Arthritis seminar helps community members manage the disease

Sewing, needlepoint and gardening are passions of Susan Robinson, a 60-year-old retired school teacher from Carlsbad. When stiffness and pain in her back and hands robbed her of fully enjoying these pursuits, she stoically coped.

When it affected her ability to keep up with her young grandchildren, she knew she had to be more proactive.

“When I’m flaring, the pain can be an 8 to a 10 (on a 10-point pain scale),” says Robinson. “I can’t hold a pencil or use a computer; forget about chasing after a three-year-old. It is very disheartening.”

Her doctor told her to go sit it on one of Dr. Howard Kaye’s arthritis education lectures at Scripps Coastal Medical Center in Vista.

A Scripps rheumatologist and author of the book “Arthritis: Pain Free, Side Effect Free,” Dr. Kaye has been delivering his educational lectures in North County for nine years. For the past year, his talks have been offered for free to the community by Scripps.

And he packs them in. Some come leaning on canes. One man walked into a recent lecture sporting thick black braces wrapped around both knees.

Without exception, on the third Wednesday of every month, Dr. Kaye lectures before a full house of 20 or more. Most are seniors, many of whom have an osteoarthritis diagnosis. Some don’t know if they have the condition or not.

Many are referred by their doctors. Others learn of the informational talks through the local newspapers or Scripps’ publications and website.

Scripps Coastal Medical Center provides an array of health education classes for the communities it serves from Oceanside to Chula Vista. Because it services a large senior population in North County, arthritis management is a popular topic and addresses one of the region’s top health concerns, according the San Diego County Health Care Needs Assessment.

Scripps Coastal also provides classes such as Healthy Hearts, Reducing Heart Failure, and Weight Management. In 2009, more than 90 staff hours and nearly $6,000 were committed to support the classes and 250 residents attended a free health education class offered at Scripps Coastal.

Surveys of people who have attended Dr. Kaye’s lectures have revealed that his information has resulted in less pain, fewer doctor visits and the need for less medication. Education is power in dealing with this condition, he said.

“There is no cure for osteoarthritis,” says Dr. Kaye. “Because of that, education is very important so people are not misled.”

Kaye’s dynamic delivery includes mimicking hobbling, grasping his knees and pinpointing various parts of the body most susceptible to osteoarthritis. Perhaps most profound is when he succinctly outlines the symptoms of osteoarthritis, a condition of the joints affecting 27 million older people, versus rheumatoid arthritis, a disease affecting 4 million.

As he does, heads begin nodding. Whispers of “Oh, I didn’t know that,” and “I understand now” flutter through the room.

“Once we get the understanding that osteoarthritis has no cure, but is a condition of getting older, we move to the second part of the lecture, that of taking care of your condition through education,” says Dr. Kaye.

Halfway through his talk, Scripps physical therapist Laura Kranz takes over, announcing energetically to the congregation, “Motion is lotion.”

Kranz leads the group in gentle stretching exercises they can do while still seated. She demonstrates each stretch and posture in the handouts attendees received at the beginning of the lecture, keeping up a steady stream of questions.

“Has anyone ever tried exercising in bed before getting up in the morning?” she asks. Nobody had, thus prompting another demonstration from Kranz.

Dr. Kaye resumes his talk with information on pain relievers, proper nutritional supplements, the importance of physical therapy, joint replacement surgery and the danger of prescription medications. Like a master storyteller, he holds the group in his thrall as he rattles off statistics about over-the-counter pain relievers and their potentially lethal interaction with others, some that people in the group are currently taking.

“Anti-inflammatories were never invented for osteoarthritis,” he says. “In 2008, 120,000 people were admitted to hospitals for upper gastrointestinal bleeding due to anti-inflammatory treatment. Of those, 18,000 died in the hospital. It is the fifth most common cause of death in hospitals.”

Bill Cooper, the 72-year-old man from Fallbrook wearing the knee braces, said he considers this information life saving.

“I’m taking therapeutic aspirin daily for my heart and I recently went on prednisone,” he says. “There could be a drug interaction and I didn’t even know it. This information saved my life.”

Kaye says there are several fields of medicine where education is paramount and it is usually very clearly directed from the doctor to the patient. Enlightening people about osteoarthritis, however, can be effectively done in a group.

“There are so very few diagnoses where a group lecture is more beneficial than a personal doctor/patient visit,” says Kaye. “Osteoarthritis is one of them.”

Susan Robinson, who had been taking copious notes during the lecture, snapped her pen shut with a satisfied smile. “This has been so helpful, better than a book,” she says. “And seeing so many people here was wonderful. Now I don’t feel so alone with this problem.”

Learn more

To find out more about the free arthritis lecture, and other Scripps events, call 1-800-SCRIPPS (1-800-727-4777).