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Strong Women and Men Beat Arthritis: The Scientifically Proven Program That Allows People With Arthritis to Take Charge of Their Disease
By Miriam E. Nelson, PhD, Kristin R. Baker, PhD and Ronenn Roubenoff, MD, with Lawrence Lindner
Putnam Publishing Group
288 pp $25.95

Last year the Southern California city of Monrovia dedicated a statue to an arthritic bear. Samson, as the 500-pound fellow was known, gained his fame doing what came naturally -- roaming from the foothills into backyard hot tubs, where he'd lower his massive rear end into nice warm water and let the gnawing pain of his arthritis melt away.

We should be as lucky as Samson! Some 70 million Americans suffer to some extent from arthritis, including nearly half of all people over 65. And not one monument has gone up to humans seeking relief in the hundreds of ways to which pain has driven us, from gobbling gin-soaked raisins to undergoing joint replacement surgery.

As for Samson, he became something of a neighborhood mascot. State wildlife officials planned to do away with him, but he was spared by the protests of residents. Ultimately, a habitat was built for Samson at the Orange County Zoo, where he lived happily until old age took him to the celestial honeypot in 2001.

The story of Samson is not included in Strong Women and Men Beat Arthritis, by Miriam Nelson and other researchers at Tufts University. But its message of a better life would ring true with the book's authors. They sound the same note after an innovative study of arthritis patients -- some of whom felt they were beyond help -- who participated in a series of simple but powerfully effective exercises.

"Patients often ask themselves, 'What can I expect at this stage of the game?' " writes Nelson, the book's principal author. "Our answer: Plenty! In fact, not just young adults in pain but also people in their sixties, seventies, and older can absolutely turn their lives around by taking the proper steps to shore up arthritic joints."

Over the years, arthritis patients have not often heard such optimism from their doctors. Many have been told that the best treatment for arthritic joints is simply to rest and avoid using them. Exercise -- the therapy at the heart of Strong Women and Men Beat Arthritis -- was not even mentioned in half the discussions between arthritis specialists and their rheumatoid arthritis patients, according to a Harvard study cited in the book.

Nelson, director of the Center for Physical Activity and Nutrition at Tufts, takes the opposite approach, emphasizing the possibilities of exercise, as well as diet and medication. She and her collaborators -- rheumatologist Ronenn Roubenoff and arthritis researcher Kristin Baker -- split in two a group of 46 people with arthritic knees. Half the patients were put through a progressive 16-week strength-training program at home, with equipment no more elaborate than light dumbbells and ankle weights. The others simply received frequent visits, with lots of pep talks and some general instructions on better eating.

The results were dramatic.

After four months, pain among the exercisers dropped by 43 percent, compared to just 12 percent in their more sedentary counterparts. The gap between them in measures of overall physical function was almost as substantial.

"Improvements were actually seen in 17 physical tasks of daily living, including going shopping, putting on socks and shoes, and getting out of a chair,'' Nelson writes. "All of a sudden, people who had found life's daily activities more and more challenging and painful were able to participate in life in ways they hadn't been able to for years."

The inspiring story of a man who finally puts on his socks without twisting himself into a pretzel will never make the movie of the week, but for arthritis sufferers, it can be the stuff of high drama. Many are told their only hope -- and a tenuous one at that -- is a joint replacement. Some, believing they'll only get worse, sink even deeper into the depression that goes with arthritis like pain goes with swelling.

Previous researchers had been lukewarm about exercise because they didn't expose patients to enough of it, according to Nelson. But muscles act as shock absorbers for the joints, she writes, so stronger muscles can only help blunt the slings and arrows of day-to-day existence. When they don't, you might meet with a painful little jolt called a "microklutz'' -- an incredibly expressive medical term that spells bad news for both your cartilage and your peace of mind.

Nelson gives an easy-to-read overview of the two main forms of arthritis -- osteoarthritis and its less common, often more severe cousin, rheumatoid arthritis. She also delivers well-grounded advice on nutrition -- head for the flaxseed and fish oil -- and offers a rundown of treatments both conventional and alternative. (She strongly advises against bee stings -- a measure that brings more welts than wellness to patients desperate for relief.)

The heart of the book, though, is an exercise program that spans more than 100 pages. The exercises are simple, though that won't necessarily make them easy for people in pain. However, instructions for squats and stretches, adductions and extensions are accompanied by easy-to-follow, unambiguous drawings. And the prose, favoring one-syllable words, is as clear as a therapy pool: "Raise your heels off the floor, pushing straight up onto the balls of your feet. Go as high as you can. ... Slowly lower your heels to the starting position."

Whether readers will actually do the work is, of course, up to them. Nelson tries to maximize the possibility with a chapter on "triggering change,'' but, like well-intended tips in other self-help books, her advice can ring hollow. Addressing "I am too tired'' as an excuse for not exercising, Nelson advises: "Choose a time to exercise when you are the least tired.'' Addressing the complaint that "healthful food does not taste good,'' Nelson insists that "you can find healthful dishes that taste good to you."

True enough, but not an argument that is likely to prompt a stampede down the tofu aisle.

In any event, Nelson's main message isn't about tofu. It's about using it or losing it. The notion helped her arthritis sufferers quit worrying about mundane tasks like walking up the stairs with a basket of laundry. It even helped some climb mountains. And with achievements like those, who needs a monument?

-- Steve Chawkins is a staff writer at the Los Angeles Times.

First published May 7, 2003
Last updated November 21, 2007
Copyright © 2003 Consumer Health Interactive