Chronic pain is a debilitating condition that affects many areas of life for those who suffer. But new research from Norway says staying physically active can increase a person's pain tolerance and reduce the risk of and possibly the effects of chronic pain.

Researchers from The Arctic University of Norway, the University Hospital of North Norway and the Norwegian Institute of Public Health looked at data from more than 10,000 individuals and found those who were physically active had a higher pain tolerance than those who were sedentary. They also found the more active a person was, the higher their pain tolerance level.

Armed with that information, scientists wanted to see how chronic pain was affected. They were curious to know how someone who had a high pain tolerance as a result of exercise would be impacted by chronic pain.

"We found that people who were more active in their free time had a lower chance of having various types of chronic pain 7-8 years later," said doctoral fellow Anders Årnes at UiT and UNN. "For example, being just a little more active, such as going from light to moderate activity, was associated with a 5% lower risk of reporting some form of chronic pain later."

Ames said higher activity was associated with a 16 percent reduction in risk for severe chronic pain in several places in the body. He and his colleagues discovered the ability to tolerate pain played a role in this protective effect. That's why being active could lower the risk of chronic pain.

"This suggests that physical activity increases our ability to tolerate pain and may be one of the ways in which activity helps to reduce the risk of severe chronic pain," says Årnes.

After determining the exercise habits of the participants, researchers tested how well they could handle the pain of cold in a laboratory. That's how they were able to gauge their findings on pain tolerance and chronic pain.

As it relates to chronic pain and exercise, Ames said, "Physical activity is not dangerous in the first place, but people with chronic pain can benefit greatly from having an exercise program adapted to help them balance their effort so that it is not too much or too little.

"Health care professionals experienced in treating chronic pain conditions can often help with this. A rule of thumb is that there should be no worsening that persists over an extended period of time, but that certain reactions in the time after training can be expected."

Click here to read more in the journal PAIN—Journal of the International Association for the Study of Pain.