Can exercise help treat long Covid? New study finds patients improve with self-paced approach
Fatigue is common among long Covid patients, which means that recommendations to exercise can be controversial. A new study tried a different approach.
Fatigue leads the list of persistent problems experienced by people with long Covid — which is why patients have pushed back against treatment approaches that endorse escalating levels of exercise for a condition that researchers are still trying to understand. They fear post-exertional malaise, the debilitating price to be paid for pushing their bodies too hard.
Researchers from the U.K. were well aware of those potential harms. Working with patients, they designed a trial called REGAIN to test a way to provide mental health therapy and exercise guidance to people with long Covid without making their conditions worse. Their goal was to help people manage their symptoms, improve their functioning, and reduce their distress.
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