HEAT, EXERCISE AND REST

In a paper out of the forties, Old Trunks found this advice. For those of you with arthritis, these old home remedies have some merit.

The fact that there is no specific medicine or operation which will cure arthritis is no reason for arthritis sufferers to resign themselves to pain and disability.

Reassurance as to the effectiveness of the carefully supervised use of rest, heat, and exercise in a patients own home is given in the final bulletin issued today in the March series of bulletins prepared by the Minnesota State Medical Association's Committee on Public Health Education.

Rest is a treatment of first importance the doctor's say. A basic minimum of ten hours in bed at night and one hour of rest morning and afternoon is usually required. Exercise is important too, though it should never be aimless nor repeated until the joints are irritated. Definite exercise should be prescribed and carried out on a physician's orders.

Heat can be applied at home. By means of hot baths in a patients own tub and by simply constructed electric bakes which any tinsmith can make at a trifling cost. Where electricity is not available, warm paraffin heated in a double boiler and applied alternately with bandages on the affected joint will provide heat for an hour or more plus a good splint that can be kept on, if prescribed, for a longer period.

Massage is useful too and can be learned by home attendants but should only be used lightly .

Many deformities develop because the patient is allowed to sit or stand or lie in bed improperly, the doctors say. Knees that have been bent to allow a pillow beneath them do not straighten out after the pain and inflammation are over. Proper splints or supports, if they are needed, good posture, a bed that does not sag, and properly fitted shoes aid in preventing dreaded deformities.

Twenty four hours in a day, according to the article, half need to be in bed. But if you are in bed too long, your legs won't straighten out! Seriously sometimes even in the modern age with modern drugs, rest helps.

I wish you good health.

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