SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 16 (Xinhua) -- Research in mice and a related pilot study in humans are showing how regular activity and stress reduction could lead to better health in the long run among patients with lupus.
In the mouse model of lupus, researchers found that moderate exercise, namely 45 minutes of treadmill walking per day, significantly decreased inflammatory damage to the kidneys. While 88 percent of non-exercised mice had severe damage, only 45 percent of the treadmill-exercised animals did.
Knowing that several biomarkers known to drive inflammation plummeted in the exercise group, researchers at the Ohio State University wanted to see what happened to those same biomarkers in lupus mice exposed to a well-established animal model of repeated social disruption known to induce psychological stress.
The results, published recently in the journal Frontiers in Physiology, were almost exactly the opposite: among the study subjects regularly under stress, particularly with daily encounters with a stronger "bully" mouse, the inflammatory markers shot up, which caused substantial kidney damage in the mice.
To see if these results might apply to humans, the research team led by senior author Nicholas Young, a research scientist in rheumatology and immunology, enrolled a group of lupus patients into a daily tai chi program in a small pilot study. The classes focused on both moderate exercise and stress reduction.
Initial results show a significant decrease in some of the same inflammatory biomarkers identified in the mouse experiments and provided enough supporting evidence for a larger human trial.
"If we observe similar results in human studies, this could mean that stress reduction and a daily regimen of physical therapy should be considered as interventional strategies to be used alongside current medical treatment" for patients with lupus, Young said in a new release from the university earlier this week.
