ARTHRITIS: CASE OF USE IT OR LOSE IT

For years, doctors recommended rest and immobility for treating the pain of arthritis. All that changed about 10 years ago.

"The old saying, If you don't use it you're going to lose it, is very truthful when it comes to arthritis," says Charlene Linn, program representative for the Regional Arthritis Center in Cape Girardeau.

Linn has been training instructors how to work with people with arthritis for nearly a decade.

"The old theory on all forms of arthritis was that you would rest the joint," she said. "Now the new theory is, and it's been proven, even if you have a painful joint from rheumatoid or osteoarthritis that you gently do a few repetitions each day."

Classes that teach arthritis exercises have sprung up all over Cape Girardeau. Water classes are conducted in indoor pools. The buoyancy provided by the water helps ease pressure on the joints, and the water resistance can make for an aerobic workout. Other classes, called PACE for People with Arthritis Can Exercise, deal with everyday activities and motions.

"We're not worried about getting flat abdominals necessarily, or losing weight," Virgina Heston, who teaches a PACE course at Universal Health and Fitness Center said. "We're concerned about lifting the groceries from the car, turning around putting our seat belts on. Getting up and down out of the chair, walking the steps. Exercises for daily living."

More than 36 million Americans suffer from at least one of the 100 forms of arthritis. Osteoarthritis occurs when the cushioning in joints breaks down and bones begin to rub together during movement. Rheumatoid arthritis is a crippling disease that causes deformation of the joint, swelling, stiffening and pain.

Arthritis affects children as well as the elderly and is not limited to just joint disorders. There are forms of arthritis that affect the muscles.

Besides Universal's PACE class, instructors work with groups of Arthritis sufferers at the Cape Girardeau Senior Center, the Victorian Inn, the Senior Learning Program at Southeast Missouri State University and the HealthSouth Rehabilitation Center.

Motivating people to exercise when the most basic movements often cause pain is a challenge, Linn said.

"You just ask them to try it a time or two," she said. "Maybe after a few times you can prove it's not going to make it worse. It may be weeks down the line before they can see that it is helping."

The courses range from the 16-week program at Universal to a seven-week course Linn teaches on dealing with fibromyalgia, an arthritis that effects muscles.

"From exercise to relaxation to medication, just every aspect, learning to pace yourself and not try to clean your whole house in one day," Linn said of her course. "There are several forms of arthritis that are systemic and are really very fatiguing."

Heston said the social aspect of the classes is what will bring many people back despite the discomfort.

"They will participate more and be more consistent with their exercise if they're in a group setting," she said. "Being with people who share the same type of problem they have encourages them. If you have chronic pain like some do with arthritis you often get depressed."

Heston said arthritis sufferers have to break out of the pain cycle in order to take back their lives.

"You don't feel like exercising so your joints stiffen. Then you have more pain and then you get more depressed," she said. "Getting out like this helps to break that pain cycle and you can share that with other people. You begin to take charge of your body again, you begin to realize that there is something that I can do about this. That having arthritis isn't just the end for me.