Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Interesting Article on Exercise and Fibromyalgia

Working past the pain For Kim Collett, the burn of exercise trumps the fire of fibromyalgia CHRISTINE HENNEBURY Special to The TelegramA lot of people head to the gym to get fit or to lose weight, but Kim Collett goes for a different reason: to help control the pain associated with fibromyalgia. “My goal is to reduce my medication and to do day-to-day tasks without much pain,” she said. Fibromyalgia is a syndrome that causes chronic pain in a person’s muscles, ligaments and tendons and makes it difficult to do day-to-day tasks. Collett’s plan for managing her pain involves her family doctor, a chiropractor, a massage therapist and, now, a kinesiologist. “My doctor and my chiropractor and my massage therapist have been telling me that I need to exercise for years. I’ve tried but I couldn’t stick with it,” she said. “Now that I am seeing Mike (McIsaac), I have the motivation to keep going.” McIsaac is a certified kinesiologist at Nubody’s in Mount Pearl. When he designed Collett’s program, he contacted the other health professionals on her team to get a full picture of her limitations and then created a plan to help her deal with the challenges her syndrome presents. “Exercises/stretches are most often chosen based on restoring functional qualities that the individual lost — for example, training them so that they can restore their strength to lift objects off of the floor — among other things. Generally, exercises are chosen to replicate real-life movements.” McIsaac’s program uses equipment such as Bosu balls, stability balls, medicine balls and free weights, but he’s quick to modify the program if Collett is unable to do a particular exercise during a session. “If she experiences discomfort along particular body parts, we may modify movements or switch to machines because of their inherent isolating effect, so that we can continue training without further irritating problem areas,” McIsaac said. “The machines don’t have as great an effect, but they are a much better option than doing nothing at all.” Because of their constant pain, people with fibromyalgia sometimes restrict their movements or stop exercising altogether. Dr. Lydia Hatcher, Collett’s family physician, says this causes deconditioning due to the lack of exercise, and the patient’s symptoms will get worse. She recommends exercise with a trained kinesiologist and tells her patients they may need “a little pain for some gain, and a trained kinesiologist knows how to far to push them without injury.” Working with McIsaac has helped Collett stick with the program. “If it wasn’t for the motivation he offers, I would have given up,” she said. “For example, I had a problem with my sacroiliac joint, but I knew I had to keep exercising, so I kept going and Mike changed my exercises to not aggravate the area.” Collett has found the exercises have had a direct effect on her pain levels. “My arms and legs were always aching, and continuous exercise has helped with that. In order to stay at a level where I’m not in as much pain, I need to keep exercising.” Collett is hoping for long-term benefits as well. “If I try to nip this in the bud, I might be able to manage better later on, to keep up with my son,” she said. Collett developed fibromyalgia after a car accident in 1992. At first she had moderate whiplash, but the pain didn’t go away. Finally, in 1994, she was diagnosed with fibromyalgia. Collett has pain all over her body, but the intensity varies from day to day. “It’s like having a really bad flu, and sometimes I feel like I’ve been hit by a tractor-trailer. It keeps me up at night.” Sleep — or a lack thereof — can be a huge issue for people with fibromyalgia. According to Collett’s research, fibromyalgia patients tend not to get enough deep sleep so their muscles can’t recover from the day’s efforts in the same way that other people’s do. As a result, Collett sometimes finds it a challenge to keep up with her two-year-old, and she is often ready to go to bed when he does. Living with fibromyalgia also means that Collett needs a lot of help with things other people find routine. “I had to get help with shovelling, painting the house and mowing. Household chores are a big hassle. I can’t do too much at once. I haven’t had to give anything up, but I had to cut back on a lot of things,” she said. People with fibromyalgia often have to deal with society’s lack of understanding, Collett said. “A lot of people think it is all in your head, they think you are making it up.” Hatcher agrees. “People with fibromyalgia don’t have a deformity,” she said. “It is hard to see, so some people don’t believe it exists. But it is real — we just don’t happen to have a test for it today.” Collett’s said treatment program, including regular exercise, has made a big difference in her life and she gets by on “positive thinking, motivation, and help from family and friends.”

For a complete program on exercise and fibromyalgia, visit www.ridfibromyalgia.com.

Monday, May 14, 2007

This Article From Wall Street Journal on Arthritis and Fibromyalgia Interesting

An aging population, expanding waistlines and low levels of physical activity are likely to push the number of people with arthritis, lupus, fibromyalgia and other rheumatic conditions up 46 percent to about 67 million people by 2030, or about 25 percent of the projected population, according to the CDC.

'May 13, 2007'
By Betsy McKay
Wall Street Journal
May 13, 2007 6:00 AM

Federal public-health officials are predicting a surge in the prevalence of arthritis and other rheumatic conditions by the year 2030, and popular retirement states such as Florida, Arizona and California are likely to bear the brunt of the burden.
About 46 million U.S. adults currently have arthritis, lupus, fibromyalgia and other rheumatic conditions, resulting in $128 billion in medical expenses as well as indirect costs such as lost productivity, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That amount is equal to about 1.2 percent of the 2003 U.S. gross domestic product, the CDC says.
Now, an aging population, expanding waistlines and low levels of physical activity are likely to push the number of affected people up 46 percent to about 67 million people by 2030, or about 25 percent of the projected population, according to the CDC. Most of the increase will come from those who develop age-related degeneration of joints in the hip, knee, or elsewhere. An estimated 25 million will be in enough pain that they will have trouble moving around, the CDC says.
The CDC estimates raise concerns about the toll that arthritis could take on the nation's health-care systems. In Arizona, the CDC estimates that arthritis cases will rise 87 percent, or by a million people. Florida, which currently has 3.7 million arthritis sufferers, is expected to have 6.3 million. California, which now has 5.9 million people with arthritis, will see its total mushroom to an estimated 7.9 million.
Other states whose populations are expected to age considerably by 2030, such as Nevada, Texas and Utah, are also likely to see large percentage increases in the number of residents they have with arthritis, the CDC says. Arthritis cases are expected to jump more than 30 percent in 13 states.
The CDC says it hasn't projected the potential cost of the epidemic in 2030. "We're very reluctant to make projections because the health-care system is so dynamic and changing," says Chad Helmick, a medical epidemiologist with the agency's arthritis program.
Still, the consequences of a ballooning epidemic are huge, says Patience White, chief public-health officer for the Atlanta-based Arthritis Foundation. "The fact here is it's causing an increasing number of activity limitations," she says. "People cannot live on their own, and the whole push today is to keep people's independence."
While many arthritis patients take medication for their pain, public-health officials are pushing physical-activity programs as a longer-term solution both for those with arthritis and those at risk — particularly older, overweight adults. Only 11 percent of adults with arthritis have taken classes to learn to manage their arthritis, Dr. Helmick says. The CDC funds programs in 36 states that promote physical activity and weight reduction to help alleviate pain.
"If you lose 15 pounds or so, you can cut your pain in half," says Dr. White. The disease won't progress as quickly, either, she says.
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