Imagine your brain as a command center that sends signals to the rest of your body. But what if the lines of communication start breaking down? That’s what happens in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a disease that causes the motor neurons in your brain and spine to slowly deteriorate. As a result, your muscles weaken, you become fatigued, and everyday tasks become harder. But here’s some good news: exercise can help! A recent systematic review and network meta-analysis explored different exercise interventions for ALS patients. They found that a combination of aerobic exercise, resistance training, and standard rehabilitation had the greatest potential to improve quality of life and reduce fatigue. Another great workout option was a program combining aerobic and resistance training, which showed promising results for physical function. However, the effects on respiratory function were inconclusive. While this research is exciting, it’s important to remember that more high-quality studies are needed to fully understand the benefits of exercise for ALS patients. So if you or someone you know is living with ALS, keep moving and stay tuned for future research breakthroughs!

BackgroundAmyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive neuromuscular disease whose primary hallmark is the progressive degeneration of motor neurons in the brainstem, spinal cord, and cerebral cortex that leads to weakness, spasticity, fatigue, skeletal muscle atrophy, paralysis, and even death. Exercise, as a non-pharmacological tool, may generally improve muscle strength, cardiovascular function, and quality of life. However, there are conflicting reports about the effect of exercise training in adults with ALS.AimsThis systematic review and network meta-analysis aim to conduct a mixed comparison of different exercise interventions for function, respiratory, fatigue, and quality of life in adults with ALS.MethodsRandomized controlled trials with ALS participants were screened and included from the databases of PubMed, Medline, and Web of Science. Physical exercise interventions were reclassified into aerobic exercise, resistance training, passive exercise, expiratory muscle exercise, and standard rehabilitation. Patient-reported outcome measures would be reclassified from perspectives of function, respiratory, fatigue, and quality of life. The effect size would be transferred into the percentage change of the total score.ResultThere were 10 studies included, with the agreement between authors reaching a kappa-value of 0.73. The network meta-analysis, which was conducted under the consistency model, identified that a combined program of aerobic exercise, resistance exercise, and standard rehabilitation showed the highest potential to improve quality of life (0.64 to be the best) and reduce the fatigue (0.39 to be the best) for ALS patients, while exercise program of aerobic and resistance training showed the highest potential (0.51 to be the best) to improve ALS patients’ physical function. The effect of exercise on the respiratory was still unclear.ConclusionA multi-modal exercise and rehabilitation program would be more beneficial to ALS patients. However, the safety and guide for practice remain unclear, and further high-quality randomized controlled trials (RCTs) with a larger sample are still needed.Systematic Review Registrationhttps://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?ID=CRD42021253442, CRD42021253442.

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