Written by Dr. W. Zee.

Some years ago a 50 year old bus driver from Shanghai suffered from the heart disease angina pectoris. It's some attacks of strong pains in the heart, which is caused by a hardening and contraction of the artery of the heart. The attacks became worse because of exertion, stress and emotional imbalance. He was treated with nitroglycerine tablets, which reduced the attacks. He had for several years been practising Shaolin boxing, which is in the category of the hard energetic styles. Besides the heart attacks he was robust and he had a very good health. But the symptoms didn't get better, even though he took medications for a long time, and in the end he had to quit his Shaolin training, because of the exhausting exercises made the attacks worse. In stead he began practising Tai Chi. He was very persistent and practised the form (Wu Style) twice a day, each form lasted 20 minutes. The frequency of the attacks dropped gradually the first year, and even when he was just started on practising Tai Chi, he never had pains during his practise. Now he has begun to work normally, and he haven't had any attacks for more than one year. Besides being cured, he could still practise a martial art, because he changed to Tai Chi. Tai Chi calms the nervous system, lower the blood pressure and it does not overstrain the heart. That's why it's the perfect exercise for heart patients.

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