Arthritis

Arthritis and other chronic joint problems are far more widespread than estimated five years ago, affecting one-third of U.S. adults, about 69.9 million people, the government said Thursday in the first comprehensive survey of the disease. Health officials said the numbers -- and related health-care costs -- are expected to continue to rise as the baby boom generation reaches old age. The survey shocked even advocates for arthritis sufferers.

Arthritis sufferers are among the top consumers of herbs, vitamins and other over-the-counter natural remedies--and little wonder. Hundreds of such products claim to have an effect on "pain and inflammation." Even many traditional medical doctors sympathize with patients who battle chronic pain and wish to avoid or curtail the use of powerful prescription drugs. The effectiveness of many supplements, however, is not supported by scientific studies.

Cypress Bioscience Inc. said it received government clearance to sell a blood-filtering treatment used to ease the pain and inflammation caused by rheumatoid arthritis. The Food and Drug Administration clearance frees the company to try to carve a niche in the growing rheumatoid arthritis market, which analysts say could top $2 billion. For rheumatoid patients--40% of whom are debilitated so quickly they cannot work within six years--the device could offer a crucial new option.

My friend Paul is a retired air traffic controller. A former B-24 bomber pilot in World War II, he has kept himself fit and healthy. Now in his 70s, he regularly works out, swims, bikes, hikes and works as a volunteer maintaining a section of the Appalachian Trail in his spare time. A few years ago, his knees started hurting. Sometimes they were so painful, he couldn't walk. Paul is one of the more than 6 million older Americans with osteoarthritis.

The ancient Chinese therapy of acupuncture can help ease pain and improve movement for people with arthritis of the knee, a study concludes. "For the first time, a clinical trial with sufficient rigor, size and duration has shown that acupuncture reduces the pain and functional impairment of osteoarthritis of the knee," said Dr. Stephen E. Straus, director of the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine.

Carefully prepared root extracts of thunder god vine (known scientifically as Tripterygium wilfordii Hook F) have been used in traditional Chinese medicine for hundreds of years to treat psoriasis, lupus, eczema and leprosy. The plant's highly poisonous leaves, flowers and root skin gave the woody vine the nickname qi bu si, or "seven steps to death." But modern research suggests that with the poisons removed, the plant's roots may offer an effective remedy for autoimmune diseases.

First it was basketball, then tennis, then running. Slowly, achingly, osteoarthritis was taking athletic activities away from the man who mastered 10 of them at the Montreal Summer Games, 1976 Olympic decathlon champion Bruce Jenner. "I've known I've had it. My knee has always given me problems," Jenner said. "But it got to the point where I actually had to start giving up things. And I hate that. "It would take two weeks for my knee to come back after playing basketball.

Certain people appear to be genetically susceptible to developing chronic arthritis from Lyme disease that does not respond to treatment, researchers reported last week in the New England Journal of Medicine. A high proportion of people who develop long-term Lyme disease-induced arthritis have proteins known as antigens in their blood that act as genetic markers indicating a high susceptibility to arthritis, said Dr.

A two-layered drug designed to relieve arthritis symptoms with reduced risk of digestive ulcers was approved for marketing by the Food and Drug Administration. The drug is manufactured by Searle, a Skokie, Ill., pharmaceutical company, and will be sold under the brand name Arthrotec. It is approved for treatment of both rheumatoid and osteoarthritis.

An advisory panel of the Food and Drug Administration recommended for approval the first of a new class of drugs designed to work as well as existing analgesics but without painful, dangerous side effects. FDA advisors in Silver Spring, Md., voted to back G. D.