Physical Exercise Improves Quality of Life in Patients with Connective Tissue Disease

Abstract

Connective tissue diseases (CTDs) affect the parts of the body that connect the structures of the body components together. As the conditions involve inflammatory responses in the joints, tendons, ligaments, skin, cornea, cartilage, bones, muscles and blood vessels, which cause symptoms of rheumatism, the CTDs can also be referred to as rheumatic diseases. The symptoms include pain, swelling, redness, warmth in a joint or affected area and functional loss of motion. The medical domain for these types of disorders is called rheumatology. Among various conditions fell under the broad heading of rheumatism, the common rheumatic disorders that here we take care of are rheumatoid arthritis (RA), systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), scleroderma (S), systemic sclerosis (SS), polymyositis/dermatomyositis (PM/DM), spondyloarthropathies (SA) (ankylosing spondylitis (AS) and psoriatic arthritis (PsA)), juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA), polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR), Sjogren's syndrome, osteoarthritis, etc. When the diagnosis of CTDs is made by the rheumatologists, they oversee a treatment plan for the patients, which may include not only medications but also physical exercises. In this chapter, we will describe how the physical exercise contributes to the patients who suffered from CTDs. Furthermore, we intend to explain what type of exercise should be performed as well as its intensity, duration frequency and the benefits of those exercises to the health of those patients.