Re: Rheumatoid arthritis & weight training

[Guest guest]

Readers may be interested in the original article as follows:

Lemmey A.B., Marcora S.M., Chester K., S., Casanova  F. and Maddison 

P.J.  Effects of high intensity resistance training in rheumatoid arthritis

patients – a randomised, controlled trial.

Arthritis & Rheumatism (2009) 61(12):1726-1734.

 

 

Pat Squire

Edinburgh UK

________________________________

From: carruthersjam <Carruthersjam@...>

Supertraining

Sent: Sat, 7 August, 2010 17:39:30

Subject: Rheumatoid arthritis & weight training

 

Taken from the BBC website:

Arthritis patients 'may benefit from weight training'

Rheumatoid arthritis affects people's joints A regular weight training regime

may help treat rheumatoid arthritis, research suggests.

A study of 28 patients funded by Arthritis Research UK found those who pumped

iron saw improvements in basic physical function, such as walking.

Researchers at Bangor and Gwynedd Hospital said such high intensity exercising

could play a key role alongside drug treatment.

Experts said the exercise regime would not be appropriate for all patients.

RA is mainly a disease affecting the joints, but a less well known symptom is

that it also severely reduces muscle mass and strength and this occurs even

among patients whose disease is well managed.

Those with the condition are often given mild home exercises to do to stop their

joints stiffening and becoming painful.

Weight training

To test how effective the weight training was the researchers split the 28

participants into two groups, the Arthritis Care and Research journal reported.

One did regular weight training for 24 weeks, while the others did the less

strenuous standard home exercise regimes.

They found physical function improved by between 20% to 30% in the group doing

weight training. Strength also increased by nearly 120%.

The high intensity training was found to increase the levels of an insulin-like

growth factor (1GF-1) and insulin-like growth binding protein 3 - both of which

promote the growth of muscles, bone and cartilage.

Study leader Dr Lemmey said muscle loss was a major contribution to the

disability associated with the condition.

" Lifting, carrying, walking, climbing stairs are impaired.

" It is logical that if you can restore muscle, that strength and consequently

functional capacity will also be restored. And this is what we have found. "

He said the patients, who were mainly women in their 50s and had the disease for

up to a decade, had responded well.

" In fact, the improvements in function were so significant that following

training these patients with established RA were performing as well as or better

than healthy individuals of the same age and sex. "

He said he would like to see this sort of high intensity treatment funded along

with drug therapies, but said that a multi-centre trial would be needed before

this could be agreed and that they had received no funding for this.

Benefits were thought to be lost four to eight months after training ended.

A spokesman for Arthritis Research UK said: " Weight-training, especially at this

level, is not for everyone with rheumatoid arthritis, but for those who are very

well-motivated and physically able, we have proved that it can dramatically

improve muscle strength and tone. "

A spokesman for the National Rheumatoid Arthritis Society agreed, but urged

caution.

" Of course RA can affect different people in very different ways so pumping iron

may not be appropriate for everyone. People should discuss [this] with their

physio. "

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Carruthers

Wakefield, UK