Researchers have shed fresh light on how a simple, centuries-old Chinese practice could be almost as effective as some medications in lowering blood pressure.

Baduanjin is a form of exercise that’s been widely practiced in China for at least 800 years. It involves a series of eight slow movements, gentle breathing and meditation — and typically takes only about 10 minutes to complete.

In a clinical trial, researchers studied 216 adults age 40 and older with Stage 1 hypertension. Over the course of a year, participants performed either baduanjin, self-directed exercise or brisk walking.

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Researchers found that participants who practiced baduanjin five times per week experienced lower blood pressure within three months. 

The results were “comparable to reductions seen with some first-line medications,” they wrote in their report published by the American College of Cardiology.

Baduanjin also showed “comparable results and safety profile to brisk walking at one year,” the researchers further reported.

“Given its simplicity, safety and ease at which one can maintain long-term adherence, baduanjin can be implemented as an effective, accessible and scalable lifestyle intervention for individuals trying to reduce their [blood pressure],” said the senior author of the study, Jing Li, M.D., Ph.D.

Dr. Matthew Saybolt, medical director of the Hackensack Meridian Jersey Shore University Medical Center’s Structural Heart Disease Program, said he was surprised by an aspect of the study’s results.

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“I was biased and expected that higher intensity exercise like brisk walking would have resulted in greater improvement in blood pressure than baduanjin, but the effects were the same,” Saybolt told Fox News Digital. (He was not affiliated with the study.)

Dr. Antony Chu, clinical assistant professor at Brown University’s Warren Alpert School of Medicine, was born and raised in the U.S. to immigrant parents — his mother is from Hong Kong and his father is from Taiwan.

Having spent a lot of summers in Asia, Chu told Fox News he experienced “the best of both worlds” concerning Eastern and Western medicine, including exposure to the benefits of baduanjin.

“[These researchers] are taking a lot of things that have been commonplace for many, many centuries or millennia and then just applying mathematical modeling and statistical analysis to sort of give [them] some credibility,” Chu said.

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“Western medicine is reactionary,” Chu also said. 

He compared the philosophies to a house on fire: Eastern medicine practitioners are more invested in preventing the fire, whereas Western medicine is more focused on “all those things that it would need to do to try to put that fire out,” he said, sharing his opinion.

Left untreated, high blood pressure has dangers that are “too numerous to count,” Saybolt said. The risks include increased risks of stroke, heart attack, atrial fibrillation and congestive heart failure. 

Baduanjin, Chu said, is effective at reducing blood pressure, which he likened to “the water pressure and the pipes of your house,” by calming the nervous system and reducing stress.

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“People are totally stressed out,” Chu said. “And stress reduction is huge.”

Saybolt said the study offers hope for people with hypertension — “and that hope doesn’t immediately have to include pharmaceuticals.”

Saybolt added that he’s always advocated for lifestyle modifications, including healthy diet and exercise, “as key therapies for treatment of diseases and to improve longevity.”

With the baduanjin data, Saybold said he is now “more optimistic than ever,” as “we have evidence that a very low impact exercise with mindfulness can yield a benefit.”

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Chu said that translating overwhelming medical guidelines is a big part of his job.

“It’s not to just tell somebody, ‘Hey, your blood pressure’s too high, pick a pill,” he said.

“Lifestyle changes” can be daunting for many people, he added.

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“They always make it sound like you have to live for seven years in Tibet on a mountain somewhere, and it’s really not that.”

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His simple translation for the baduanjin study is this: “Close the door in your office and just say, ‘I can’t be bothered for 10 minutes,’ and just focus on breathing slowly and moving your arms or legs around.”

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Rudy Giuliani, 81, is recovering from a severe case of viral pneumonia that led him into a coma in early May.

The former New York City mayor returned to his online talk show “America’s Mayor Live!” on May 13 and opened up about his health status.

“I feel like I’ve recovered 100%,” he said. “I’ve been home a few days and doing really, really well.”

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Giuliani reflected on his time in the hospital, revealing that he had a “very significant spiritual experience” while he was in a “state of out of it.”

“I would equate it to a dream of being on line headed for — I can’t say headed for heaven — headed for a trial with St. Peter,” he described.

“And there was a very, very significant intervention by my Peter. I have my own Peter, Peter Powers. Peter J. Powers, my friend of my lifetime.”

During this dream state, Peter said some “very significant words,” which Giuliani made sure to repeat and have others record when he woke up, he shared.

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“As soon as I could, I wrote it out so that I wouldn’t forget it, and it’s meant a lot to me, and I’ve been reflecting on it quite a bit,” he added.

Giuliani was able to discuss his experience with a priest — and plans to share more at a different time.

“I don’t want to embellish it,” he said. “I don’t want to deny what was there.”

Powers and Giuliani reportedly became friends in high school. Powers later served as Giuliani’s campaign manager and his first deputy mayor. He died in 2016 at 72 years old from complications with lung cancer, according to multiple news outlets.

Giuliani was hospitalized in critical but stable condition on Sunday, May 3, due to severe breathing issues.

Giuliani’s doctor, Maria Ryan, told Fox News correspondent Danamarie McNicholl that the former mayor began feeling ill after returning from a trip to Paris, with his breathing deteriorating to the point that he was placed on a ventilator.

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Ryan said his condition turned critical, prompting a priest to be called to his bedside to perform last rites. But by Tuesday, Giuliani’s condition had improved enough for doctors to remove him from the ventilator.

According to political strategist Ted Goodman, Giuliani’s response and exposure to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks later led to a diagnosis of restrictive airway disease.

Although Giuliani and his doctors have not confirmed that he had a “near-death experience,” similar encounters are often reported by people emerging from critical medical situations.

In a 2023 review published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology, researchers analyzed more than four decades of reports of near-death experiences, involving more than 2,000 studies and nearly 500 individuals.

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Near-death events were categorized into four types of experiences: emotional, cognitive, spiritual/religious and supernatural.

The research identified common traits in these reports – especially having out-of-body experiences, passing through a tunnel, having heightened senses, seeing deceased people or religious figures, encountering a bright light and reviewing life events.

Although these experiences can differ by interpretation, the researchers concluded that the heightened senses and improved consciousness indicate that “these experiences are neither dreams nor sleep, nor the disorders caused.”

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“This phenomenon is medically inexplicable,” they wrote, adding that the research points to a consistent pattern that “supports the clarity and authenticity of near-death experiences.”

Fox News Digital’s Landon Mion contributed reporting.