Q&A with Dedham Tai Chi teacher Ramel Rones

For more than a decade Ramel Rones has been a mind-body consultant to the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Tufts University Medical School, and has taught tai chi at the Dedham Council on Aging. He led a 12-week Tufts Medical Center study, just published in the New England Journal of Medicine, which found that regular practice of tai chi can help patients who have fibromyalgia, a chronic pain condition.

Rones is the author of “Sunrise Tai Chi,” and appears in a DVD by the same name, and additional DVDs. His next book, “Sunset Tai Chi,” will be released in April.

Q: You’ve been teaching tai chi to seniors in Dedham since 1998. What kinds of responses have you seen in your students in that time?

A: I have seen individuals improve their balance and increase their confidence, which can help prevent falls. I have seen individuals gain back their positive mood after being sad and depressed. All students’ quality of physical life has improved – if they last more than 8 weeks. For many individuals, pain and stiffness disappear while strength and flexibility becomes the new thing.

Q: Do you find that older people are better able to balance and harmonize their body, mind and spirit than twentysomethings and thirtysomethings who are still really beginning to find their way in the world?

A: The art of tai chi and chi kung is a balancing act of the five building blocks of our being: The body, breath, mind, energy and spirit. When we are young it is easier and more natural to be able to practice the first two blocks, the body and the breath, while having a harder time with the mind, energy and the spirit. As we get older it becomes easer to practice the mind, energy and spirit while having a harder time with the body. The advantages older individuals have is the ability to practice and focus on mind, energy and spirit for longer periods of time, while grasping and understanding the mind and spirit better and deeper then younger individuals.

Q: What are the characteristics of the Yang style of tai chi, which you taught in the Tufts Medical Center fibromyalgia study?

A: The characteristics of the program I taught were, first during the warm-up use only 80 percent effort. Second, use props: yoga blocks, and tools, chairs and tables, to achieve this principle. Then a very important element was holding the stretches for 2 to 3 minutes, while over time integrating the internal skills of deep breathing, and visualizing the lower energy center (the area around your center of gravity) while “sending” or “leading” your mind to the heaven and deep into the center of the earth – unifying the three forces of human, heaven and earth.

Q: The Tufts study found that after 12 weeks of tai chi classes with you, patients with fibromyalgia reported doing better in a number of categories – pain, mood, qualify of life, sleep quality, and exercise ability – than patients in a control group who were given wellness education and stretching exercises. Is this the first significant study of the effects of tai chi on fibromyalgia patients?

A: As far as I know, it is the first publication in the New England Journal of Medicine regarding tai chi and fibromyalgia. Definitely, the 12-week intervention (has) the best results that tai chi was able to show or produce under the eyes of the research community. Which, I guess you can say, is the first and most significant research on the effect of tai chi on fibromyalgia, thanks to the Tufts research team headed by the principal investigator, Dr. Chenchen Wang.

Q: The study’s conclusion is that tai chi may be a useful treatment for fibromyalgia and deserves long-term study. Do you expect to be involved in such research?

A: Yes, I will be involved with the bigger study, which probably will happen in 2 to 3 years. The current study only looked at 60 individuals and bigger research is needed to determine if the Modified Tai Chi program can first, produce the same results and second, achieve the same great results, without me teaching the intervention.

Q: What do you do when you get frustrated or out of balance in life?

A: First I call my mom. But second I go back to my training and focus on physical movements. If I cannot meditate while sitting still quietly because my mind or thoughts are racing I like walking with a friend or swimming by myself, then within days I start my slower exercises like the tai chi or just standing meditation. Stretching helps tremendously and deep breathing is the real secret to quiet the Monkey mind. But being able to quiet the mind while in sitting meditation is one of my stronger tools. I do what I can working with the five building blocks, body, breath, mind, energy and spirit. Sometimes you need to start from the body and other times from the mind, but every now and then to achieve success I need to put a strong emphasis on working with my spirit. Since the Eastern arts also emphasize prevention, the practice I do throughout the year hopefully will prevent unbalanced situations or at least be helpful in times when I am out of balance.

Dedham Transcript staff writer Edward B. Colby can be reached at 781-433-8336 or ecolby@cnc.com.