Although the joints hurt, you have to move – according to Australian doctors’ research.
Dr. Kristiann Heesch of the University of Queensland and her team investigated how pain can be reduced in patients with osteoarthritis. They tested a therapeutic program on a group of patients, consisting in taking a drug containing glucosamine sulphate (supporting the treatment of joints) and walking 1500 steps twice a day.
Dr. Heesch divided her patients into two groups. Some of them took their therapeutic walks five days a week, the other group only marched three times a week. The scientists published the results of these experiments in the journal Arthritis Research and Therapy.
Patients from both groups felt better after such therapy: they suffered less from joint pains and their physical fitness improved. The group exercising five times a week had no more benefit from two additional days of exercise compared to the group exercising three times a week.
This amount of exercise is less than the doctors recommend for healthy people, but it is in line with the recommendations for patients with arthritis. (PAP)