Arthritis

Better Body Mechanics for Arthritics
Chairs: Try to always sit in the highest chair in the room, and look for chairs with arm rests to make it easier to get up.
When getting up from a chair, slide forward to the edge, lean forward, then push down with your palms on the arms or seat of the chair.

Stairs: When climbing stairs, walk up one step at a time, leading up with the good leg and down with the bad leg.

Celebrex Celebration
Thanks, in part, to eye-catching ads depicting arthritis patients zipping around on kiddie scooters and performing tai chi, sales of Celebrex, a new type of painkiller, have gone through the roof. But the Food and Drug Administration has told the drug's maker, Searle, to tone down the promises, claiming they give prospective buyers the impression that Celebrex is some kind of super drug. (In fact, it may work no better than already available anti-inflammatory medications such as ibuprofen, despite the fact that, at $2 a pill, Celebrex is about five times more expensive). So what makes Celebrex special? It's far less likely to cause bleeding ulcers and other stomach ills -- the one thing the ads never mention.

Glucosamine and Arthritis
Glucosamine is an excellent supplement for arthritis sufferers. It is said to ease joint pain and may even repair the damaged joint.

New Arthritis Drug Licofelone Showing Promise
A new type of anti-inflammatory painkiller is showing promise in experiments on people with arthritis in their knees. The drug, licofelone, works just as well for arthritis as traditional nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs such as aspirin and ibuprofen, but is gentler on the stomach.

Smoking and Rheumatoid Arthritis
Smokers are at a much higher risk to develop rheumatoid arthritis, another reason to quit or, better yet, never start smoking.

Yoga to Reduce Pain
Yoga, with its tension-relieving attributes, often eases some of the pain of arthritis.