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MASTER YAN'AN HAS trained at the Shaolin Temple in the Henan province of China since he was 6 years old. He has climbed the roughly 1,500 stone steps up Wuru Peak to the Bodhidharma Cave thousands of times. None of the steps is the same size or height. Some are narrow; some are tall. During the day, tourists who visit the temple usually take one to two hours to reach the peak. It is not advised to climb at night. There are no lights along the trail, and one wrong step could send a hiker tumbling down the steep staircase....

Researchers conducted a study to evaluate the efficacy of qigong on biopsychosocial outcomes in veterans with chronic low back pain. Qigong (pronounced "chee-gong") is a traditional Chinese practice that combines gentle movements, controlled breathing and meditation to cultivate and balance the body's energy, often referred to as "qi" or "life force." The research team designed a novel qigong program for this research specifically applicable to managing chronic low back pain in veterans. The purpose of the eight-week longitudinal study was to evaluate the effects of the qigong intervention. Specifically, researchers assessed how the intervention impacted physical function, sleep disturbance, PTSD,...