Being Alive Newsletter, Being Alive/Los Angeles - March 1993
William H. Koar

Daniel and I conducted the study for three months. We managed to meet for one month for the planned five times a week. The month preceding and the month after we had to be content with two or three times a week. I think this fact should be kept in mind when reading the results. A meditational type intervention is as effective as the effort a person is willing to put into it. This is what makes it work and what makes it difficult to find people who will consider trying it.

One thing people said with consistency was they experienced a lot more energy. We measured anxiety and depression. Of the 26 subjects who did both a pre and post measure of anxiety, 12 had their anxiety go down, 6 stayed the same, and 8 went up. This result was not significant, but clearly promising. On depression, 17 went down, 2 stayed the same and 7 went up which was significant at 0.05. Of the 19 who handed in pre and post T-cell counts, 9 had their count go up; out of the remaining 10, one had percentage and ratio improve and 2 had improved ratios. This was significant at 0.10, which is to say 9 times out of 10 we would be correct in assuming we did something.

I believe these results are encouraging for several reasons. One, the results I mentioned do not control for practice. In other words, I am lumping together those who were dedicated and worked hard and those who didn't and still we got positive findings. Two, I firmly believe if more people had handed in their blood work, the results might even be better. Finally, this improvement of 12 out of 19 subjects on some immune parameter was done without the use of a drug. This is not to say, however, that people were not taking antivirals; some were and some were not.

Qi Gung makes sense for a variety of reasons. There is a large body of literature that shows how emotions effect health. If someone is anxious or depressed because HIV seems so intractable, this can't be good for them. Basically, negative emotions eventually translate into suppressed immune systems. Another reason why Qi Gung makes sense has to do with the fact that some people who are infected seem to suffer from hyper metabolism. It is this hyper metabolism which could explain wasting. Meditation can induce a state of hypo metabolism by reducing oxygen consumption, hence slowing down all of the chemical reactions, or at least the major ones. Daniel, however, would explain the good effect another way. He says that all people have the ability to heal themselves. By unifying with the universe, as one does in Ming Dao, you enhance that ability.

Daniel and I want to conduct another study. If you are interested, call me at 310.450.2309. All those who want to participate in the study should be advised of two things. One, they will have to do their own blood work at their own expense. Two, it is not an easy thing to learn to meditate, especially since we use a standing form. Finally, thanks again to all those who participated in our first study and helped point the way to a method all people can use to fight back against HIV.
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