Move Your Arms To Beat Leg Pain, Study says

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Move Your Arms To Beat Leg Pain, Study Says

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=44768

Scientists at Sheffield Hallam University have discovered that simple

arm exercises could help beat a crippling leg condition that affects

one in twenty people over 55 in the UK.

The team, along with staff at the University of Sheffield, has found

that upper body aerobic exercise can help the battle against

peripheral vascular disease (PVD), a blood circulation problem, which

causes severe leg pain and leaves patients struggling to walk even

short distances.

This is the first large-scale trial of its kind to show that a

regular workout of the upper body can help ease the chronic leg pain

associated with PVD. The British Heart Foundation-funded study found

that exercising the upper body by 'arm-cranking', stationary cycling

using the arms, improved cardiovascular fitness over a 24-week period

and enabled patients to walk for longer without experiencing pain.

The findings are a boost for patients with PVD, who can find even

moderate walking exercise difficult and may require surgery in severe

cases.

More than a hundred patients with PVD aged between fifty and 85 were

recruited from the Sheffield Vascular Institute at the Northern

General Hospital.

Pain tolerance levels were measured in a series of walking tests at

six-weekly intervals and the total improvements were calculated at

the end of the 24 weeks. The average maximum walking distance

increased by nearly a third (29 %), equal to an extra one hundred

metres. Patients could also walk for fifty per cent longer before the

onset of leg pain.

Saxton, from Sheffield Hallam University's Centre for Sport and

Exercise Science, which conducted the study with the University of

Sheffield's School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, said:

" The cardiovascular function and walking ability of the patients with

PVD who took part in the arm exercise programme both improved. The

onset of leg pain was delayed during walking, and they were able to

push themselves further beyond the pain barrier to achieve

improvements in maximum tolerable walking distance. Our results

suggest that a combination of physiological changes and an increase

in exercise pain tolerance account for the observed improvement in

walking ability. "

" The advantage of exercising the arms for patients with PVD is that

they don't generally encounter pain during this type of physical

activity. This can help to increase their motivation and enthusiasm

for exercise. A reduced level of physical activity potentially

contributes to subsequent disability and increases the risk of

cardiovascular problems occurring. "

Peripheral vascular disease occurs when the arteries narrow or become

blocked with fatty material. The artery can become so narrow that it

can't deliver enough oxygen-containing blood to the legs during

walking exercise. This results in leg pain known as intermittent

claudication and forces the person to stop and rest until it passes.

Smoking, diabetes, high blood pressure and a poor diet are high risk

factors.

The study was recently published in the Journal of Vascular Surgery,

a leading international scientific journal for this field of

research.

SHEFFIELD HALLAM UNIVERSITY

City Campus

Street

Sheffield

S1 1WB

http://www.shu.ac.uk