behavior.

Get this:

After six months, the tai chi group had nearly twice the level of immunity against shingles than the education group.

Those who performed tai chi before vaccination had an immune response that was similar to what a vaccine would produce in a younger population.

Tai chi, being a gentle, low-impact exercise, is highly recommended for people of a certain age, and now there appears to be even more reason to take it up.

Shingles are NOT something anyone would want, and aside from having managed to avoid a case of chicken pox way back when, so far tai chi's been the only thing that seems to possibly make a difference at keeping it at bay.

Of course, as older parents of kids younger than we may have been able to manufacture ourselves, keeping in shape is vital.

I don't know about you, but as my kids get bigger, this old bod of mine complains more and more. Hefting four-year-old Sam elicits a much heartier grunt (or groan) than involuntarily popped out of me when he was four MONTHS old.

Although I stay active and do my daily hour with the faithful Teddy the Treadmill, I'm aware that I could be doing more.

With the following listed as benefits from a regular tai chi program, I just may have to get with it. After all, it would be great to:

Reduce anxiety and depression

Improve balance and coordination, reducing the number of falls

Improve sleep quality, such as staying asleep longer at night and feeling more alert
during the day

Slow bone loss in women following menopause

Reduce high blood pressure

Improve cardiovascular fitness

Relieve chronic pain

Improve everyday physical functioning

AND, as we now know, a reduced risk of shingles!

Being that tai chi works even with the truly geezerish, it's something to grow into, even at my age, and as the only other thing I can think of that's grow-in-able around here is a pair of giant jeans purchased by mistake via mail order a while back, there's not much around that's still waiting for me to hit some new benchmark.

I think I'm now in the market for a good tai chi DVD. Recommendations are welcome.

Want to read more about my (a hemmm) fitness regime? Here's where I introduce my treadmill, and and this is the post where I go all wistful over the body-that-used-to-be ... the one before age and gravity got the better of me, then dragged it all south.