It is a timeworn sign of old age and frailty.
Yet arthritis often (1) ______ the young. (1) ______
This disease of the body also has a (2) ______ impact on the mind. (2) ______
"got very (3) ______ I couldn’t sleep. (3) ______
When pain is (4) like that, it changes your personality. (4) ______
And it affected everyone around me," says Nora Baldner, who had
arthritis in both hips. ’T d pour (5) ______ milk on my kids’ cereal
because I didn’t want to walk to the back of the supermarket where
the real milk was." (5) ______
Joint problems are now hurting and crippling 43 million Americans,
and they’ re more (6) ______ than cancer or diabetes. (6) ______
The most common form, osteoarthritis, affects about 21 million.
Rheumatoid arthritis, another common type, hits slightly more than
2 million. (There are 95 or so other forms, often affecting fewer people.)
And the numbers are going up (7) ______ (7) ______
By 2025, the total is expected to top (8) ______ million, (8) ______
as an obese population pounds more heavily on its joints and an active
generation of baby (9) ______ grinds them down. (9) ______
What’s worse, these people will be fighting the disease without medicines
that had become staples of treatment: The drugs Vioxx and Bextra have just
been yanked off the market because they appear to (10) ______ the risk of heart disease, (10) ______
and that same shadow of fear has been cast over remaining drugs like Celebrex
and even ibuprofen-- a medicine that had already worded doctors because heavy
use can cause bleeding in the stomach.