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Future with ArthritisIf you have received treatment for your arthritis, you may already have benefited from advances made within the past few years. While no cure has been discovered for most forms of arthritis, many recent improvements in treatment may relieve pain, prevent deformity, and make it Possible for you and many others to lead more normal lives. Increased public awareness of arthritis has helped focus attention on the need for research and the many advantages of improving therapy. Each year scientists uncover more missing pieces to the arthritis puzzle. Hundreds of drugs as well as other treatments now are in experimental stages that might soon do even more to help ease the pain and disability associated with arthritis. Researchers are excited about many future possibilities because of scientific projects currently under way. New Treatments for ArthritisWhile research has made great strides in furthering our understanding of arthritis, there still is no cure for most forms of arthritis. Therefore, the best treatment program for arthritis must make use of all available therapies - rest and exercise, physical therapy, proper nutrition, medication, and surgery when indicated. Thus while medications are a basic part of arthritis therapy, they should never be used as the sole treatment. The Need for Continued ResearchEventual control of arthritis must come through better under standing of its causes. In the United States, major research efforts are channeled through the US Arthritis Foundation, which provides grants to selected centers of patient care, research, and training. More than one-third of the total income of the national office is directed toward, research. Recipients of the research awards work in more than 50 institutions throughout the United States. The US Arthritis Foundation is the only national voluntary health association devoted exclusively to finding the causes of and cures for all the various form of arthritis. Researchers know that major efforts are necessary to continue arthritis research. William J. Arnold, MD, Director of Rheumatology at Lutheran General Hospital, Park Ridge, Illinois, summed up the viewpoint of many at a recent meeting of the Illinois chapter of the US Arthritis Foundation: “Federal funding to deal with categorical disease problems should be at a level commensurate with their toll in human terms, coupled with their impact on the national economy. Arthritis currently affects more than 31 million Americans and annually costs the nation $14.5 billion. We have first-rate basic science research going on. There’s no other way to get answers. We cannot limit our focus. We are too close to important discoveries.” |