Call for your support to research

• Has Taiji, qigong or meditation made a difference in your health?
• Have you wondered how meditation and qigong healing works?
• Are you considering making a tax-deductible contribution by year-end?
• Would you like more people to benefit from meditation and qigong therapy?

We Need Your Support for Scientific Study of
Meditative Therapies and Qigong Healing

Kevin W Chen, Ph.D. MPH

As the publisher of Yang-Sheng magazine, I work full-time as a research scientist at University of Maryland Center for Integrative Medicine (CIM).  Our center is an internationally recognized leader in the field of integrative medicine, and a National Institutes of Health (NIH) Center of Excellence for over 16 years.  We have teamed up with qigong master Faxiang Hou and other well-known practitioners and plan to conduct a series of scientific studies of meditation and qigong therapy for health problems such as arthritis, fibromyalgia, asthma, anxiety disorders and chronic pain, in randomized controlled trials. You can get more information about CIM from our web site at http://www.compmed.umm.edu 

However, with recent budget cut at NIH and other federal agencies, our scientific research has come to a pause due to lack of resources.  Although qigong therapy from traditional Chinese medicine is gaining increased popularity in the U.S., there has been a lack of scientific documentation of its effectiveness, and a lack of sufficient support of the scientific study of qigong healing, which has seriously demoted its credibility. We decided to call for support from our own community of mind-body medicine.  The Center for Integrative Medicine at University of Maryland has made a commitment to scientific examination of meditation and qigong healing, and we will employ the most rigorous scientific methodologies of Western medicine to this Eastern tradition, through the conduct of randomized controlled clinical trials to determine its efficacy.  Following is a list of some studies under planning:

• External Qigong therapy for treating fibromyalgia
• Treating comorbid anxiety disorders among patients of addiction with integrative meditation
• Stress Management with Wellness and Resilience Mastery through Mindfulness
• Qigong therapy for asthma and food allege among children
• Qigong therapy for treatment of type-II diabetes

As a practitioner of mind-body medicine or someone whose own life has been touched by the benefits of meditation and qigong, we are turning to you for assistance and asking if you would consider a financial contribution to this endeavor. Without a thorough and well-conducted pilot study of meditative therapies and qigong healing, further definitive and expanded research may not be possible.  If it does proceed, however, the benefits of meditation and qigong therapy eventually could be brought to patients all over the country.  Furthermore, if rigorous scientific studies prove the health effects of meditation and qigong healing, it may be possible for health insurance to cover these mind-body therapies in the future.  The entire process begins with the one small study, and your generous support and donation of any amount could make this first significant step possible.  Can we count on your support?

Your donation will be tax deductible and we will keep you informed on the results of this study as well as the future qigong studies.

Please make your check payable to: “University of Maryland, Baltimore Foundation” (with memo “Gift for CIM Qigong Program”).  Please mail your check to:

You can make a secured donation online at Paypal with a credit card from the following link:

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=R4ECWWVCKVZ6U

Thank you very much for your support!  We will send you an official receipt as soon as we  receive your contribution.

May your life be filled with positive Qi and lasting health in body, mind and spirit!