Home Community Newsletter Vol 4 Issue 156

Arthritis Insight Newsletter * Vol. 4 Issue 156 June 11, 2003

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Welcome to the 156th issue of the Arthritis Insight Newsletter. All back issues will be posted at /community/newsletter
Feel free to pass this newsletter around to others who may be interested.

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The information in this newsletter should not take the place of advice and guidance from your own health-care providers. Material in this newsletter is provided for educational and informational purposes only. Be sure to check with your doctor before making any changes in your treatment plan. Information presented here is the opinion of the authors and has not necessarily been approved or endorsed by the medical advisors.

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Notes From Tina
(Tina@arthritisinsight.com)
Tina Underwood aka KrissyJo

Greetings everyone! Tina's still recovering from her surgery - she's doing very well but has had to start a round of antibiotics to fend off an infection that seems to be brewing in her incision. Hopefully the antibiotics will do the trick and she won't have any setbacks.

I have to apologize for the hold-up on the fundraiser prizes. The last couple weeks have been incredibly busy kid-wise and I've fallen behind on everything else. I haven't forgotten, I'm still filling the gift baskets for 4th-10th prizes, but I promise to have them finished and ready to ship soon.

Those of you who are asking why the site isn't updated more frequently - please hang in there with us. Tina's still working on recovering from her surgery and the kids are home for summer break. I work from my living room in between making sandwiches, doing laundry and washing dishes. It's alot harder to get anything done with four kids hollering "Mom!" all day. ;o)

We'll get back to business as usual just as soon as we can, but for now - we're still in "hibernation mode" and doing only basic updates and the newsletter.

Hope everyone has a great week! Let's see what Ron's up to...

~Kimmy

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Ron's Ramblin's
(Ron@arthritisinsight.com)
Ron Griffin aka IndyRon

What a week!!!! It has been a week of lost and found. I never realized how much of a pack rat my dad was. I swear, I think that there was at least one (and generally several) of everything ever made in his basement. Going through the stuff has been like a trip back to my childhood. There were stuffed animals that my sisters had played with, Christmas decorations that my mom had made and that the kids had over the years contributed, fishing tackle that I remember using as a kid, old videos where I am still young, and many other assorted memories. The most important thing though was found by my sister, my birth certificate. I had been dreading having to go through the hassle of getting a new one. The thing about it is that I fund that I am much older than I thought. My birth certificate seeming has a major error and says that I was born in 195 A.D. Fortunately there was also a corrected copy. WHEW!!!!!!!

I am heading back to Indiana in a day or two, but I know that I have several more trips here to finish things up. While I got a good bit done this trip, I had one of the kids with me and for some reason spending time showing him where his dad grew up and putting "faces" on the things his dad talked about over the years seemed more important.

(((((HUGS to all)))))

~Ron

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Your Weekly Giggle
A Poem for Computer Users Over 40
(Many thanks to Gwen for posting on A.S.A.)

A Computer was something on TV
From a Science Fiction show of note
A Window was something you hated to clean
And Ram was the father of a goat.

Meg was the name of a girlfriend
And Gig was a job for the nights
Now they all mean different things
And that really Mega Bytes.

An Application was for employment
A Program was a TV show
A Cursor used profanity
A Keyboard was a piano.

A Memory was something that you lost with age
A CD was a bank account
And if you had a 3-inch floppy
You hoped nobody found out.

Compress was something you did to the garbage
Not something you did to a file
And if you Unzipped anything in public
You'd be in jail for a while.

Log on was adding wood to the fire
Hard drive was a long trip on the road
A Mouse pad was where a mouse lived
And a Backup happened to your commode.

Cut you did with a pocket knife
Paste you did with glue
A Web was a spider's home
And a Virus was the flu.

I guess I'll stick to my pad and paper
And the Memory in my head.
I hear nobody's been killed in a Computer crash
But when it happens they wish they were dead.

Check out all the jokes at:
/fun/jokes
Send yours in today!

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Tina's Tips
Tina@arthritisinsight.com

Arthritis can affect your ability to do even the simplest of tasks. I've heard some people say, "Accept your limitations." I'm not sure accepting them is the way to go. I prefer to challenge those limitations, work around them, finding alternate ways of achieving the same goal. Every week I'll share some tips I've found to work around those annoying limitations and I hope all of you will send in your tips too. We may not be the next Martha Stewart, but sometimes the simplest things can help so much.

