Research
Mixed
Exercise therapy improves aerobic/functional capacity and muscle strength in patients with various chronic diseases without accelerating disease progression.
If you have a chronic condition, exercise is likely safe and beneficial for your functional capacity and strength. Consult your doctor for a tailored program, but expect that it will not worsen your disease and may improve your quality of life.
StrongSupportsHIGH confidence
The most consistent finding of the meta-analyses summarised in the present work is that aerobic/functional capacity and muscle strength can be improved by exercise training among patients with different diseases without having detrimental effects on disease progression.
Why this rating
Based on multiple meta-analyses of Randomised Controlled Trials (RCTs).
Source
Evidence on the effects of exercise therapy in the treatment of chronic disease
Urho M. Kujala · British Journal of Sports Medicine · 2009
DOI 10.1136/bjsm.2009.059808
narrative_reviewCited 170×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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This is one finding among thousands. Every one is graded and traced to its source, so you can see what the evidence actually supports. Browse the research →