April 2003
Ask Dr. Marks: 04/03
Subscribers Only There seem to be a lot of NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) on the market. Are they really very different from one another? All NSAIDs, which are designed to relieve arthritis pain and inflammation, have different side effects. Substantial research has gone into not only reducing these drugs’ side effects but into improving a patient’s response to these medications. The newest are called COX-2 inhibitors, which work through a different mechanism than traditional NSAIDs to limit…
Falls Can Be Serious—18 Ways To Prevent Them
Subscribers Only Falls are the leading cause of accidental death among people over the age of 75 and the second leading cause of accidental death among people age 45- 75, according to the National Although no one has been able to crack the mystery of the relationship between aging and falling, one thing is certain: As people age, sensory factors such as vision, inner ear and touch decline, making them less able to detect that they’re slipping.…
Surgery: It’s Not Your Only Option
Subscribers Only Although surgery is often the best option when your arthritis pain becomes too much and doesn’t respond to other treatments, there’s a lot you can do to postpone the need for surgery. If your arthritis is caught early enough, a variety of experts can often put together a therapeutic plan to help you manage your pain, slow your disease and delay what may only seem inevitable. …
Arthritis And Your Income Tax
Subscribers Only With the tax deadline right around the corner, it pays to know, as an arthritis sufferer, just what medical expenses attributable to the disease Uncle Sam will allow you to deduct. Allowable Expenses First, a deductible medical expense is any cost of diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment or prevention of a specific disease or any treatment that affects a part or function of the body. …
Is Your Painkiller Putting You In Danger Of A Heart Attack?
Subscribers Only Afew years ago, physicians became encouraged when two new drugs, Celebrex and Vioxx—COX-1 and COX-2 inhibitors, called “coxibs”—became available for arthritis sufferers. Your doctor may well have prescribed these drugs for you, since they markedly reduce the risk of stomach ulcers associated with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) like Motrin (ibuprofen) and Naprosyn (naproxen). This was important because almost 110,000 patients are hospitalized and 16,500 die every year in the U.S. due to NSAID-related ulcer complications.…
In the News: 04/03
Subscribers Only New Arthritis Drug Breaks The Marketing Mold—It’s Free Abbot Laboratories, makers of the rheumatoid arthritis drug Humira, announced in January that it will provide its recently approved drug free to Medicare patients without drug coverage—at least until the government agrees to pay for it. The move, according to an article by reporter Bruce Japsen in the Chicago Tribune, “is part altruism and part marketing because the company’s drug is competing with a rival—Remicade—that has Medicare coverage.…
Supplements: Don’t Swallow The Claims
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