Support Our Research
Your gift funds the next clinical trial of Tai Chi and Qigong for chronic low back pain, and delivers the program free to every participant.
What Your Gift Funds
Spine 2027
Spine 2027 is our next clinical trial. Six hundred adults with chronic low back pain, twelve months of live online classes, taught free of charge.
New York Medical College sponsors the study, with Weill Cornell Medicine, Columbia University, and Yale University as collaborators. The Center for Taiji and Qigong Studies provides the program and the instruction.
CTQS receives no grant funding for this work. Our university partners cover their own research staff and data systems; everything on our side is paid for by individual donations. The teaching is donated and participants pay nothing. Donations cover three statisticians, paid support staff, and the infrastructure behind a twelve-month program for six hundred people.
About $400 covers one participant for the full twelve months.
A gift of any size helps.
Pre-screening opens October 1, 2026. First classes February 1, 2027. Registered as NCT07772154 on ClinicalTrials.gov. Approved by the New York Medical College Institutional Review Board, Protocol 30515. Principal Investigator: Kenneth A. Knapp, PhD.
Why It Is Worth Funding
The program has already been tested
Our last study was a randomized controlled trial with 350 adults living with chronic low back pain, run in collaboration with the Center for Comprehensive Spine Care at Weill Cornell Medicine and New York Medical College. The results were published in the North American Spine Society Journal in 2024, and were presented in 2026 at the Science of Tai Chi and Qigong conference at Harvard Medical School.
Compared with usual care alone, participants who practiced the integrated tai chi, qigong, and meditation program showed less pain, less disability, better sleep, and better quality of life. Improvements continued for a month after the classes ended. A companion study published in 2025 asked participants what the experience was like; they described learning to read pain differently, and regaining a sense of hope.
Spine 2027 tests the same program at nearly twice the size. It continues to measure pain and physical function, and adds healthcare use and days of work.
Back pain is where our current work is concentrated, but it is not the whole of it. Since 1998 the Center has conducted research on Tai Chi and Qigong in pain, balance, strength, immune function, cognition, sleep, and anxiety. The aim throughout has been to bring these practices into mainstream healthcare on the strength of evidence.
Read the 2024 study
Ways To Give
Online Donation
Give securely by credit or debit card through our online portal.
By Mail
Make check payable to: China-America Living Arts, the legal name of our 501(c)(3) organization. The Center for Taiji and Qigong Studies is its registered name.
Address: 151 E 81st Street, 7D, New York, NY 10028
By Phone
Call (646) 717-2838 to give by card, or with any questions.
The Center for Taiji and Qigong Studies is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization. Contributions are tax deductible to the extent permitted by law.
Other Ways To Support
Bring it to your workplace. We are looking for organizations willing to share information about the study with their employees. There is no cost, and no employer data is requested.
Share our research. Our published studies are open access and free to read and pass on.
Contact
For questions about giving, or about our work, you can contact us or call (646) 717-2838.
The Center for Taiji and Qigong Studies is a registered name of China-America Living Arts, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization.