McArdlesDisease.org

Can patients with McArdle’s disease run?  Historically, most of us with the condition have difficulty doing just that – jogging or running, or similarly intense activities.  While scouring the internet for information on the disease, I came across an article in the online British Journal of Sports Medicine titled “Can Patients with McArdle’s Disease Run?” whose abstract follows:

Patients with McArdle’s disease commonly adopt a sedentary lifestyle. This sedentary behaviour, however, usually worsens the limited exercise capacity of these patients. Although eccentric muscle work can be associated with rhabdomyolysis, supervised eccentric training with gradually increasing loads has important advantages compared with conventional concentric work, particularly for patients with a poor cardiorespiratory system. We report the beneficial effects (particularly, increased VO2peak (from 14.6 to 30.8 ml /kg/min) and increased gross muscle efficiency (from 13.8% to 17.2%)) induced by a supervised aerobic training programme of 7 months duration including 3–4 running sessions ((60 min/session) per week in a 38-year-old patient. These preliminary data suggest the potential therapeutic value of this type of exercise in these patients. 

This is encouraging, because it is confirms what I already suspected: that diligent and careful but nonetheless moderately intense exercise may be the only effective therapy for McArdle’s disease capable of improving quality of life.

To read more, click  here: http://bjsm.bmj.com/cgi/reprint/41/1/53.pdf (free registration is required.)