It’s just about the slowest and easiest form of exercise on the planet — but what tai chi lacks in flash, it more than makes up for in benefits.

These simple Chinese stretching exercises have been shown to help seniors beat everything from pain to depression — and now, new research shows that they can also help improve balance and prevent falls.

Falls are a leading cause of loss of independence in seniors. The breaks and fractures often require long and even permanent hospitalization — and with the rise of hospital-acquired infections, any admission for any reason has the potential to be your last.

But if the new study is any indication, you can dramatically lower your risk of a life-changing or life-ending fall through tai chi.

In the new study, researchers assigned 70 seniors from assisted-living homes to either four months of tai chi or musical instruction.

Music is nice — but those who went to the 90-minute tai chi classes three times a week learned critical skills such as weight shifting, awareness of body alignment, and the rotation of the head and trunk.

As a result, the study in Age and Ageing found that these seniors had significant improvements in their ability to balance and the awareness of the position of their limbs than those who learned music.

And if boosting your balance and slashing your risk of a fall aren’t enough, that’s not all tai chi can do for you.

Studies have found that these slow stretches can help bring relief from arthritis and osteoarthritis, boost overall physical function, beat depression, and even improve your quality life.

Along with being easy, tai chi is cheap or even free. There may be a group practicing tai chi in your local park, library, or senior center.

And if you can’t find one near you, you’re only a mouse click away from some free lessons — search YouTube for “tai chi” for some simple exercises you can do right now, in front of your computer.

Every horror movie has the slow guy — the one who falls behind everyone else… and you know what happens to him, right?

Zombie chow!

Out here in the real world, it’s pretty much the same deal (minus the zombies) — because it turns out the slowest walkers have the highest risk of death.

Australian researchers checked the walking speeds of 1,705 senior men and then tracked them for up to 21 years. They found that those who walked at 1.8 miles per hour or less were far more likely to die in that time that those who walked more quickly.

Those who topped 2 miles per hour, on the other hand, were 1.23 times less likely to die than the slowpokes — while those who kept up a brisk 3-mph-pace had the lowest risk of death overall.

That’s in line with a study last year that found that seniors who can walk at 2.2 mph outlive those who only go 1.3 mph or less — with the benefits increasing along with the walking speed. (Read about that study here.)

In that study, researchers found that those who walk the fastest can live between 8 and 10 years longer than those who walk the slowest — which gives you plenty of extra time for walking or whatever else you want to do.

Of course, there’s more than just walking speed on the line here. People who walk slower tend to have other physical problems that can boost the odds of an early death.

Slow walking can be a sign of muscle weakness, which could lead to a fall and a devastating or even deadly bone break. It could also signify a neurological problem, including Parkinson’s disease.

Circulation problems, pain, arthritis — all of these conditions and more can also slow you down, diminish your quality of life, and maybe even allow the Grim Reaper to gain another step or two on you.

And that’s someone you don’t watch catching up.

Gout used to be known as “the rich man’s disease” because it usually struck the wealthy — the only ones who could afford to over-consume the foods that cause this painful form of arthritis.

Today, you don’t have to be rich (or even a man) to suffer from gout — just fat. And since more people are fatter than ever before, more people are also battling the foot pain that marks this condition.

New numbers show that 4 percent — or 8.3 million Americans — fought gout in 2008, compared to just 1 percent between 1988 and 1994.

That’s a 400-percent increase inside of a generation — and in the coming years, it could get even worse. Recent government numbers show 21 percent of us have high levels of the uric acid responsible for gout.

That’s an increase of 700 percent from the surveys taken between 1988 and 1994.

But whatever you do, don’t turn to Big Pharma’s solution for gout. Drugs designed to treat the problem have been known to cause nausea, joint pain, and even liver problems. They’ve also been linked to chest pain, vomiting, bruising, constipation, allergic reactions, and even more gout flare-ups.

There are better ways to beat gout, and you can get some of the most immediate relief with something that was often dismissed as a folk remedy — until a recent study found it really worked.

Researchers say 20 cherries eaten over 48 hours can reduce the risk of a gout attack by 50 percent, while cherry extract slashed the odds by 40 percent. I’ve noticed cherry juice popping up on supermarket shelves, so feel free to give that a try. Just make sure it’s 100 percent cherry juice and not cherry-flavored sugar water.

If you don’t have any cherries handy, try celery. Celery can keep the enzyme that produces uric acid in check, and some people have reported gout relief from as little as a single stalk.

Others need more — nearly an entire bunch — and all the peanut butter in the world won’t make it any easier to eat that much. If that’s the case, try 75mg of celery seed extract, twice a day, instead.

You don’t have to be rich to get gout. And since celery — and celery seed — is cheap and plentiful, you don’t have to be rich to beat it, either.

We’re a nation doubled over in pain: New figures from the CDC find that one in five U.S. adults now battle arthritis.

And if you think 50 million Americans fighting chronic pain is bad, wait until you see the next number: More than 21 million of those arthritis patients are physically limited by their condition.

That’s 10 percent of the entire adult population crippled by this one disease.

And if you’re not already one of them, you could be next…because the biggest reason for these big numbers is our big bellies.

Obesity is a major risk factor for arthritis, and the new figures show how closely linked they are: Obese people suffer from the condition at nearly twice the rate of everyone else.

In fact, while 13.8 percent of normal-weight men and 18.9 percent of normal-weight women have arthritis, 25.2 percent of obese men and 33.8 percent of obese women struggle with the pain.

And here’s the worst news yet: By 2030–just 20 years from now–the CDC believes 67 million of us will have arthritis.

The numbers even jumped while the CDC was still calculating them. The survey was taken between 2007 and 2009, and found 49.9 million Americans diagnosed with arthritis at the time.

But by the end of this year–just two months from now–51.9 million of us will be battling the condition.

Naturally, obesity isn’t the only risk factor in play here.  Two of them are completely beyond your control: Being female and being old.

But let’s focus on what you can control here: The new numbers reveal that both smoking and a lack of movement will increase your risk by roughly a third apiece.

And while of course you should quit tobacco and get moving, the simple fact is that losing weight is the single best way to lower your risk. Researchers say losing just 10 pounds–something any overweight person can do with even the slightest of effort–can reduce your arthritis risk by 50 percent.

But why stop there?

After all, arthritis isn’t the only problem that comes along for the obesity ride. It’s not even the worst problem.

Diabetes, heart disease, stroke and more can combine to make sure that you don’t live long enough to suffer from the kind of arthritis that comes with old age.

And that’s a statistic you really don’t want to be a part of.