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Stories for Reprint
Exercise and Awareness Improves Fibromyalgia
By Ferdous Al-Faruque, MARRTC Staff
A new study has found that women who have fibromyalgia show significant physical and mental improvements after undergoing physical therapy in combination with self-management education courses.
"It's pretty clear from (past research) that people with fibromyalgia benefit from being involved in regular exercise," said Dr. Daniel Rooks, the principal investigator of the study and a former physiologist at Harvard's Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. He added that the purpose of their research was to find what was the most effective means of improving a person's quality of life.
The study was conducted by Massachusetts researchers from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Wellesley Hospital, and Brigham and Women's Hospital. More than 200 women were divided into four groups. Over the course of 16 weeks, the first group did aerobic exercise, the second group did strength training and aerobic exercise, the third group took a fibromyalgia self-management education course, while the last group did strength training and aerobic exercise and took a self-management education course.
The study found that though participants in the exercise groups showed the most significant improvements in the short-term, the group that incorporated both exercise and self-management education had the best long-term results.
"People with chronic pain in general don't want to move," said Rooks. "If it hurts you don't want to (make it worse)."
Rooks says that many of the participants in their study were able to take control of their pain and their fear of hurting themselves. By exercising they not only improved their threshold for pain but also improved their mobility.
"One of the things we saw was that people in pain can learn not to be afraid of exercise," said Rooks who now works as a researcher for the pharmaceutical company Novartis.
Though people who only took the self-management education course got worse, when the course was combined with exercise people had the best improvement in their quality of life. "The more you understand your condition the more you are able to manage it," said Rooks. He adds that learning about the disease can help people deal with sleep problems, fatigue and other issues that people with fibromyalgia often face.
The new study offers hope that exercise and skills to better manage fibromyalgia may help lessen the impact of the disease. Though drugs may help people with fibromyalgia reduce pain, it may not be enough to improve their quality of life.
"The data suggests people being treated for fibromyalgia should be encouraged by their (health care providers) to become more physically active," said Rooks.
The increase in research on fibromyalgia over the past decade continues to unlock some of the mysteries behind this complex disease.
Fibromyalgia is characterized by the American College of Rheumatology as chronic widespread muscular pain, fatigue and tenderness. The disease is estimated to affect 4 percent of Americans and women are seven times more likely to develop fibromyalgia than men. Those who have rheumatic diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis or lupus are also considered to be at higher risk for developing the disease.
Unfortunately, there are no laboratory tests to determine if a person has fibromyalgia, which makes it hard to diagnose. Physicians rely on a list of symptoms to determine if a person has the disease.
The new study was published in November 2007 in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
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