For patients with clogged leg arteries, pain-free exercise works too

Around 200 million people worldwide have peripheral arterial disease (PAD), where arteries in the legs are clogged, restricting blood flow to the legs and raising the chances of stroke and heart attack. Smoking, diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol all increase the risk of PAD. Around 30% of patients have pain and cramping in their legs when they walk – referred to as intermittent claudication.

Exercise is a cornerstone of PAD management, together with smoking cessation, healthy diet, and weight loss.3 It improves symptoms, mobility and quality of life.

“For many years the standard exercise prescription for patients with PAD has been to walk towards, and push past, moderate to severe pain,” said study author Edward Lin, of the University of Toronto, Canada. “Research has shown that this approach improves walking distance and quality of life.2 Naturally if you force patients to walk past their pain thresholds and continue to do so, they’re going to get better at walking.”

But he added: “Many patients with PAD exercise very little or not at all. It has been suggested that the pain component of conventional exercise programmes is a deterrent. More recent studies have shown that pain-free forms of exercise are equally effective, but patients are not always given the option.”

Source: Study challenges ‘no pain no gain’ requirement for patients with clogged leg arteries