Exercise as a therapeutic tool to counteract inflammation and clinical symptoms in autoimmune rheumatic diseases

Effects of aerobic and muscle strengthening exercise in adults with rheumatoid arthritis: a narrative review summarising a chapter inPhysical activity in the prevention and treatment of disease(FYSS 2016)

“…It seems that the functional mechanisms of exercise in medically well-controlled RA are the same as in the general population. Exercise leads to reduced levels of proinflammatory cytokines, such as tumour necrosis factor, in healthy individuals and in individuals with heart failure and type 2 diabetes 38. Exercise can also have a counter effect on the so-called rheumatoid cachexia by increasing the proportion of fat-free body mass 38.…”

Impaired aerobic exercise capacity and cardiac autonomic control in primary antiphospholipid syndrome

“…Strategies to improve these abnormalities could be an interesting approach for these patients who already have a high risk for cardiovascular events. Physical exercise has been proposed as an adjuvant therapy to pharmacological treatment with beneficial results; the improvement in aerobic capacity indexes, [20][21][22] chronotropic incompetence and delayed HRR 23 were observed in other rheumatologic diseases.…”

Juvenile idiopathic arthritis and physical activity: Possible inflammatory and immune modulation and tracks for interventions in young populations

“…IL-6 therefore induces an anti-inflammatory environment by inducing the production of IL-1ra and IL-10, but it also inhibits TNF-α production, as suggested by in vitro and animal studies [67,72]. In response to exercise, the magnitude (up to 100-fold [12,22]) by which plasma IL-6 increases is related to exercise duration and intensity (when exercise intensity increases and/or exercise duration is extended) [12,69]. To initiate the cell signaling, IL-6 must bind with its membrane-bound α IL-6 receptor (mIL-6R) and two membrane gp130 glycoproteins (classical signaling), forming a membrane-bound IL-6/IL-6R/gp130 complex [73][74][75].…”

“…Patients with JIA demonstrate reduced aerobic and anaerobic capacities [16][17][18][19] and isometric strength [1,[20][21][22] in both active or undetected disease, but the loss of physical condition appears to correlate with disease severity [16]. This finding can be explained by the inactive lifestyle of JIA patients [23] due to chronic joint pain [8,24].…”