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NEW YORK - The slow, controlled motions of tai chi can help the impaired balance of people with mild or moderate Parkinson's disease, and the improvements persist for at least three months, according to a small study out Wednesday.

Compared with people who received stretching exercises, tai chi practitioners had fewer falls, longer strides and better balance, researchers found.

"Tai chi fits very well to address the problem Parkinson's disease patients face," said Fuzhong Li of the Oregon Research Institute in Eugene, whose findings appear in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Difficulty walking and remaining standing are hallmarks of Parkinson's, which results from the death of brain cells that generate the chemical dopamine.

"We're not going to get rid of the symptoms. It's not a drug. It can't cure the disease. But, in my view, it can slow down the progression of the disease," Li told Reuters Health.

Although not all studies agree, other research has shown that because it is a balance-based exercise, tai chi may help improve strength and reduce falls in older adults. But there are few large studies in Parkinson's patients.

Li and his colleagues sent 195 seniors, all from Oregon, to one of three classes that met twice weekly for an hour. All could stand unaided, but some needed a device to help them walk.

The tai chi exercises were designed to improve balance with a controlled displacement of the center of mass. Resistance training with ankle weights and weighted vests was used in a second group to strengthen muscles important to posture, balance and gait. A third group had classes that involved gentle stretching.

People in all three groups started off with similar 64-point scores on a 100-point scale that measured how far they could lean or shift their center of gravity without falling.

But after 24 weeks of classes, those in the stretching group saw their average score drop by two points, indicating some deterioration in their condition.

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