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by Maryann Pasda Diedwardo Ed D. (Author)
Maryann is a health educator, yoga teacher, and lectures about benefits of practicing t'ai chi. Maryann is the University of Maryland University College UMUC Stanley J. Drazek Teaching Excellence Award (Drazek award) winner 2017.Maryann resides in the United States of America. She is a graduate of The Pennsylvania State University with a B.A. In Theatre Arts, Lehigh University with a M. A. In English, and California Coast University with a Doctor of Education. She teaches for UMUC and Lehigh University. She presents lectures on Metacognition in the United States and Canada. Her research interests include writing process theory, student directed learning, fine arts as a paradigm for teaching, and structured curriculum designs. At UMUC, she was a curriculum specialist for The Modern Novel and two classes: 281 and 386. She has been awarded with scholarship from Penn State University for her study in Theatre Arts. An accomplished writer, teacher, author, director, playwright, poet, and motivational speaker, Maryann also teaches research, rhetoric, literature, and active learning. Her fields of expertise include Theatre Art and Stage History, African American Literature, Romantic Period, Drama, Poetry, Fiction and Non-Fiction as well as Creative non-fiction. She also teaches with social media and prezi, YouTube, and other modalities to offer multi modal learning in her classes. She is an accomplished editor, contributor to journals, and designer of web based learning. The recipient of the Northampton Community College Project Aware Outstanding Service Award, Maryann has been practicing and teaching yoga and T'ai Chi for thirty years in Pennsylvania. Previous studies suggest that practicing QiGong may improve weakened immune response. This study is intended to examine whether QiGong practice can control and cure the symptoms associated with inner ear infection and severe dizziness which may be a weakened immune response that causes of vestibular sense, vertigo, in a single female patient. The patient, who is also the researcher for the study, suffered from extreme vertigo and applied QiGong as a therapy. Maryann DiEdwardo, age 57 at the onset of the vertigo in 2011 practiced QiGong meditation, QiGong sequences and QiGong walking meditations from August 29, 2011 to August 29, 2012. The purpose of the case study on one patient is to understand why the patient regained balance and full functioning of the vestibular sense by practicing QiGong three times per day over a period of one year. From August 29, 2011 to August 29, 2012, she participated in qigong personal practice daily in her home studio until the spring of 2012 when she consulted an EMT specialist, Dr. Lemberg in Allentown, PA and an Allergy Immunologist Dr. Shannon Kearney of Bethlehem, PA to confirm the diagnosis, qigong treatment as physical therapy with the patient as the practitioner, and simultaneous recovery to change the immune response. The patient experienced simultaneous recovery from vertigo and vestibular symptoms that included dizziness from slight symptoms noticed during regular activities to severe and debilitating dizziness that could have stopped her ability to function, lack of balance, and overall weakness which "cannot be explained by any known medical theories, and call for formal clinical trials to closely qigong self-healing therapy (Chen and Turner)." The study suggests that the process of healing was based upon healing through concentrated qigong practice for three sessions per day for one year. The results suggest that the strengthening of the body may have occurred through the experience of regimented qigong practice routines that took place at least three times per day for one year to engage and to change the immune response. Key Words: qigong, meditation, immune response, vertigo, vestibular sense, dizziness, self-healing therapy
