A study carried out by Spanish and Portuguese researchers found that patients suffering from fibromyalgia experience a great deal of pain relief when they exercise regularly in a heated pool.

The study conducted by Narcis Gusi, of the University of Extremadura in Caceres, Spain and Pablo Tomas-Carus of the University of Evora, Portugal, was published on Feb. 21 in the journal of Arthritis Research & Therapy.

The trial was randomly performed on a group of 33 female fibromyalgia patients. Seventeen women made supervised exercises in warm water for an hour three times a week for a period of eight months, while the other sixteen female patients did no aquatic exercise.

The results showed that long-term aquatic training leads to the reduction of fibromyalgia symptoms and provides a better health-related quality of life in fibromyalgia patients.

“The addition of an aquatic exercise program to the usual care for fibromyalgia in women is cost-effective in terms of both health care costs and societal costs,” said the researchers. They added that “appropriate aquatic exercise is a good health investment.”

However, the researchers say that the implementation of such a program may encounter obstacles such as the distance from patients’ homes and the number of patients that can participate in one session, which are “major determinants that have to be considered before a health manager decides to invest in such a program.”

Gusi and Tomas-Carus said that further trials are necessary to compare the effects of aquatic exercise to those obtained with low-impact aerobics, walking and tai-chi, the Washington Post reports.

In an earlier study the same researchers found that although a short-term exercise program can reduce symptoms, pain returns as soon as the exercise program is stopped.

Fibromyalgia, more common in women than men, is a debilitating muscle, ligaments and tendons disorder, for which there is no cure, except exercise and relaxation techniques, painkillers or low-dose antidepressants. People suffering from the condition can also experience neck and shoulder pain, sleeping problems, anxiety and depression.