I took some heat from a few folks on Facebook (check out our daily musings at http://www.facebook.com/cncahealth) about a longer-than-usual blog I wrote nearly a year ago about a study citing the lack of exercise and obesity contributing to an increased likelihood that women may encounter fibromyalgia sometime in their life.
The gist of the previous study: Higher BMI numbers (greater than 25) boosted a woman's fibromyalgia risks by 70 percent, while those who exercised at least four times a week decreased their fibro risks by 29 percent. In my post, I mentioned how gentle, consistent exercise and dropping some 60 pounds helped my lovely wife, Sandy, to ease some of her more brutal fibromyalgia-related symptoms (no energy and lots of pain) for a good while, until nagging knee and ankle problems and changes in work responsibilities displaced her exercise routine.
Fibro sufferers complained that exercise was very difficult for most of them, because their energy peaked and, more often, cratered depending on the day. Unfortunately, these same folks probably won't like the results of a recent UK study about exercise and behavioral therapy improving the health of chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) patients in the UK either.
Some 640 patients were divided into four groups. All received either standard medical care for 12 months or that same care plus cognitive (behavioral), adaptive pacing (matching a patient's activity levels to the energy they have) or graded exercise therapy (workouts tailored to the individual that gradually increased in difficulty over time) for six months.
It was no surprise to me that 60 percent of CFS patients in the cognitive or graded exercise groups experienced improvements in their ability to function and a lessening of fatigue. Conversely, only 30 percent of patients in the aforementioned groups reported normal levels of function and fatigue, compared to 50 percent of those in pacing or standard care groups alone.
Chronic fatigue patients may certainly benefit from higher levels of exercise (based on realistic expectations) and taking better care of their mental health, but neither is a cure-all. However, it's a first step toward something better…
The Lancet February 18, 2011
USA Today February 18, 2011
PhysOrg.com February 18, 2011
healthfinder.gov February 17, 2011