A great idea from Mimic:

Never lose a sock in the wash. Pin the toes together as soon as you take them off at night. Never lose a sock. Pull one out and you have the pair. Children 6 yrs and up can do this on their own after being shown how.

And great hairbrush/handle suggestion from Shannon:

I've discovered a little tip for hair brushes and kitchen tools with narrow handles. My husband bought a length of pipe insulation, which we cut to fit the length of various handles. Just tape on and use. It is such a help for those sore, stiff hands in the morning!

Thanks so much for sending those in!

Check out more tips at /living/tips.html and send in yours today to Tina@arthritisinsight.com Keep those tips coming!

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What’s New
Check out all the latest updates at /updates.html

Advice for Better Living
A prednisone question gets answered - maybe you could help with one of the others?
/living/advice

Arthritis & Employment
We wanna know what do you do?
/living/employment/do.html

Arthritis & Depression
And another member tells us what gets them down.
/living/employment

Birthday Board
Added another one! When's yours?
/community/birthday

Photo Album
GrannyJan thought she should send some proof to back up her Tai Chi teaching claims. ;O)
/community/photo

Arthritis & Depression
Another member tell us what gets them down.
/living/depression/down.html

Our Pets
Amada's dog Cody is all dressed up for halloween.
/living/pets/petpics2.html

News
Karen's tracked down tons of news for your arthritis and general health.
/news

Newsletter
Issue 155 is hot off the presses and ready for your reading enjoyment.
/community/newsletter

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Arthritis Insight Chat
/community/chat

Time to get the party started! Got some extra time? Can't sleep? Drop into the chatroom to talk to other members that know exactly what you're going through.

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Cooking with Char
Char LeFleur
Char@arthritisinsight.com

Char's taking the week off so we're going to feature some recipes from past columns in case anyone missed them. :o) Don't forget the Gimpfest is getting close. Rooms must be reserved by July 1 in order to get the special rate Char's been quoted. You can find all the details at: http://fadedjeans.com/iowa

Going to a picnic and don't know what to take? Try one of these!

Mexican Corn Chip Dip

2 large tomatoes-peeled and chopped
3 or 4 green onion chopped
1 small can green chiles-diced
3 tbs olive oil
1 1/2 tsp garlic salt

Stir and refrigerate at least 3 hrs. before serving.
Serve with tortilla chips.

Blue Cheese Ball

2-8oz cream cheese
12 oz blue cheese
1/2 jar cheese whiz
Mix until creamy.
Add 1 tsp of grated onion
1 tsp of Worcestershire sauce
pinch each of salt and pepper

Place on foil and roll into a ball. Roll in chopped parsley and ground pecans.

Boursin

1/2 stick butter
1T parsley
1T chives
1 clove garlic, minced
1-8oz package cream cheese

Melt butter and cool to room temperature. Mince herbs. If fresh herbs are not used, soak a slightly lesser amount in lemon juice to soften and freshen.
Add garlic and herbs to cream cheese and melted butter. Blend well. Refrigerate.
May be placed in a crock or roll in waxed paper. Serve on crackers or cocktail breads. This keeps well in the refrigerator for several weeks.

Hankie Pankies

1# ground beef
1# hot sausage
1# velveeta cheese, cubed
1T Worcestershire sauce
1T oregano
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp pepper
1 loaf party rye bread

Brown beef and sausage together-drain. Add cheese and stir to melt. Add remaining ingredients. Spoon on to rye bread. Broil for 5 minutes.
These can be frozen before broiling. Then broil just before serving.
(I loved these!)

If you have questions, comments or suggestions, or have recipes you would like to share, please send them to Char@arthritisinsight.com.

