• Don’t use qigong to postpone seeing a health care provider about a medical problem.
• Ask about the training and experience of the qigong instructor you’re considering.
• Take charge of your health—talk with your health care providers about any complementary health approaches you use. Together, you can make shared, well-informed decisions.

The amount of research on qigong for COVID-19 is extremely limited. One 2021 review looking at the role of traditional Chinese medicine in COVID-19 indicated that qigong has not been well investigated as a treatment for COVID-19 and that there is a lack of high-quality evidence from well-designed randomized controlled trials.

There is no research on the safety of qigong during pregnancy and extremely limited research on practicing qigong while pregnant. Pregnant women should talk with their health care providers before starting qigong. Pregnant women may need to avoid or modify some qigong movements.

Qigong instructors don’t have to be licensed, and the practice isn't regulated by the Federal Government or individual states. There’s no national standard for qigong certification. Various qigong organizations offer training and certification programs—with differing criteria and levels of certification for instructors.

Only a small amount of research has been done on qigong’s effect on cognition and memory.