Arthur and me

There’s a joke going around since before my grandmother’s day about going out with Arthur--i.e. arthritis. The last time I chatted with my nice doctor, who increasingly has moved into management and can’t take on new patients (sorry), I told him about the aches I have in my legs and hip joints especially first thing in the morning, or after vigorous exercise. It goes away, but if I‘ve done much walking on Tuesday, especially on hard surfaces like concrete sidewalks or mall walking, Wednesday morning I‘m a bit unsteady. When I stand up to leave during intermission (here at Lakeside), I’m almost out of the auditorium before my gait is normal. So even a few minutes of sitting creates an ache similar to 30 minutes of brisk walking. He didn’t seem too concerned, but said it was arthritis and recommended glucosamine chondroitin (3 weeks before you notice any change, he said) or some pain medications.

So I’ve been doing a bit of research on the internet (PubMed, Medscape, Google Scholar), looking at 1) physical problems that aggravate the joints, 2) affects of mild exercise, 3) interventions like acupuncture or supplements for osteoarthritis, 4) and the possibility of orthotics. The pain I experience is actually very familiar--I remember it as young as age 12 when repetitive motion like ballroom dancing or horse back riding would create that same ache after only a few minutes. So I’m guessing something is out of alignment and it gets worse as I age. I’ve learned that any type of aerobic dance exercise, although great fun and a good cardio workout, will really set in motion a pain sequence. Some years ago my doctor recommended trying acupuncture for hip pain, and I did--only 2 or 3 sessions. Whatever it did, either reducing inflammation or interrupting pain messages to the brain, a few sessions worked for many months. So I’m definitely taking another look at that research.

Because of our aging population, this is a rich vein for researchers. If you don’t have arthritis now, just wait a few years. The mine field in working through medical research is “the gap.” If you go to any web page of the NIH or health foundation, you see there are vast amounts of grant money if you want to research the gap in care, treatment, or diagnosis between races, income groups, genders, education, etc. Now all I have to do is find the researcher looking for ME--white, healthy, well-educated, normal BMI, married, suburban and retired.

Right now I’m looking through the research of Brian C. Focht, an assistant professor in the College of Public Health at Ohio State. Here’s why. Assistant professors are hungry for grants and publications, because that’s how you get ahead in academe--they need to be cutting edge and find their niche**; the College of Public Health used to be the School of Public Health, so it is eager to establish itself (recently got a mega grant from NIH to do all that “gap” research--our tax dollar at work); and OSU is right next door, so it’s easy to check things out if a new study is gearing up and they are looking for me.

Millions are being invested in "lifestyle" research. It's not just the women's magazines--the government is eager to get you coming and going and control everything that goes in your mouth, nose or other orifices. That's why I liked the results of this one.

“Exercise + dietary weight loss results in improved mobility-related self efficacy; changes in these task-specific control beliefs and self-reported pain serve as independent partial mediators of the beneficial effect of exercise + dietary weight loss on stair-climb performance.” “Exercise, self-efficacy, and mobility performance in overweight and obese older adults with knee osteoarthritis,” Brian C. Focht and others, Arthritis Care and Research, 53:5; 659-665.

It seems this group did better than the “healthy lifestyle” control group. I love it when my own “eat less, move more” plan comes out on top, and doesn’t cost a thing.

Another article I read, also about knees, not hips, described mild exercise as slow walking. So I’ve slowed down, and right away I can tell the impact on the hip joints has lessened. Seems simple, but so much in exercise stresses cardio, that sometimes we forget those other muscles and joints have needs too.

Johns Hopkins Health Alerts--Arthritis

**Barack Obama, who spent 12 years teaching at the University of Chicago Law School and didn't publish a single paper, is the exception (according to the NYT, July 30). Some folks get a different set of rules.