5/3/10 A new study suggests that being overweight or inactive may increase a woman’s risk of developing fibromyalgia – a condition characterized by widespread muscle pain and fatigue.
The study also found that regular physical activity may be somewhat protective when it comes to muscle pain. Women in the study who reported exercising at least four times a week were about 30 percent less likely to develop fibromyalgia than inactive women.
Researchers at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, in Trondheim, followed 16,000 healthy women for 11 years. The women were asked to record their weight and to report the frequency and duration of any weekly exercise.
Over the course of the study, 380 women said they had been diagnosed with fibromyalgia.
Being overweight, which was defined as having a body mass index, or BMI, over 25, increased a woman’s risk of developing fibromyalgia by about 70 percent compared with a woman who had a BMI under 25. Calculate your BMI.
But excess weight wasn’t the only factor that affected risk. Researchers found that exercise – or lack thereof – was also a powerful influence.
Women who reported being inactive, even if their weight was normal, had a 40 percent greater risk of developing the condition compared to those who exercised.
Those at highest risk of developing fibromyalgia, however, were those who were both overweight and inactive – a combination that roughly doubled their odds compared to normal weight women who exercised for at least one hour each week.
The study was published in the May 2010 issue of Arthritis Care & Research.
Bruce Solitar, MD, is a clinical associate professor of Rheumatology at NYU Langone Medical Center who specializes in connective tissue disorders and fibromyalgia.
He says the findings in this study are in line with other research suggesting that weight can play a role in fibromyalgia.
“I think the observations that patients who are heavy and patients who don’t exercise and are not in good physical shape are more at risk for fibromyalgia probably makes sense,” Dr. Solitar says.
But he says the study doesn’t say much about particular patients, so you don’t know if one group had more pain than another or what medications they were on.
He also says that while a high BMI and fibromyalgia are often connected, he doesn’t believe this study definitively shows which comes first.
“If you have a serious case (of fibromyalgia) and have a lot of pain, you are likely to be on medicine and a lot of the medicines lead to weight gain,” Dr. Solitar says.
“If you are in a lot of pain and you can’t exercise, you may be heavier than someone who exercises three times a week. So the observation may be 100 percent correct, that if you are heavier you are more likely to have fibromyalgia, but I don’t know if the cause and effect is out there yet.”
Even so, Dr. Solitar agrees that patients with fibromyalgia who are heavier should work vigilantly to keep their weight down and their exercise level up. But he says, take your time if you’re just beginning an exercise program.
“Many fibromyalgia patients, particularly those currently not exercising or in good physical shape, have to be careful how they start exercising,” Dr. Solitar says. “Take it slow. People have to be patient and build up their stamina.”
No more antidepressants for me. I don't like the idea of messing w/ my brain chemistry.
Any comments or advice....I'd appreciate it.
I have tried pushing myself to exercise through the pain, and it usually ends up backfiring. I have done this for weeks at at time, where I have exercised hard, consistently, and ended up so debilitated from it, that I would be so sick for weeks afterward, I couldn't get out of bed.
In warmer weather, when I am less likely to be in pain, I can exercise 4 or more days a week, but it's the cold weather and extreme hot weather that do me in.
Studies like these that come to conclusions based on spurious information exacerbate our problems. They blame the patient for their situation rather than looking for possible other underlying causes for both the pain and the lack of exercise.
I challenge them to find more than one or two fibromyalgia sufferers who have lost weight, kept it off, and had little to no fibro pain afterward. I bet they won't find more than one or two, and that those people may not have had fibro in the first place.
I do use
massage and meditation and other holistic
approaches to assist me at least to cope with
the pain especially at the times of flares.
Stress--both positive and negative, I feel, is definitely a big factor to initiating flares as well. This is a very nasty syndrome and I hope someday someone will either find a cause or a cure in my lifetime
but they have to hurry as I am 64 now.
Thanks for listening.
Research across many areas of medicine has indicated that having more body fat is tied to an increased level of inflammation. Inflammation is thought to be a driver behind many diseases including heart disease, diabetes, osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, to name a few. This is one of the first studies to suggest that body fat, perhaps because of inflammation, is associated with the development of fibromyalgia. That’s why we felt it was worthy of coverage.
We also thought readers would find it empowering to learn that exercise may be protective against the development of fibromyalgia.
Dr. Solitar, a fibromyalgia expert who was not involved in the study, shares many of your concerns about this research. He points out that the study simply finds an association between obesity, inactivity and fibromyalgia, but that it does not prove that one causes the other.
He also said that many people who have widespread pain often take medications that cause weight gain and find it difficult to be active, which may also contribute to weight gain.
I understand and sympathize with the frustrations of living with a complex and debilitating disease and hope you find relief for your pain and fatigue.
Believe me I barely eat over 1400 calories a day and I exercise as well as I can which is usually 4 times a week for a min of 60 minutes each. Yet it has been nearly impossible for me to lose so much as a pound in the past 23 years. Which is coincidentally how long I have had Fibromyalgia.
Why not just go back and claim it is all in our heads.
Thanks for nothing.
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