Researchers from a clinical trial led by Jing Li, M.D., Ph.D., are drawing attention to baduanjin, an eight-movement Chinese exercise, after a yearlong study of 216 adults with Stage 1 hypertension found meaningful blood pressure drops similar to some medications; cardiologists including Dr. Matthew Saybolt at Hackensack Meridian Jersey Shore University Medical Center and Dr. Antony Chu of Brown University’s Warren Alpert School of Medicine weighed in on what this means for prevention and daily habit change.
Baduanjin is an ancient routine of eight slow movements paired with gentle breathing and brief meditation, and a full session usually takes about 10 minutes. It’s simple, low-impact, and designed to be easy to keep doing long term rather than an intense, once-in-a-while workout.
The trial enrolled adults 40 and older with Stage 1 hypertension and split them into groups practicing baduanjin, doing self-directed exercise, or walking briskly over the course of a year. The researchers tracked blood pressure changes and adherence, watching for real-world benefits rather than just short bursts of improvement.
Within three months, people who practiced baduanjin five times a week showed lower blood pressure. The researchers noted the results were “comparable to reductions seen with some first-line medications,” they wrote in their report published by the American College of Cardiology.
At the one-year mark, baduanjin delivered “comparable results and safety profile to brisk walking at one year,” the team reported, suggesting a low-impact, mindful approach can stand alongside standard aerobic activity. Jing Li stressed the practical edge: “Given its simplicity, safety and ease at which one can maintain long-term adherence, baduanjin can be implemented as an effective, accessible and scalable lifestyle intervention for individuals trying to reduce their [blood pressure].”
Dr. Matthew Saybolt admitted the findings surprised him. “I was biased and expected that higher intensity exercise like brisk walking would have resulted in greater improvement in blood pressure than baduanjin, but the effects were the same,” Saybolt told Fox News Digital, noting he was not affiliated with the study.
Dr. Antony Chu brought a personal lens to the discussion, recalling summers spent in Asia and the blend of Eastern and Western medical thinking he grew up around: “the best of both worlds.” He applauded researchers for applying statistical rigor to longstanding practices, saying, “[These researchers] are taking a lot of things that have been commonplace for many, many centuries or millennia and then just applying mathematical modeling and statistical analysis to sort of give [them] some credibility.”
Chu also offered a critique: “Western medicine is reactionary,” Chu also said. He used a vivid comparison to explain preventive focus, suggesting Eastern approaches aim to stop a metaphorical house fire before it starts while Western medicine focuses on putting fires out after they ignite.
Both doctors warned against underestimating untreated high blood pressure. Saybolt pointed to major downstream risks such as stroke, heart attack, atrial fibrillation and congestive heart failure, and urged that lowering blood pressure is a serious public health goal, not a cosmetic number to ignore.
Chu explained how baduanjin appears to work beyond muscle and movement: by calming the nervous system and reducing stress, it lowers the internal pressure he compared to “the water pressure and the pipes of your house.” He emphasized stress reduction as a huge factor in modern life: “People are totally stressed out,” Chu said. “And stress reduction is huge.”
The study’s practical message was aimed squarely at real people with busy schedules and limited patience for complicated regimens. Saybolt framed the trial as hopeful evidence that treatment for hypertension doesn’t immediately need to rely on pharmaceuticals, and he has long advocated lifestyle changes like healthy diet and exercise “as key therapies for treatment of diseases and to improve longevity.”
Translating clinical guidance into doable steps is central to Chu’s work. “It’s not to just tell somebody, ‘Hey, your blood pressure’s too high, pick a pill,” he said. He acknowledged that lifestyle changes can feel daunting and joked that doctors sometimes make them sound like a lifetime retreat: “They always make it sound like you have to live for seven years in Tibet on a mountain somewhere, and it’s really not that.”
His simple takeaway is built for the real world: “Close the door in your office and just say, ‘I can’t be bothered for 10 minutes,’ and just focus on breathing slowly and moving your arms or legs around.” That plain instruction captures the appeal of baduanjin—short, inexpensive, and doable whether you’re in the U.S., Hong Kong, Taiwan, or anywhere in between.
