Funky Arthur now have a great range of Switch Sticks at an introductory price of just £32.49.  With 12 different designs you’re certain to find a stick to match every occasion and outfit. 

The creative amongst you can even design your own Switch Stick.  Paint-your-own kits come with a silver aluminium shaft, a set of 4 Humbrol acrylic paints (red, blue, green and yellow) and 2 paintbrushes. The sticks have a brown handle and a rubber base with silver band.  The only thing limiting you is your imagination!

Men and women are different, we all know that, but a team at the University of Aberdeen are concerned that these gender differences may impact upon the evaluation of osteoarthritis treatment.

Assessing the success of treatments for osteoarthritis often involves administering patient questionnaires. Dr Pollard of the University of Aberdeen’s College of Life Sciences and Medicine argues that some questions may skew results, giving an inaccurate picture of the effectiveness of treatment.  Dr Pollard explains:

“The classic example is a question to assess how depressed people are which asks ‘Do you cry a lot?’.  Women may say ‘yes’ to this question when they are only mildly depressed, but men who say ‘yes’ are usually more depressed”

The Arthritis Research Campaign (ARC) has now awarded the team a grant of £122,000 over three years to carry out research which should result in more accurate assessment of patient outcomes.  The study will look at how gender, socio-economic, demographic and clinical factors affect the way people respond to questions.  Dr Pollard continues:

“This is very important as many decisions about the treatments patients with osteoarthritis receive are based on results from such questionnaires.  We hope the funding from the Arthritis Research Campaign will enable us to improve the accuracy of these questions and ultimately the treatment patients receive.”

Wow it’s been a busy couple of weeks.  We’ve been working hard to expand our range of arthritis aids and have added a couple of new products which we think you’ll really love.

Functional Hand Splint

The first is the Functional Hand Splint.  This handy gadget has been designed by therapists to turn a whole range of implements into tools you can use without having to make a painful tight grip.  Use it for toothbrushes, cutlery, pens and pencils - whatever you can think of really.  It’s keeps your joints perfectly aligned, relieving presure and pain and we’re sure that you’ll love it.

Arthritic Crutch

The next new product for Funky Arthur is the Arthritic Crutch.  Feedback from our customers suggests that traditional walking sticks and canes can be difficult for painful hands and wrists.  This crutch is specifically designed for people with arthritis and, unlike normal crutches, body weight is supported through a cushioned forearm trough.

We’re always on the look out for great aids so if you find anything that you think we should stock then please let us know.

Angela - still trying to track down some pink Thermoskin Gloves…..

We are really excited to announce the latest addition to our ever expanding range of arthritis aids - Medical Grade Crocs!  If you haven’t tried them before then they are an absolute must.  Supremely comfortable and designed to absorb shock, they minimise the load on your feet, legs, knees, hips and back.

We are stocking two product lines - the Relief Crocs range  and the Silver Fox Crocs Range. 

The Relief range looks like the style of Crocs you have probably seen before, only these are especially designed to give relief to a range of feet problems including plantar fasciitis and bunions. 

The Silver Fox range are a more fashionable alternative with a Mary Jane style heel.  Both ranges have special footbednubs to stimulate circulation and both deliver the comfort you have come to expect from Crocs.

A recent study suggests that increasing the strength of your thigh muscles may protect against the pain of osteoarthritis in the knee - for women at least. 

Researchers recruited around 1600 participants thought to be at risk of developing knee arthritis based on factors such as weight, knee symptoms or previous knee surgery or injury.  Anyone who had experienced knee pain in the preceding 30 days was excluded from the study.  After 30 months, the researchers found that women with the strongest thigh muscles at the start of the study were less likely to get arthritis knee pain.  The effect, however, was not seen in men. 

Interestingly thigh muscle strength was not linked to the chances of visible x-ray damage without pain, only symptomatic osteoarthritis. More research is needed to explain why this should be the case, and of course the study may not apply to people without an initial high risk of developing osteoarthritis.  Nonetheless in the interest of prevention rather than cure, perhaps today is the day to finally dust down the thighmaster?