Research Update:
Fibromyalgia & Exercise

There is encouraging news for the millions of Americans who have fibromyalgia and other chronic pain conditions and worry that increasing their level of activity will make their pain worse. New research from the University of Michigan Health System and the Uniformed University of Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland, shows that people with fibromyalgia can be more active than they realize without increased pain.

Fibromyalgia means pain in fibrous and muscular tissues. It is a chronic condition that includes pain, stiffness, and usually fatigue. It occurs more commonly in women, but unlike autoimmune diseases it does not seem to be due to problems in the immune system.

The study was the first of its kind to include 24-hour activity monitoring and analysis rather than relying on patients to self-report their activity levels. That difference is important. “When you ask people with fibromyalgia about their level of function in terms of activity levels, they’ll report a lower function than almost any other group,” says Dan Clauw, M.D., Director of the U-M Chronic Pain and Fatigue Research Center and professor of rheumatology at the U-M Medical School and senior author of the study. “The surprising thing we found was that their average level of activity was about the same as someone who didn’t have fibromyalgia.”

“We’ve probably been thinking about fibromyalgia incorrectly,” says Clauw. “This group was impaired, but they weren’t impaired in the way they thought they would be. This is good news for fibromyalgia patients. Exercise and activity are essential to the well-being of people with fibromyalgia. Our research shows that higher activity is not, in fact, leading people to increased pain, and it could be used to show patients that they can be active.”

Clauw and his team at the U-M Chronic Pain and Fatigue Research Center are pursuing more studies of activity, exercise, and pain among people with all kinds of chronic pain conditions. They have started a registry for people (with and without those conditions) who are willing to take part in the studies.

For more information about the registry and the studies, visit www.med.umich.edu/painresearch or call (866) 288-0046.

For more information about fibromyalgia, contact the University of Michigan Women’s Health Resource Center at (734) 936-8886.