Mild to moderate exercise is often recommended as a treatment for fibromyalgia. In the study summarized here, researchers followed changes in both pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokine levels over an eight month program of exercise. Give it time Results at the mid-point were not significant, but by the conclusion of eight months there was a…
Non-pharmacologic treatments are needed Fibromyalgia is a common and poorly understood pain disorder that afflicts an estimated 200 million or more people worldwide. Pharmacological treatments for fibromyalgia are not available to the vast majority of these individuals. Even when available, prescription treatments for fibromyalgia are often marginally effective or entirely ineffective. Standard drug treatments…
Elevation of cytokines in fibromyalgia, including IL-8, provides evidence in support of an inflammatory hypothesis. With exercise, the level of circulating markers of inflammation, including IL-8, are shown to decrease in fibromyalgia. It is well established that exercise reduces inflammation generally. Fibromyalgia symptom response to exercise is consistent with, and supports, the inflammatory hypothesis in…