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From The FDA: Watch your wallet alert...
FTC and FDA Take New Actions in Fight Against Deceptive Marketing
Complete article: http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2003/06/trudeau.htm

FTC Charges Marketers of Coral Calcium Supreme Dietary Supplement and a Pain-Relief Product With Making False and Unsubstantiated Claims

The Federal Trade Commission has charged the marketers of a dietary supplement called Coral Calcium Supreme with making false and unsubstantiated claims about the product's health benefits. This action is part of a series of initiatives the FTC and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are taking against the purveyors of products with unsubstantiated health and medical claims. In a complaint filed in federal district court, the FTC alleges that Kevin Trudeau; Robert Barefoot; Shop America (USA), LLC; and Deonna Enterprises, Inc., violated the FTC Act by claiming, falsely and without substantiation, that Coral Calcium Supreme can treat or cure cancer and other diseases, such as multiple sclerosis and heart disease. The FTC charges that these and other claims go far beyond existing scientific evidence regarding the recognized health benefits of calcium.

The defendants promote the product primarily through a nationally televised 30-minute infomercial featuring Trudeau and Barefoot, and through statements made in brochures accompanying the product. The informercial has aired on cable channels such as Women's Entertainment, Comedy Central, the Discovery Channel, and Bravo.

"The Commission has voiced strong concerns about deceptive claims for dietary supplements," said Howard Beales, Director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection. "These cases demonstrate that the FTC will take aggressive enforcement action, particularly when, as alleged in this case, the products are marketed as cures for serious diseases like cancer and heart disease. Marketers who step over the line will find themselves between a rock and a hard place."

In a separate action, the FTC has charged one of the defendants, Kevin Trudeau, with violating a 1998 federal district court order that prohibits him from making unsubstantiated claims about the benefits, performance, or efficacy of any products. The FTC alleges that Trudeau violated that order by making false and unsubstantiated claims about Coral Calcium Supreme, and by making unsubstantiated claims that another product, Biotape, provides significant or permanent relief from severe pain, including debilitating back pain, and pain from arthritis, sciatica, and migraines. In both of these actions, the FTC has asked the court for a temporary restraining order that would prohibit the defendants from making the challenged claims and would freeze their assets.

In related law enforcement efforts, the FTC and the FDA are sending strong warning letters to Web site operators who are marketing coral calcium products claiming that coral calcium is an effective treatment or cure for cancer and/or other diseases. In dozens of warnings sent this week, the FTC states it is aware of no competent and reliable scientific evidence supporting such claims and that such unsupported claims are unlawful under the FTC Act. Accordingly, the FTC is instructing the Web site operators to remove any false or deceptive claims from their sites immediately. In a similar action, the FDA warned Web site operators that disease claims and unsubstantiated structure/function claims cause their products to be in violation of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.

"FDA and FTC are working together to maximize our efforts to combat heath fraud," said FDA Commissioner Mark B. McCellan. "We are trying to be particularly vigilant concerning fraudulent internet promotion, because this is emerging as an increasingly insidious way of trying to exploit the public."

FTC v. Kevin Trudeau, Robert Barefoot, Shop America (USA), LLC, and Deonna Enterprises

The FTC's first action alleges that Kevin Trudeau, Robert Barefoot, Shop America (USA), LLC, and Deonna Enterprises, Inc., violated the FTC Act by claiming, falsely and without substantiation, that Coral Calcium Supreme can treat or cure cancer and other diseases such as multiple sclerosis and heart disease. According to the FTC, Coral Calcium Supreme is a dietary supplement purportedly comprised of marine coral from Okinawa, Japan. A one-month supply of the product (90 capsules) costs $19.95.

The FTC's complaint alleges that the defendants claim, falsely and without substantiation, that Coral Calcium Supreme will treat and/or cure all forms of cancer and other diseases such as multiple sclerosis, lupus, heart disease, and chronic high blood pressure. The complaint also alleges that the defendants falsely claim that scientific research published in reputable medical journals proves that calcium supplements can reverse and/or cure all forms of cancer. Finally, the complaint challenges the defendants' claims that a daily serving of Coral Calcium Supreme provides the same amount of bioavailable calcium as two gallons of milk, and that the body absorbs significantly more of the calcium in coral calcium - up to 100 times more, and at a significantly faster rate - than the calcium contained in commonly available calcium supplements. The FTC is seeking preliminary and permanent injunctive relief, including restitution to consumers who purchased Coral Calcium Supreme. In addition, the FTC has asked the court for a temporary restraining order that would prohibit the defendants from making the challenged claims, and would freeze their assets.

