Some scientists used to theorize the people with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) were just lazy and needed to exercise more. This theory resulted in a few poorly designed studies with methodological flaws intent of recommending graded exercise therapy to improve symptoms.
Often the subjects chosen for these studies were not selected based on the solid criteria for CFS. Patients who instead suffered from depression or other medical conditions were not eliminated from the study group.
This resulted in skewed results suggesting that graded exercise therapy was beneficial, when in fact the vast majority of people with chronic fatigue syndrome reported doing poorly for days after any form of exercise. This same group reports pacing (managing energy expenditure) to be much more effective.
Now a new study has compared the activity pattern of patients with CFS with healthy sedentary subjects and examined the differences and symptom severity and fluctuation in patients with CFS.
The researchers concluded, "The more patients with CFS are sedentary and the better activity is dispersed, the fewer symptoms and variations they experience on the same and next day. Inversely, more symptoms and variability is experienced when patients were more active that day or the previous day."
This finding support what people with CFS have been reporting about the ill effects of exercise and beneficial effects of pacing, thus dispelling the myth that exercise is beneficial for CFS.
Reference:
Meeus M, van Eupen I, van Baarle E, De Boeck V, Luyckx A, Kos D, Nijs J. Symptom Fluctuations and Daily Physical Activity in Patients With Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: A Case-Control Study. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. Volume 92, Issue 11 , Pages 1820-1826, November 2011.
For more articles on this topic, see: MCSA News.
Copyrighted 2011 Lourdes Salvador & MCS America
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