Exercise as medicine - evidence for prescribing exercise as therapy in 26 different chronic diseases
PainSci summary of Pedersen 2015?This page is one of thousands in the PainScience.com bibliography. It is not a general article: it is focused on a single scientific paper, and it may provide only just enough context for the summary to make sense. Links to other papers and more general information are provided at the bottom of the page, as often as possible. ★★★★☆?4-star ratings are for bigger/better studies and reviews published in more prestigious journals, with only quibbles. Ratings are a highly subjective opinion, and subject to revision at any time. If you think this paper has been incorrectly rated, please let me know.
This is s a roundup of evidence and prescription guidelines for prescribing exercise for many (26!) different diseases, which is not to say that the science is necessarily complete and perfect. Consider the nuance in Schuch, which found good overall evidence that exercise protects people from “anxiety,” but — despite a huge sample size — could only actually report statistically significant results for a couple specific types (PTSD and agoraphobia). So does exercise work for anxiety? Likely, but “it’s complicated,” as always.
Still, it’s hard not to be impressed by the sheer volume and diversity of the evidence inspiring these authors.
original abstract†Abstracts here may not perfectly match originals, for a variety of technical and practical reasons. Some abstacts are truncated for my purposes here, if they are particularly long-winded and unhelpful. I occasionally add clarifying notes. And I make some minor corrections.
This review provides the reader with the up-to-date evidence-based basis for prescribing exercise as medicine in the treatment of 26 different diseases: psychiatric diseases (depression, anxiety, stress, schizophrenia); neurological diseases (dementia, Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis); metabolic diseases (obesity, hyperlipidemia, metabolic syndrome, polycystic ovarian syndrome, type 2 diabetes, type 1 diabetes); cardiovascular diseases (hypertension, coronary heart disease, heart failure, cerebral apoplexy, and claudication intermittent); pulmonary diseases (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma, cystic fibrosis); musculo-skeletal disorders (osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, back pain, rheumatoid arthritis); and cancer. The effect of exercise therapy on disease pathogenesis and symptoms are given and the possible mechanisms of action are discussed. We have interpreted the scientific literature and for each disease, we provide the reader with our best advice regarding the optimal type and dose for prescription of exercise.
related content
- “Exercise: The miracle cure and the role of the doctor in promoting it,” {Academy of Medical Royal Colleges}, AOMRC.org.uk, 2015.
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Exercise is Power: Resistance Training for Older Adults on YouTube.com.- “Physical activity protects from incident anxiety: A meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies,” Felipe B Schuch, Brendon Stubbs, Jacob Meyer, Andreas Heissel, Philipp Zech, Davy Vancampfort, Simon Rosenbaum, Jeroen Deenik, Joseph Firth, Philip B Ward, Andre F Carvalho, and Sarah A Hiles, Depress Anxiety, 2019.
- “Semantic memory functional MRI and cognitive function after exercise intervention in mild cognitive impairment,” J Carson Smith, Kristy A Nielson, Piero Antuono, Jeri-Annette Lyons, Ryan J Hanson, Alissa M Butts, Nathan C Hantke, and Matthew D Verber, J Alzheimers Dis, 2013.
- “Beneficial associations of low and large doses of leisure time physical activity with all-cause, cardiovascular disease and cancer mortality: a national cohort study of 88,140 US adults,” Min Zhao, Sreenivas P Veeranki, Shengxu Li, Lyn M Steffen, and Bo Xi, British Journal of Sports Medicine, 2019.
These two articles on PainScience.com cite Pedersen 2015 as a source:
- Anxiety & Chronic Pain — A self-help guide for people who worry and hurt
- Vulnerability to Chronic Pain — Chronic pain often has more to do with general biological vulnerabilities than specific tissue problems
This page is part of the PainScience BIBLIOGRAPHY, which contains plain language summaries of thousands of scientific papers & others sources. It’s like a highly specialized blog. A few highlights:
- Modulation in the elastic properties of gastrocnemius muscle heads in individuals with plantar fasciitis and its relationship with pain. Zhou 2020 Sci Rep.
- Association Between Plantar Fasciitis and Isolated Gastrocnemius Tightness. Nakale 2018 Foot Ankle Int.
- Effectiveness of customised foot orthoses for Achilles tendinopathy: a randomised controlled trial. Munteanu 2015 Br J Sports Med.
- A Bayesian model-averaged meta-analysis of the power pose effect with informed and default priors: the case of felt power. Gronau 2017 Comprehensive Results in Social Psychology.
- The neck and headaches. Bogduk 2014 Neurol Clin.