Sometimes I Feel Like a Piece of Bologna

Exercise helps Arthritis

A study published in Arthritis Care & Research and reviewed at Psychorg.com evaluated the effects of the Arthritis Foundation Exercise Program to promote managing arthritis through exercise.

The study involved 346 patients with an average age of 70 who had self-reported arthritis. The results showed that those in the program had significant improvements in pain, fatigue, and managing arthritis at 8 weeks and maintained improvements in pain and fatigue at 6 months.

Although the Arthritis Foundation Exercise Program focuses mainly on range-of-motion and low-resistance exercises, a separate analysis found that those completing the program showed increased strength in their upper and lower extremities. This indicates that strength training, one of the more minor components of the program, was effective.

Since so many of our parents (and those of us who are aging) have arthritis, this is good to know. In fact, I probably should do more exercise myself since arthritis is creeping in – even though I’m not quite 70.

Labels: arthritis, exercise