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Exercise May Stem Kidney Damage in Lupus Patients

But stress may trigger the reverse, researchers report

(*this news item will not be available after 12/18/2017)

By Robert Preidt
Tuesday, September 19, 2017

TUESDAY, Sept. 19, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- Regular exercise may slow kidney
damage in people with lupus while stress may prompt the opposite effect, new
research suggests.

The autoimmune disease causes the body to attack and damage vital organs such as
the kidneys. Singer Selena Gomez put lupus in the spotlight last week when she
received a kidney transplant because the disease had ravaged her own kidneys.

But the new research, which included two mice trials and a slightly different human trial, offers new strategies that
might help other lupus patients avoid the same fate.

In the rst trial, only 45 percent of mice with the disease that did moderate exercise (45 minutes of treadmill walking
a day) had severe inammatory damage to the kidneys, compared with 88 percent of those that did not exercise.

In another experiment, mice with lupus that were subjected to daily stress had signicant increases in inammatory
kidney damage compared to those that didn't have stress, according to the Ohio State University researchers.

"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,"
said study senior author Nicholas Young, a research scientist in rheumatology and immunology at Ohio State.

The researchers have already begun to explore that possibility. Young and his colleagues had a small number of
lupus patients do a daily tai chi exercise program. Initial ndings showed a signicant decline in some indicators of
inammation in the patients.

The scientists are now trying to arrange a larger clinical trial with lupus patients.

"We may have started to characterize an effective way to reduce inammation and help people with lupus aside
from conventional drug therapy," Young said in a university news release.
The results will be presented at the American College of Rheumatology meeting in November, and they were
published recently in the journal Frontiers in Physiology.

"We've shown on a molecular level that both exercise and stress can impact inammation by regulation of the
immune system, which may provide a unique opportunity to help people suffering from the chronic inammation
associated with autoimmune diseases like lupus," Young said.

SOURCE: Ohio State University, news release, Sept. 13, 2017

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Exercise and Physical Fitness [https://medlineplus.gov/alphanews_e.html#exerciseandphysicaltness]
Lupus [https://medlineplus.gov/alphanews_l.html#lupus]

Recent Health News [https://medlineplus.gov/healthnews.html]

Related MedlinePlus Health Topics

Exercise and Physical Fitness [https://medlineplus.gov/exerciseandphysicaltness.html]

Lupus [https://medlineplus.gov/lupus.html]

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