Aerobic exercise is a simple, inexpensive and effective way to ease pain in people who have fibromyalgia, say researchers in the July 27 issue of the British Medical Journal.
Researchers identified 132 patients who had fibromyalgia—medically unexplained chronic muscular pain and joint tenderness—and attended a hospital rheumatology clinic between January 1997 and June 1998. Researchers randomly assigned the patients to either a progressive aerobic exercise program of walking or cycling or a relaxation and flexibility exercise class. The program and the class took place twice a week for 12 weeks. Personal trainers who had no special training in providing exercise classes for ill people led the classes.
Researchers assessed patients’ symptoms and found that aerobic exercise led to significantly more patients rating themselves as "much or very much better" at three months, compared with patients who took relaxation classes. At one year, researchers also found that the benefits of the classes continued for more of the patients in the aerobic exercise program than of those who took the relaxation classes.
Researchers conclude that a three-month program of prescribed graded aerobic exercise is an effective treatment for fibromyalgia that leads to improvements in self-reported health status. They also found that prescribed exercise could be undertaken effectively in the community by personal trainers who previously were untrained in teaching ill people.
They found, however, that compliance with exercise treatment was a problem, given high dropout rates. Future strategies to increase the efficacy of exercise as an intervention should confront this issue, they said.
