Study reports exercise outcomes for war vets’ muscle pain

A new study in The Journal of Pain, published by the American Pain Society, shows that since returning home, some 100,000 veterans from the first Gulf War have reported chronic musculoskeletal pain (CMP) similar to fibromyalgia and suggests that acute exercise can exacerbate the pain but long-term exercise has the opposite outcome and reduces it.

The researchers reported that, consistent with their hypothesis, vets with CMP claimed that heat induced pain stimuli was more intense and unpleasant than evidenced in healthy subjects. They also had greater leg pain intensity during exercise and were more sensitive to the pain stimuli following acute exercise compared to pre-exercise ratings. Pain thresholds, however, did not show significant differences between healthy subjects and those with CMP, contrary to what the researchers hypothesized.

The authors noted that exercise research in chronic muscle pain patients shows a paradox in that acute exercise appears to exacerbate pain while chronic exercise can reduce pain.