FTC v. Kevin Trudeau

The FTC's second action, against Trudeau alone, alleges that Trudeau violated a 1998 FTC order prohibiting him from making unsubstantiated claims about the benefits, performance, or efficacy of any product. The FTC alleges that Trudeau violated the order by making false and unsubstantiated claims about Coral Calcium Supreme, and also by making unsubstantiated claims about Biotape. According to the FTC, Biotape is a purported pain-relief product which Trudeau promotes through a separate infomercial, which has aired on national cable channels such PAX Television, the Hallmark Channel, and E! Entertainment Television. Consumers are instructed to place a strip of Biotape directly on the parts of their bodies where they feel pain. One sheet of Biotape, containing 10 strips, costs approximately $10. In this action, the FTC is seeking a finding of contempt, monetary relief, and other injunctive relief, as well as a temporary restraining order that would prohibit Trudeau from making the challenged claims, and would freeze his assets.

Warning Letters

In addition to the FTC's federal court actions, the Commission is sending warning letters to dozens of Web site operators who are making similar claims for coral calcium products. In the warning letters, the FTC reminds the Web site operators that any claim that coral calcium is an effective treatment or cure for any disease must be supported by competent and reliable scientific evidence to comply with the law. The FTC states it is aware of no such evidence supporting these claims, and that without the required support, the claims are illegal under the FTC Act. Accordingly, the FTC is instructing the Web site operators to remove any false or deceptive claims from their sites immediately.

In a similar action, the FDA issued warning letters to numerous Web site operators who are promoting coral calcium on the Internet. The letters cited the organizations for representing the products as useful in the prevention or treatment of serious diseases. In addition, a majority of the letters also cited the firms for making unsubstantiated claims regarding the effect of their products on the structure or function of the body. The FDA letters warn the recipients that FDA may initiate further enforcement action if the violations are not corrected.

The FTC and FDA had conducted Internet "surfs" and found numerous Web sites touting coral calcium products as an effective treatment or cure for cancer and other diseases such as lupus, multiple sclerosis, and heart disease. The staffs of the two agencies will follow up by revisiting the target sites to determine whether the Web site operators gave deleted or revised the unproven claims.

The FTC vote to authorize filing of the cases was 5-0. The cases were filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division, on June 9, 2003.

NOTE: The Commission authorizes the filing of a complaint when it has "reason to believe" that the law has been or is being violated, and it appears to the Commission that a proceeding is in the public interest. The complaint is not a finding or ruling that the defendant actually has violated the law. The case will be decided by the court.

Copies of the complaint and related documents in both actions are available from the FTC's Web site at http://www.ftc.gov and also from the FTC's Consumer Response Center, Room 130, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20580. The FTC works for the consumer to prevent fraudulent, deceptive, and unfair business practices in the marketplace and to provide information to help consumers spot, stop, and avoid them. To file a complaint, or to get free information on any of 150 consumer topics, call toll-free, 1-877-FTC-HELP (1 877-382-4357), or use the complaint form at http://www.ftc.gov. The FTC enters Internet, telemarketing, identity theft, and other fraud-related complaints into Consumer Sentinel, a secure, online database available to hundreds of civil and criminal law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and abroad.

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Member Stories
JenJen's Story

My name is Jennifer, but the friends I have left call me "JenJen." (It's no fun to be around someone in constant pain.)

I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia in 2001, but I had it for two years before I went to a rheumatologist, who finally believed me. My GP, or family doctor, said I should exercise more, lose weight, and that the pain I was experiencing was all in my head. I believed him until the pain began to rouse me from a sound sleep, and I would awaken in such pain that I would sit up in bed, begin to rock, and cry. That is when I went to a rheumatologist.

