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Pool
Therapy May Ease Arthritis
Splashing in warm waters may have a curative effect for
people with osteoarthritis.
Hydrotherapy, or water exercise in a heated pool, was found
to improve strength and mobility in elderly patients with
arthritis of the hip and knee, according to a study in the
December issue of the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases.
"The surprise in this study was that there was any
functional gain in the hydro group," says lead author
Maria Crotty, head of the Flinders University department
of rehabilitation and aged care in Adelaide, Australia.
"We expected the patients would like hydro, but actually
the gym group would get the gains. In fact, both exercise
groups did pretty well, so it provides some support for
hydro," she adds.
The gains were not huge, however.
"Overall, this is not an earth-shattering paper; these
are modest improvements," says Dr. Stephen Honig, director
of the Osteoporosis Center at the Hospital for Joint Diseases
in New York City. "It's very hard to know what to make
of this, other than there was some benefit in terms of quality
of life and some muscle strengthening, which is good for
patients who need to walk. It is also good as a pre-surgical
intervention because the better the muscles are, the less
difficulty you have with rehabilitation post-operatively."
Exercise often is recommended for people suffering from
osteoarthritis, the most common form of arthritis and one
in which the risk increases with increasing age and weight.
While water exercise is extremely popular (and expensive),
to date there has been little evidence in support of pool
therapy, say the study authors.
To compare regular gym exercise with pool exercise, the
authors enrolled 105 people aged 50 and over who had osteoarthritis
of the hip or knee. The participants were divided randomly
into one of three groups: one that exercised three times
a week in a swimming pool with warm water, one that did
an equivalent amount of exercise in a gym and one that did
not exercise. For a six-week period, both the pool and the
gym groups focused on resistance exercises.
At the end of six weeks, participants in both groups experienced
similar improvements in walking speed and walking distance,
while people in the group that did not exercise didn't change,
the study reports.
The pool group had improved aerobic fitness, which benefits
cardiovascular health. Muscle strength improved more in
the gym group, however, with thigh muscle (quadriceps) strength
improving in both legs. In the hydrotherapy group, muscle
strength improved only in the left leg.
So how should the different exercises be used?
"Hydrotherapy is very useful with overweight patients
who find aerobic exercise difficult (often they have painful
knees and/or hips)," Crotty writes. "Osteoarthritis
is a growing problem in overweight populations, and the
common advice is [to]walk, but many of this patient group
are reluctant or unable to walk."
If you want to focus on strengthening muscles, however,
it's probably more efficient to use the gym, she adds.
In any event, the evidence is not thunderous. "What
we have gotten out of this is that patients feel better
and there is some evidence that muscle strength is better,"
Honig says. "People feel better, but they also feel
better if they get into a hot tub."
Article Source: HealthDay
Article Author: N/A
Net Reference 101
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