{"id":22,"date":"2014-03-31T11:19:06","date_gmt":"2014-03-31T11:19:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/promotions.bmj.com\/ardsummaries\/?p=22"},"modified":"2014-03-31T11:19:06","modified_gmt":"2014-03-31T11:19:06","slug":"exercise-improves-vascular-health-in-people-with-rheumatoid-arthritis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/rheumsummaries\/2014\/03\/31\/exercise-improves-vascular-health-in-people-with-rheumatoid-arthritis\/","title":{"rendered":"Exercise improves vascular health in people with rheumatoid arthritis"},"content":{"rendered":"

INTRODUCTION<\/strong><\/p>\n

Regular exercise can help keep blood vessels healthy in people with rheumatoid arthritis, as well as reducing\u00a0their numbers of swollen joints.<\/p>\n

WHAT DO WE KNOW ALREADY?<\/strong><\/p>\n

People with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) have a higher-than-usual risk of getting heart disease. We\u2019re not quite\u00a0sure why this is. It may be because the inflammation (swelling) that affects the joints in RA may also affect the\u00a0body\u2019s vascular system (the veins and arteries). So people with RA need to keep an eye on other factors that\u00a0can make heart disease more likely, such as high blood pressure and cholesterol.<\/p>\n


\nOne thing that can help keep the heart and blood vessels healthy and reduce the chance of heart disease is\u00a0taking regular exercise. But some people with RA worry that exercising might be painful and cause damage to\u00a0the joints. And some people\u2019s symptoms make it hard for them to do some kinds of exercise.\u00a0Most research into reducing the chances of heart disease in people with RA has looked at how medicines can\u00a0help. So it\u2019s been difficult to know how to advise people with RA about whether exercise is helpful for them.
\nIn this new study, researchers wanted to find out more about how taking regular exercise might affect people\u00a0with RA.<\/p>\n

The main thing they wanted to know was whether exercise could improve how well the blood vessels work\u00a0in people with RA. But they also looked at whether exercise could help with the symptoms of RA itself. To do\u00a0this, they divided 40 people with RA into matched pairs. This means that they made the pairs of people as\u00a0similar as possible, according to things like their sex, age, weight, and disease activity.<\/p>\n

One person in each pair then did a six-month exercise programme. The programme, which was tailored\u00a0according to what each person was able to do, included both aerobic and resistance exercises (exercises with\u00a0weights). The other group was given information on the benefits of exercise, but the people didn\u2019t do a structured
\nprogramme.<\/p>\n

After six months the researchers looked at several measures of health and RA symptoms. They checked how\u00a0well people\u2019s blood vessels and lungs worked, and their RA disease activity score (their DAS28, which includes\u00a0counting how many swollen joints people have). They also looked at how much people had in their bodies of a
\nsubstance called CRP (C-reactive protein). High CRP means there is more inflammation.<\/p>\n

WHAT DOES THE NEW STUDY SAY?<\/strong><\/p>\n

After six months, people in the exercise group had improvements in several measurements, compared with the\u00a0people who didn\u2019t do the exercise programme. The people who exercised had:<\/p>\n