I had heard that fibromyalgia can be caused by physical trauma, but I didn't have anything like that to blame it on. I had moved from the deep South to Pennsylvania, and that was trauma enough! I was a practicing criminal defense attorney in Mississippi, where I was licensed. I had not taken the bar in Pennsylvania, so I could only work as a paralegal, which I found to be degrading and humiliating. I was hired as a paralegal for a female attorney who already had one paralegal assistant. I shared an office with her other paralegal and was never really sure of what the attorney wanted from me, as I had a "foot in both worlds," meaning: I did legal research and other tasks which an associate attorney would perform, but I was also expected to maintain all of the files and do paralegal work as well. Therefore, I really performed the tasks associated with two jobs. The stress was unbearable, which caused my fibromyalgia to be in constant flare-up. In 18 months, I had lost 40 days of work. My attitude was horrible, and consequently the firm fired me. Now I am not only still in pain, but am facing the stressful task of finding a job in a depressed market. Nobody wants to hire me because of my law degree, and I cannot work as an attorney in Pennsylvania until such time as I take and pass the PA bar, which I hope to do in February, 2004.

I have been prescribed Oxycontin (40 mg. twice daily), Effexor XR (which causes me to sweat), 1500 mg. of Neurontin, and Lorcet 10 for break-through pain. I am not really sure why the Oxycontin cannot be increased to three times daily, which I feel would eliminate the need for break-through pain medication; however, the pronouncement from the Mount is to increase the Neurontin rather than increase the pain medication. I am not sure if the rheumatologist doesn't believe me, or if there is some sound medical reason for not increasing the pain meds, but something has to give. My next visit is in August (assuming I can hold out that long) and I intend to let the doctor have it with "both barrels."

So, now I am in constant pain, am irritable, cranky, miserable to be around (I would have fired me as well), facing my 50th birthday in November, and collecting unemployment for 26 weeks. I am afraid I won't find employment in that time frame so I am still stressed. I am beginning to experience severe depression, albeit with good cause. I want to move back "home" where I have a bona fide license to work in my chosen profession, but I cannot because my DH (darling husband, who is, indeed, darling) wants to remain in Pennsylvania where his step-mother resides so he can look after her. Although I admire him for that sentiment, I find myself resenting the fact that I have to take another bar exam instead of being able to go home. My wish was to find someone who could relate to my agony, and then I found Arthritis Insight (which isn't just for Arthritis sufferers!) I look forward to receiving the Newsletter, and I am beginning to find that there are other people "out there" who understand what it's like to live like this. Maybe in the near future I will find that I don't have to live like this. That is my next wish.

To see the rest of stories go on over to:
/community/stories

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Notes and Insights:

Birthday Board!
Happy Birthday Tiffany, Elaine, Krista Roy, Marsha22, Virginia Daley aka GINNY38 and Sue/soutland!!!
Check out all the birthdays at
/community/birthday
and make sure to send them an arthritis-friendly e-card:
/cgi-bin/postcards/postcard.pl

Gimpfest 2003 Iowa, Here We Come!
Come be part of the fun when dozens of gimps head to Stuart, Iowa on July 24-27.
Get all the details here:
http://www.fadedjeans.com/iowa/

AJAO Regional Conference
"Taming Juvenile Arthritis"
June 2003 - Phoenix, Arizona
The Arthritis Foundation is proud to host the 2003 American Juvenile Arthritis Organization (AJAO) Regional Conference, "Taming Juvenile Arthritis." The American Juvenile Arthritis Organization leads the effort to improve the quality of life for those affected by childhood arthritis and related diseases. This 3-day conference is geared towards children, teens, young adults and family members who are affected by juvenile rheumatoid arthritis and other childhood rheumatic diseases
http://jraworld.arthritisinsight.com/community/involved.html

Join the Arthritis Dieters!
This is a group of people with arthritis who want to lose weight with others who know of the challenges of living with is arthritis. All those medications that make living with arthritis tolerable, but pile on the pounds. This group has been set up to give us a protected group where we can talk to others who know what it is like.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/arthritis-dieters/

Wanna help?
Having surgery? Starting a new drug or treatment? Filing for disability? Keep an Arthritis Insight journal so all of our members can share and learn from your experience. If you want to keep a journal just let us know.

Write an article!
We always need articles on all subjects relating to arthritis. C'mon folks, we can't do this without you.

Ken Akers Cheer Fund
Donations to the Ken Akers Cheer Fund will be used to send flowers and gifts to those community members who are hospitalized, flaring or just in need of some good cheer.
/community/kenscheerfund

Thank You!
A great big thank you to NeedaBasket.com (http://needabasket.com). NeedaBasket is now Arthritis Insight's official gift basket company. They are giving us a great discount and are donating baskets for our Arthritis Warriors.

