New research from Spain and Portugal has indicated that regular physical activity in a heated swimming pool can help people suffering from the painful condition fibromyalgia.

The symptoms of fibromyalgia, which has no known cause, range from chronic pain and muscle, ligament and tendon tenderness to sleeping disorders, neck and shoulder pain, anxiety and depression.

Treatment for the condition, which affects women far more than it does men, currently involves the use of painkillers, antidepressants, relaxation therapy and exercise.

Researchers at the University of Extremadura in Spain and the University of Evora in Portugal studied 33 women with fibromyalgia over an eight-month period. One group of 17 women was allocated weekly hour-long aquatic training sessions, three times a week in a heated pool for the duration of the study, while the other group partook in no water exercise.

The results of the study showed that the participants who engaged in aquatic exercise reaped health benefits by reducing the symptoms of fibromyalgia. The researchers concluded, ‘The addition of an aquatic exercise program to the usual care for fibromyalgia in women is cost-effective in terms of both health care costs and societal costs… appropriate aquatic exercise is a good health investment’.

The same groups of researchers had previously found that a short-term exercise program eased the symptoms of fibromyalgia, but that the pain returned after the exercise regime finished.