A 2017 cochrane summary concluded that aerobic exercise probably improves quality of life, slightly decreases pain and improves physical function and makes no difference in fatigue and stiffness. A 2019 meta-analysis showed that exercising aerobically can reduce autonomic dysfunction and increase heart rate variability. This happens when patients exercise at least twice a week, for 45–60 minutes at about 60%-80% of the maximum heart rate. Aerobic exercise also decreases anxiety and depression and improves the quality of life. Flexibility
Combinations of different exercises such as flexibility and aerobic training may improve stiffness. However, the evidence is of low-quality. It is not clear if flexibility training alone compared to aerobic training is effective at reducing symptoms or has any adverse effects. Resistance
In resistance exercise, participants apply a load to their body using weights, elastic band, body weight or other measures. Two meta-analyses on fibromyalgia have shown that resistance training can reduce anxiety and depression and one found that it improves quality of life.The dosage of resistance exercise for women with fibromyalgia was studied in a 2022 meta-analysis. Effective dosages were found when exercising twice a week, for at least eight weeks. Symptom improvement was found for even low dosages such as 1–2 sets of 4–20 repetitions. Most studies use moderate exercise intensity of 40% to 85% one-repetition maximum. This level of intensity was effective in reducing pain. Some treatment regimes increase the intensity over time (from 40% to 80%), whereas others increase it when the participant is able to perform 12 repetitions.
Society and culture
Notable cases
1994 Lucien Bouchard, former premier of Québec, Canada, who was infected while leader of the federal official opposition Bloc Québécois party, lost a leg to the illness. 1994 A cluster of cases occurred in Gloucestershire, in the west of England. Of five confirmed and one probable infection, two died. The cases were believed to be connected. The first two had acquired the Streptococcus pyogenes bacteria during surgery; the remaining four were community-acquired. The cases generated much newspaper coverage, with lurid headlines such as "Flesh Eating Bug Ate My Face". 1997 Ken Kendrick, former agent and partial owner of the San Diego Padres and Arizona Diamondbacks, contracted the disease. He had seven surgeries in a little more than a week and later fully recovered. 2004 Don Rickles, American stand-up comedian, actor, and author, known especially for his insult comedy, contracted the disease in his left leg. He had six operations and later recovered. The condition confined him in his later years to performing comedy from a chair. 2004 Eric Allin Cornell, winner of the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physics, lost his left arm and shoulder to the disease. 2005 Alexandru Marin, an experimental particle physicist, professor at MIT, Boston University, and Harvard University, and researcher at CERN and JINR, died from the disease. 2006 Alan Coren, British writer and satirist, announced in his Christmas column for The Times that his long absence as a columnist had been caused by his contracting the disease while on holiday in France.