Special Offers for Arthritis Insight Members
Whenever possible we will try get to our sponsors to agree to discounts and the like for our members. Here are our current special offers:

Sore No More (http://sorenomore.com) gel will send a free sample of the pain relieving gel to any Arthritis Insight Community Member who emails them at dma@glogerm.com.

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AI Help Desk
Linda Peck

Linda's out this week so I thought we'd take a look at choosing passwords.

Selecting Good Passwords
From ALW: Advanced Laboratory Workstation System
http://www.alw.nih.gov/Security/Docs/passwd.html

Rationale

The object when choosing a password is to make it as difficult as possible for a cracker to make educated guesses about what you've chosen. This leaves him no alternative but a brute-force search, trying every possible combination of letters, numbers, and punctuation. A search of this sort, even conducted on a machine that could try one million passwords per second (most machines can try less than one hundred per second), would require, on the average, over one hundred years to complete.


What Not to Use

- Don't use your login name in any form (as-is, reversed, capitalized, doubled, etc.).

- Don't use your first or last name in any form.

- Don't use use your spouse's or child's name.

- Don't use other information easily obtained about you. This includes license plate numbers, telephone numbers, social security numbers, the brand of your automobile, the name of the street you live on, etc.

- Don't use a password of all digits, or all the same letter. This significantly decreases the search time for a cracker.

- Don't use a word contained in (English or foreign language) dictionaries, spelling lists, or other lists of words.

- Don't use a password shorter than six characters.

What to Use

- Do use a password with mixed-case alphabetic characters.

- Do use a password with nonalphabetic characters, e.g., digits or punctuation.

- Do use a password that is easy to remember, so you don't have to write it down.

- Do use a password that you can type quickly, without having to look at the keyboard. This makes it harder for someone to steal your password by watching over your shoulder.

Method to Choose Secure and Easy to Remember Passwords

Choose a line or two from a song or poem, and use the first letter of each word. For example, ``In Xanadu did Kubla Kahn a stately pleasure dome decree'' becomes ``IXdKKaspdd.''

Alternate between one consonant and one or two vowels, up to eight characters. This provides nonsense words that are usually pronounceable, and thus easily remembered. Examples include ``routboo,'' ``quadpop,'' and so on.

Choose two short words and concatenate them together with a punctuation character between them. For example: ``dog;rain,'' ``book+mug,'' ``kid?goat.''

Excerpts from
IMPROVING THE SECURITY OF YOUR UNIX SYSTEM
David A. Curry, Systems Programmer
Information and Telecommunications Sciences and
Technology Division
ITSTD-721-FR-90-21

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Weekly News Summary
Karen Sears
kaekae@arthritisinsight.com

More health news can be found on our site:
/news/

ETANERCEPT USE FOR ANKYLOSING SPONDYLITIS INCREASES TNF PRODUCTION BY T CELLS
As a treatment for ankylosing spondylitis (AS), etanercept appears to work by neutralizing peripheral TNF-alpha, according to a new report. This action causes an increase in T cell production of TNF-alpha, perhaps as a counterregulatory measure.
Medscape, Jun 10 (free registration required)

MORE CAREFUL DIAGNOSIS NEEDED FOR TRANSIENT OSTEOPOROSIS OF THE HIP IN MEN
Increased awareness and more careful analysis of magnetic resonance imaging data are needed to prevent the misdiagnosis of transient osteoporosis of the hip as avascular necrosis, particularly in men.
Doctor’s Guide, Jun 10 (free registration required)

EARLY ONSET OSTEOPOROSIS COULD BE DUE TO OCCULT CELIAC DISEASE
Osteoporosis presenting before age 55 years could be an atypical manifestation of celiac disease, particularly in the presence of anemia, Indian researchers report.
Medscape, Jun 9 (free registration required)

MYCOPHENOLATE MOFETIL MAY HELP PREVENT RELAPSE IN SLE
Mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) administered after a rise in antibodies to double-stranded DNA (anti-dsDNA) seems to prevent relapse in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), according to the results of an open-label pilot study published in the June issue of the Annals of Rheumatic Diseases.
Medscape, Jun 9 (free registration required)

