University of Adelaide exercise and pain study

Researchers at the University of Adelaide have conducted a large-scale synthesis of 157 systematic reviews and over 220,000 participants regarding the efficacy of physical activity in managing pain.

Initial findings suggested that low-intensity exercise and shorter programs of approximately 12 weeks could effectively alleviate both acute and chronic pain, sometimes performing as well as common analgesics.

Subsequent details from the study, published in ‘PAIN Reports’, indicate that exercise may be significantly more effective than standard medications. The research noted that physical activity reduced pain scores by an average of 1.1 points on a 0 to 10 scale, which is approximately 60 percent greater than the relief reported for standard medications in separate chronic pain trials. These benefits were observed across musculoskeletal, neurological, inflammatory, and cancer-related disorders. Lead investigator Ben Singh noted that exercise triggers the release of chemical messengers like endorphins and serotonin to alter pain perception. Despite these results, researchers observed that structured physical activity remains underutilized in clinical settings.