If you have arthritis, you have felt the costs. Other taxpayers, employers, insurance companies, government, and health-related associations also have felt the costs. More than 31 million Americans have one of the 100 or more different forms of arthritis requiring medical care, and more than 1 million new victims join the ranks each year. According to the US Arthritis Foundation, the direct and indirect annual costs to the national economy due to arthritis run to billions of dollars in the US alone, including lost wages and medical bills.

Estimates indicate that one in seven people, or one in every three families, have arthritis. Osteoarthritis has claimed about 16 million, and more than 250,000 children have one of several forms of arthritis. Of those the National Centre for Health Statistics of the US says that more than 7.3 million people are disabled as a result of arthritis and contribute to the total of 525 million days of restricted activity each year in that country. Arthritis accounts for more than $1 billion in annual disability payments, or about 15 percent of all Social Security disability insurance payments in the United States. Of the $5 billion spent annually on medical care, nearly $1 billion is spent on quack remedies and unproven drugs and devices.

The Costs of Quackery

Because there is still no cure for arthritis, many sufferers fall prey to fast talkers promoting quack remedies. According to the US Arthritis Foundation, arthritis victims spend about $ 1 billion a year on remedies and devices that do no good and in some cases do considerable harm Buying and using quack remedies is merely a waste of money for some. For others there are more serious consequences. Persons using unproven remedies delay or reject medically prescribed therapy. The US Arthritis Foundation says that the average arthritis patient waits more than four years after noticing symptoms, to seek appropriate medical care. Some people wait even longer because they try remedies for self-treatment. Some self-treatment remedies may be harmful because the individual’s overall health condition, allergies, and other medications are not taken into consideration. There may be side-effects of the so-called quick cures. In more recent years quack remedies have ranged from copper bracelets to soaking up radiation from uranium in abandoned mines. Many food fads and exotic drugs have been touted. Food fads have included cod liver oil, sea water, extracts from shellfish, and many others. The US Arthritis Foundation says that no food or vitamin has been shown to affect arthritis, either as a cause or as a cure (with exceptions, in some cases, for gouty arthritis).

Quackery continues to flourish despite efforts of the US Arthritis Foundation and major medical centers, which warn against unproven remedies. Because arthritis is a disease that tends to come and go in many individuals, some think they are being cured when their disease goes into remission in its natural course. Some think they feel better just because they are taking something new. This is a placebo effect. While there is no real change in the condition, the person may feel better temporarily simply because he or she wants to.