Managing Your Arthritis…There are more than 100 different types of arthritis, but all have one thing in common: The pain can interfere with your ability to do the things that you enjoy

Arthritis is the leading cause of disability in Americans older than 15.

The number of people with arthritis is staggering. In 2005, 66 million adults in the United States — nearly 1 in 3 — had either been diagnosed with arthritis or were living with undiagnosed chronic joint pain and other symptoms. Although the risk of some types of arthritis, such as osteoarthritis, increases with age, more than half of those affected by all types of arthritis are younger than 65.

It doesn’t have to be that way. If you have arthritis, there are steps you can take, starting today, to protect your joints, reduce pain, and improve mobility. But living with arthritis often requires a multi-faceted approach, which can involve drug treatment, physical therapy, exercise and even complementary therapies.

Better drugs with fewer side effects are also available for treating the pain of arthritis

There is a large arsenal of medications available to treat the various kinds

FAST FACTS Five ways to treat arthritis — naturally! Exercise • Diet • Heat and cold therapy • Acupuncture • Glucosamine and chondroitin

 of arthritis. New drugs have brought significant relief to rheumatoid arthritis patients, although not without some potentially dangerous side effects. Other promising new drugs are emerging. For example, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently approved an interleukin-1 inhibitor for use in treating rheumatoid arthritis. Better drugs with fewer side effects are also available for treating the pain of osteoarthritis.

Despite the variety of medications available for arthritis, physical therapy remains a cornerstone of traditional treatment. Physical therapists focus on restoring or maintaining physical function by designing an individualized treatment program for you. The physical therapist first will thoroughly evaluate your pain, functional ability, strength, and endurance levels, then will provide advice about ways to ease pressure on your joints while building muscles to support them. Physical therapy can take place at a hospital or outpatient clinic, in the therapist’s office, or in your home. Some activities can be done alone; others require the therapist’s assistance.

One in four people with arthritis use some type of complementary therapy

You are likely to have much less guidance when it comes to deciding whether to use complementary therapies, and which ones. Such therapies literally run the gamut from A to Z — from acupuncture to zinc supplements. And they’re popular: One widely cited 1997 paper estimated that one in four people with arthritis used some type of complementary therapy. Although hundreds of such therapies exist, only a few have actually proved to be effective when evaluated in rigorous studies. To become a wise consumer of complementary therapies, become a skeptical one. Don’t buy into any treatment that promises a cure. If you are contemplating any physical or complementary treatment, you should first discuss it with your doctor to make sure it will support, rather than hinder, your arthritis management plan