176. Qigong, TaiChi, Baguazhang & Dementia (2)

Generally speaking Baguazhang makes no claims to be good for reversing the effects of dementia. As a martial art style, it has only been around for about 160 to 180 years. So most of Baguazhang study revolves around the fighting arts for most practitioners. Any higher levels of learning usually involve the spiritual, esoteric and with the understanding that at some point a practitioner may start delving into traditional Chinese medicine or Qigong as part of their healing arts. This can be a formal path through a medical school of sorts or by way of happenstance. The happenstance path for an example, can be as simple as a practitioner breaks their leg, practitioner gets their leg fixed and through the process learns how to fix legs. And because they know how to fix legs, they become the go-to person to have legs fixed. This process is also called the "Paradox of Martial Arts" because the practitioner originally learnt martial arts so that he could break the legs of his enemy. The path of harming becomes his path to healing. In the previous podcast "Qigong, TaiChi, Baguazhang & Dementia, part 1", I had listed eight factors that help a Baguazhang master to ward off diseases like dementia. The first two: Continual study and exercise is straight forward. Study and exercise help to rewire the brain through stimulation just like learning a new task. The third, diet and fourth, belief are harder to do because things like diet and belief go right to the heart of who they are. For some people changing diet means changing culture, tribal affiliations and/or religion. Or simply who they associate with on a daily basis. Hence the added difficulty with changing beliefs. The fifth which was social position, may still be relevant in some countries in that your social position meant you had better access to health and ways of living a healthier life. Traditionally a lot of martial artists in China came from well-off families that could afford the best. Which also meant that as in number six: One's occupation, they could afford to avoid work that put them at greater risk for dementia and so forth. So as martial artists they moved from fighter to teacher and then to possibly healer, hence number seven: Medical training. Coupled with number eight: The experiences in life, that medical training would be of a superior quality compared to an ordinary doctor. How this relates to dementia in ancient times was that it was rare for people in positions of power to just develop dementia. More often than not, the cause could be traced back to some sort of power struggle. Which probably meant the use of toxic herbs and poisons. Or even the benign act of drinking wine out of lead cups as was the cause of the insanity of the last Shang Dynasty ruler King Zhou. This would not have been possible for a slave or peasant. For peasants and slaves, dementia would be more likely caused by dietary and biological contamination in their food and drink. Something of which is still experienced in many third world environments, and first world environments with high degrees of poverty.