STEP-WISE ADMINISTRATION OF DISEASE-MODIFYING ANTIRHEUAMTIC DRUG THERAPY
Effective for Long-Term Inflammation Control in Rheumatoid Arthritis
Step-wise administration of disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) controls rheumatoid arthritis inflammation over an extended period, as well as allows the clinician to predict the prognosis of each case over the course of treatment.
Doctor’s Guide, Jun 9 (free registration required)

ARTHRITIS PREVALENCE IN PATIENTS OVER 65 WILL DOUBLE OVER A 25 YEAR PERIOD
Cases of arthritis and chronic joint symptoms in people over 65 are projected to double between 2005 and 2030, according to a recent American study.
Doctor’s Guide, Jun 6 (free registration required)

HIP REPLACEMENT SAFE, EFFECTIVE FOR OCTOGENARIANS
Total hip arthroplasty is safe and effective for patients with arthritis of the hip who are over the age of 80, according to a recent American study.
Doctor’s Guide, Jun 6 (free registration required)

ARTHRITIS PAIN THERAPY USING COXIBS IS MORE EXPENSIVE THAN USING NSAIDS DESPITE THE GASTROINTESTINAL BENEFITS
The use of coxibs in treatment of chronic arthritis to avoid gastrointestinal (GI) complications sometimes associated with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) may not overall be a cost-effective treatment strategy.
Doctor’s Guide, Jun 5 (free registration required)

VISCOSUPPLEMENTS GIVE NO BENEFIT TO PHYSICAL THERAPY IN KNEE OSTEOARTHRITIS
The addition of viscosupplements to standard physical therapy shows no increased benefit in pain reduction or muscle strengthening in patients with knee osteoarthritis, suggest researchers.
Doctor’s Guide, Jun 5 (free registration required)

ELEVATED LEVELS OF EBV IN RA PATIENTS NOT ATTRIBUTABLE TO HLA TYPE
Quantitative measurements confirm that Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) load is elevated, by about 10-fold, in the peripheral blood of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). However, this does not seem to be explained by the HLA-DR background associated with rheumatoid arthritis.
Medscape, Jun 4 (free registration required)

NABUMETONE EFFECTIVE, SAFE TREATMENT FOR CHILDREN WITH JUVENILE RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS
Nabumetone treatment significantly decreases arthritis flare ups in children with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis with minimal side effects, according to a recent study.
Doctor’s Guide, Jun 4 (free registration required)

ERYTHEMA MIGRANS PLAYS A PRIMARY ROLE IN EARLY DETECTION OF LYME DISEASE
The majority of Lyme disease cases occur during summer months in Caucasian males, producing erythema migrans (EM), the "bulls-eye" rash typically seen early in disease onset.
Doctor’s Guide, Jun 4 (free registration required)

RADIOGRAPHS AS GOOD AS MRI FOR MOST PATIENTS WITH LOW BACK PAIN
Plain radiographs are as good as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for most patients with low back pain, according to the results of a randomized controlled trial published in the June 4 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association. Although MRI increased the cost by increasing the number of spine operations, the outcomes were the same. The editorialist suggests that people with low back pain may be better off coping on their own rather than choosing to become patients.
Medscape, Jun 3 (free registration required)

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Contribute

Have you written something you think our subscribers would like to read? Send it to tina@arthritisinsight.com and maybe we'll use it in our newsletter.

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A Closing Thought
Happy Father's Day
-Author Unknown

A Dad is a person who is loving and kind,
And often he knows what you have on your mind.
He's someone who listens, suggests, and defends.
A dad can be one of your very best friends!
He's proud of your triumphs, but when things go wrong,
A dad can be patient and helpful and strong
In all that you do, a dad's love plays a part.
There's always a place for him deep in your heart.
And each year that passes, you're even more glad,
More grateful and proud just to call him your dad!
Thank you, Dad... for listening and caring,
for giving and sharing,
but, especially, for just being you!

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Arthritis Insight Newsletter Copyright 2003

AI Staff
Page last updated on June 12, 2003