An exercise program that incorporates walking, strength training and stretching may improve daily function and alleviate symptoms in women with fibromyalgia, according to a report in the November 12 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
These benefits appear to be enhanced when exercise is combined with education about managing the disease.
Fibromyalgia affects approximately 3.4 percent of women and 0.5 percent of men in the United States, according to background information in the article. Patients with fibromyalgia
experience chronic pain throughout their bodies for at least three months, along with specific sites of tenderness. Causes and mechanisms are poorly understood. “Even with the recent approval of pregabalin by the Food and Drug Administration to treat
fibromyalgia symptoms, pharmacotherapy is often insufficient to resolve persistent symptoms or improve functional limitations and quality of life,” the authors write.
Daniel S. Rooks, Sc.D., from Brigham & Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, and now with Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research, Inc., Cambridge, Mass., and colleagues recruited 207 women taking medication for fibromyalgia between 2002 and 2004. For 16 weeks, the women were randomly assigned to four groups: 51 performed aerobic and flexibility exercises only; 51 added in strength training; 50 received a self-help course on managing fibromyalgia; and 55 participated in all the exercises and the education course. The exercise groups met twice weekly, gradually increasing the length and intensity of their workouts, with instructions to perform a third day of exercise on their own.