An Agile or Fragile Old Age

The word arthritis simply means inflammation of the joints and the disease has been recognised as an affliction of the human condition since early times. The Hindus of India wrote about it as long ago as 1000 BC, and Hippocrates in ancient Greece believed it to be a symptom of poisoning which could be relieved by blood letting. A hundred years ago doctors thought it was caused by an infection and one way to treat it was to remove sources of infection from the body, such as teeth, tonsils, and appendix. Today we regard arthritis as an autoimmune disease in which the body s defence mechanism has turned upon itself. 

46 Better Looking (II) and Better Living (I) Medical Advances 

There are two kinds of arthritis osteoarthritis, which develops slowly and afflicts the elderly, and rheumatoid arthritis, which can come on quite quickly and generally affects those aged between 35 and 45. For these unlucky individuals onset is sudden in 10% of cases, while for another 20% it takes several weeks to develop, and for the remaining 70% it comes on slowly. Rheumatoid arthritis affects around 1% of the population and is thought to reduce the life-span of those affected by around 5 years. Osteoarthritis is more common with around 3% of the population affected. About one in seven of those suffering from arthritis require medication, but most people can live with the 

Even if we cannot yet cure arthritis, there are things we can do to alleviate its symptoms. Simple painkillers such as paracetamol, ibupro-fen and codeine can be taken, and the combination of ibuprofen with a little codeine is particularly effective, a tablet will give relief for up to 6 hours. When such painkillers are no longer strong enough, then a 

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