SPOKANE -- Long before the advent of modern medicine, the ancient Chinese lived extraordinarily long lives through a combination of herbal medicines and martial arts, which were used to condition the mind and body. And one of those martial arts is helping people stay young until well into their senior years.

The art of Tai Chi isn’t exactly the Fountain of Youth but, for some people in North Spokane, it comes close.

“Some people have reported that they have gone to their doctor and they say their memory seems to be ten years younger than it was when they first went in,” Bryan Knack of Northwest Tai Chi says of his clients. “Their mobility is much better, their flexibility is much better, their muscle tone … how their arteries have measured in the wrist and ankles and the blood flow is improved.”

The Chi is a force of energy that moves through the body.

“If we keep this in balance, the organs stay in balance,” Knack tells his students. “Our immune stays up, our reduction of stress is increased, our relaxation is immediate.”

Karl-Eric Andreasson teaches Tai Chi in North Idaho. When he tells people that he’s 65-years-old, the most common reaction is disbelief.

“I have lower back issues probably from martial arts kinds of stuff,” he admits, but says “When I do Tai Chi, I don't feel the challenge in my lower back and discomfort. If I don’t do Tai Chi or yoga for a few weeks, I start to feel it a bit.”

Instructors who teach older students say that they see almost immediate benefits in many of their pupils.

“After they do Tai Chi, they have the flexibility, they have the balance back and they have a lot more energy than they did years before,” Bob Petet of Tai Chi for Health says. “So they are finding they can go on walks and get down and do gardening they haven't been able to do in years. Taking up hobbies that were only for the young.”