Exercise Beneficial for Patients with Facioscapulohumeral Muscular Dystrophy

Among the most common questions from patients with neuromuscular diseases are whether exercise is likely to be helpful or harmful and whether there are any foods they should consume or avoid. The typical response from neurologists is that there's little evidence to guide such recommendations but that staying active is important, although exercise to exhaustion should be avoided, and supplementation on top of a healthy diet is not necessary.

To help clinicians better answer these questions, investigators from Denmark conducted a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial in which 41 patients with facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD), the second most common muscular dystrophy in adults, were assigned to aerobic exercise with p…