exercise does more than just cut fat

October 22nd, 2009 |

Author: Paul

I want to share with you how important continued and consistent exercise is. The following study shows this. Not only are these health and medical professionals suggesting ongoing exercise, but specifically supervised by a professional. There are benefits that you can get on your own, but when it comes to getting concrete results, nothing beats working with a trainer.

check it out!

Medscape Conference Coverage, based on selected sessions at the:

European Respiratory Society (ERS) 19th Annual Congress

This coverage is not sanctioned by, nor a part of, the European Respiratory Society.

From Medscape Medical News

Regular Exercise Helps COPD Patients Maintain Early Benefits of Pulmonary Rehabilitation

September 18, 2009 (Vienna, Austria) — Patients with moderate chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) can maintain the improvements they obtain from an 8-week pulmonary-rehabilitation program for at least 1 year, provided that they continue to exercise regularly, researchers announced here at the European Respiratory Society (ERS) 19th Annual Congress.

The data, reported by an Australian group, show that benefits are similar whether patients participate in a program that combines weekly supervised outpatient-based exercise plus supervised home exercise or a program that involves standard-of-care unsupervised home exercise.

"The findings demonstrate that regular exercise is necessary for patients with moderate COPD to maintain the improvements gained from an 8-week pulmonary-rehabilitation program," principal investigator Lissa Spencer, BappSc, a physiotherapist in the pulmonary-rehabilitation program at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney, Australia, told Medscape Pulmonary Medicine. "Also, patients achieve the same magnitude of benefit whether the exercise is supervised or unsupervised and either in the outpatient setting or at home."

COPD is the fourth leading cause of death in Australian males and the sixth leading cause of death in Australian females, she noted.

Although pulmonary rehabilitation has been shown to increase functional exercise capacity and quality of life in COPD patients, the benefits appear to wane after 12 months in the absence of ongoing maintenance exercise, she added. Unfortunately, research to date has not identified the optimal method of prolonging these gains over the long term. Because most pulmonary-rehabilitation programs last only 8 weeks, it is important to determine how best to maintain the improvements gained from a successful program, she said.

Spencer noted that her group had believed that weekly supervised exercise would maintain exercise capacity and quality of life better than unsupervised home exercise. Supervised exercise provides multiple benefits, including regular patient support and encouragement, the ability to detect COPD flare-ups, and the opportunity to help patients make improvements in their exercise training.

The 12-month trial involved 59 patients with moderate COPD (defined as GOLD stage II) who showed significant improvements in the 6-minute walk test (6MWT) and total St. George’s Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ) score after an 8-week pulmonary rehabilitation program. The SGRQ is a widely validated questionnaire for measuring impaired health and perceived wellbeing in airways disease.

The study excluded individuals needing supplemental oxygen and those with comorbidities that prevented them from exercising independently.

Patients were randomized to the intervention group or the control group. The control group followed an unsupervised home-exercise program 5 days a week that involved walking, unsupported arm exercise, and lower-limb strengthening exercises. Those in the intervention group attended a hospital-based pulmonary-rehabilitation session once a week for supervised exercise training that was developed and supervised by a physiotherapist and, on 4 other days a week, followed the same home-exercise program as the control group.

The primary outcome measures included the 6MWT and SGRQ. Outcomes were measured at 3, 6, and 12 months after pulmonary rehabilitation.

Results in 48 patients who completed the study revealed no significant decrease from the immediate postpulmonary rehabilitation period in 6MWD score (intervention group, –11 m [P = .5]; control group, –6 m [P = 1.0]) or total SGRQ score (intervention group, –1.5 [P = 1.0]; control group, –1.2 [P = .3]).

Ms. Spencer said that there may be several reasons that exercise capacity and quality of life were maintained in the control group. For example, although the control group had no supervised training, frequent retesting could have motivated patients to continue the home-exercise program. In addition, the home-exercise program involved mostly walking, an exercise that can be easily incorporated into daily life.

She also suggested that the maintenance of exercise capacity might be due to the size of the improvement in exercise capacity achieved in the initial pulmonary-rehabilitation program and the extent of disease severity in the study cohort. Notably, all study participants had a significant improvement in exercise capacity after the rehabilitation program, and most had moderate COPD at the start of the study that remained moderate throughout the study.

"Fortunately, we are increasingly acknowledging the importance of exercise in respiratory diseases; the importance of exercise in cardiovascular disease has already been firmly established," Leonardo Fabbri, MD, professor of respiratory medicine at the University of Modena in Italy, and past-president of the ERS, told Medscape Pulmonary Medicine. "In fact, in cardiovascular disease, exercise is probably the most effective treatment for preventing disease exacerbation and increasing life expectancy."

He added that it is important that physicians recognize that the benefits of a short-term pulmonary-rehabilitation program will diminish in the absence of ongoing exercise. "The present study has importantly shown that benefits are sustained if the patient engages in regular exercise."

Ms. Spencer and Dr. Fabbri have disclosed no relevant financial relationships.

European Respiratory Society (ERS) 19th Annual Congress: Abstract 4640. Presented September 16, 2009.