Arthritis treatment up to couple

Dear Dr. Gott: My questions concern medication for osteoarthritis. I take glucosamine/chondroitin daily. My wife takes grape juice with Certo daily.

Which is better?

Would it be better to take both the glucosamine-chondroitin and the grape juice with Certo?

Dear Reader: Alternative therapy for many medical ailments is rarely effective in all cases.

For example, a recent study indicated that glucosamine/chondroitin therapy for osteoarthritis is no more effective than a placebo. Yet I have received hundreds of letters from readers who are convinced that this combination reduced their arthritis pain.

Who can argue with success?

By the same token, the combination of Certo (pectin) and purple grape juice appears to be an effective remedy for arthritic pain in some people. I don’t know why.

Although you don’t mention a third option (topical odorless castor oil), since I mentioned it in print, hundreds of readers have found it to be effective. Why? No one knows.

My fundamental belief is that these remedies deserve a chance because they are safe, cheap, easily available, often effective, free of side effects and do not require a prescription.

I’ll have to leave the decision in your hands because I cannot predict which one of your therapeutic options will work best. So continue your glucosamine/chondroitin, have your wife continue her Certo/grape juice and, at the end of a month, compare notes.

If you are better, continue. If your wife is better (and you aren’t), switch to Certo.

If neither of you has improved, try both therapies.

Although this approach does not meet the criteria for a double-blind study, the newest love affair in the medical profession, it at least will give you an initial impression. Let me know how this turns out.

To give you related information, I am sending you a copy of my Health Report “Understanding Osteoarthritis.” Other readers who would like a copy should send a long, self-addressed, stamped envelope and $2 to Newsletter, P.O. Box 167, Wickliffe, OH 44092. Be sure to mention the title.

Dear Dr. Gott: You may enjoy the following poem that I composed:

If you have any problems that make sleeping grim,

Like unintended shaking of a restless limb,

Pain that will not end with a medicated patch,

Or a itchy twitch that you cannot scratch,

Take a bar of good unadulterated soap,

And insert it ‘neath the sheets so that you can cope.

If this doesn’t work for you or just ain’t so hot,

You should write about your troubles to Dr. Gott.

Dear Reader: I am honored by your magnificent gesture. Thanks for writing.