Stephen Rath - Qigong for Wellbeing in Dementia and Aging by (2015)

This book is an extraordinary and valuable source of information about natural healing fundamentals for maintaining good health and wellbeing. It reveals endured wisdoms and secrets more than five thousand years old. I personally benefited from using exercises and nutritional information that were explicitly described in the bookI retired from office at age eighty-eight. Although the target is dementia and aging, the information applies to all aspects of remaining fit and healthy. It is detailed, shares actual cases, easy to understand, and the exercise illustrations are precise. I urgently recommend this book to people of all ages who want to stay healthy.

U.S. Senator Daniel K. Akaka (RET)

As the average human life span has steadily increased since the last century, dementia has become a major challenge to the wellbeing of the aging population. How to prevent, treat and improve dementia is a task our society faces. To solve this task, a combined effort is needed from different philosophies and medical fieldsa place where the East meets the West. Stephen Rath has studied with Grandmaster for many years, and observed numerous successes of Grandmasters Qigong exercises in helping people with dementia. This book provides clear and concise information about Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and Western Medicine in order to help readers understand Qigongs benefit for this illness. The format of the exercises are easy to understand and practice. I hope this book will bring new light in fighting dementia and improving the quality of life for our elders.

Dr. Shi Cheng, MM (China), Dipl. Ac., Vice President and Co-Founder of Colorado School of Traditional Chinese Medicine (CSTCM), Denver, CO

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Qigong

for WELLBEING
in DEMENTIA and AGING

STEPHEN RATH

with Marcia Rath

Illustrated by LauRha Frankfort

LONDON AND PHILADELPHIA

First published in 2016

by Singing Dragon

an imprint of Jessica Kingsley Publishers

73 Collier Street

London N1 9BE, UK

and

400 Market Street, Suite 400

Philadelphia, PA 19106, USA

www.singingdragon.com

Copyright Stephen Rath 2016 with Marcia Rath

Heng Ha exercise; Natural Healing Exercises; Animal Sounds and Movement Exercises; Ten Facial Exercises; Twelve Sitting Exercises; Nutrition information; Meditation for Caregivers; and About the Natural Healing Research Foundation copyright Natural Healing Research Foundation 2016

Illustrations copyright LauRha Frankfort 2016

Illustrations based on original photographs by LauRha Frankfort and Christine Fagan

Front cover photography by Tobias Huber, 1013 Production Studio, Honolulu, Hawaii.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any material form (including photocopying or storing it in any medium by electronic means and whether or not transiently or incidentally to some other use of this publication) without the written permission of the copyright owner except in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 or under the terms of a licence issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd, Saffron House, 610 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Applications for the copyright owners written permission to reproduce any part of this publication should be addressed to the publisher.

Warning: The doing of an unauthorised act in relation to a copyright work may result in both a civil claim for damages and criminal prosecution.

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978 1 84819 253 9

eISBN 978 0 85701 199 2

Contents

Acknowledgements

We extend our heartfelt gratitude for the many Asian Health practices that shaped this book. After a hip injury, I sought out a gentle exercise and, in 1997, my wife Marcia and I taught ourselves the Tai Chi Yang Long Form using a video by Terry Dunn. With our interest piqued, we next took classes from Joe Brady of the Tai Chi Project in Denver, and teachers Jason Brown and Master Xilin Zhu. Since 1999, I have continued to study Qigong with Master Zhu and have dedicated over 10,000 hours of practice to the cultivation of vital energy. Through our daily practice, we have experienced the restorative power of Qi; and, as our proficiency grew, we regaled my mother with the forms we were learning. Little did we know that if she had joined along in some movements with us, it might have eased her emerging dementia.

In 2010, a friend taught Marcia two simple Qigong exercises, which immediately healed a health issue. I had been talking about the author of the exercises since meeting him in 2008. And now, Marcia wanted to meet this man. She signed us up for seminars every time he came to Denver. His exercises were so effective that, in 2012, Marcia convinced me to train with him and his coaches, Lynn Thomas, Wade Shigemasa, Pua and Jimmy Kekina, and Mark Siket and others. We became certified to teach many of his exercises. Later, we were fortunate to be invited back to observe and participate in classes taught through his Natural Healing Research Foundation (NHRF), where a cadre of dedicated volunteers have been teaching and educating Hawaiians, especially seniors, in the ways of natural healing since 2006. In the Daoist tradition this humble man simply wants to be known as Grandmaster, and he generously shares his knowledge so that others may benefit from his journey.

The rest of the story unfolds from conversations Marcia and I had with Grandmaster in 2012 about our families history of dementia. We are enormously indebted to him and to everyone at the NHRF for their generous support, contributions to the exercises and nutrition sections, and for sharing their collective wisdom in the true Aloha spirit; a plenitude of thanks to Pua and Jimmy, who were available day and night to take our phone calls and provide detailed answers to questions about the exercises; the volunteersKathie Ong, Pua and Jimmy, Kathleen and JC Coelho, Joan Stone and Gwyneth Chingwho worked tirelessly with us to ensure that the exercise instructions were correct; and, lastly, to all of the other volunteers who work behind the scenes, including a special and deep thanks to Ann Yamamoto, Millannie Akaka, and, of course, Ruby.