Hi all,
I quite possibly have arthritis in my spine and possibly wrists but am dealing with other stuff, hence why I am on this site! (fusion/ADR etc)
BUT I saw these postings and felt compelled to respond! my dad was diagnosed with R.A. at 48 y o . he had to retire and was told it was so agressive he would be in a wheel chair within 2yrs. he lost 80% use of hands and feet within weeks. he read a book called the road back and found a doctor who agreed to treat him using similar methods (high dose antibiotics over long periods of time e.g. 10 days on 7 days off for mths) as the doctor who wrote the book (scamill I think) believed it to be a joint infection. it wasnt easy (he got a lot of colds and flus during the time, and never being sick it was frustrating for him) BUT he has been in full remission since, plays league tennis and is in his 60's now. during the time he was doing this treatment he still had pain but decided not to take steriods and used glucosamine, on its own it didn't touch it but when take with 400mg chondroitin + he had pretty much total relief and swears by it, and managed to stay off all steriods during this time. apparantly some glucosamine can have high levels of mercury (particularly the made in china stuff) so watch out for that. ok hope this helps...best of luck to you all!

Michelle