Arthritis, along with back pain, is the number two reason people see their doctor, after colds and flu, and in older adults, it causes more difficulty with day-to-day activities-such as walking-than any other disease.
These are by no means small details, and the prevalence of arthritis increases with age: nearly half of adults over sixty-five have it.
Unfortunately, there are a couple of myths about arthritis that get in the way of treatment that can reduce pain and even give people their lives back.
This myth comes from some circles in the medical community itself.
There are still a lot of medical practitioners who believe that rest is the best treatment for the disease and it is not.
Unfortunately, the misinformation gets handed from doctor to patient.
In one study conducted at the Harvard School of Public Health, researchers reported the exercise was not even discussed in half of the encounters between patients with rheumatoid arthritis and their rheumatologists.
" In a study, in Canada, where family physicians see most arthritis patients, only a third of the doctors who were queried recommended exercise to people with arthritis of the knee.
" Some research studies do show that certain types of exercise can contribute to the development of arthritis, but that is in elite athletes who push their bodies to the brink.
Research from Tufts University as well as from other scientific institutions emphasize quite clear that the right types of exercises, performed correctly, will restore people's function while dramatically easing down on their pain.
Patients often ask themselves what can they expect at this stage of the game.
The answer plenty, in fact, not just young adults in pain but also people in their sixties, seventies and older can certainly turn their lives around by taking the proper steps to shore up arthritic joints.
Whatis it, exactly, that can so turn people's lives around, freeing them from the physical disability and depression that all too often go with arthritis? Amazingly, it is a series of lifestyle steps that are entirely of your own control.
The cornerstone of those steps is a plan we've developed that includes exercise, nutrition and when necessary, medication.
A lot of Westerners as we already know, and have been majorly sedentary for many years even-decades.
So the idea is daunting to them, to say the least.
They cannot imagine themselves finding the energy to challenge their bodies or work up a sweat.
They think that lifting weights, walking, or engaging in other forms of activity is only for people who are fit.
Many older people, in particular, are afraid of the rapid breathing that exercise can cause; they see it as dangerous and uncomfortable.