Home Community Newsletter Vol 4 Issue 146

Arthritis Insight Newsletter * Vol. 4 Issue 146 April 2, 2003

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Welcome to the 146th issue of the Arthritis Insight Newsletter. All back issues will be posted at /community/newsletter
Feel free to pass this newsletter around to others who may be interested.

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The information in this newsletter should not take the place of advice and guidance from your own health-care providers. Material in this newsletter is provided for educational and informational purposes only. Be sure to check with your doctor before making any changes in your treatment plan. Information presented here is the opinion of the authors and has not necessarily been approved or endorsed by the medical advisors.

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Notes From Tina
(Tina@arthritisinsight.com)
Tina Underwood aka KrissyJo

Greetings Everyone!

The weather has warmed up and I've survived Spring Break with the kids. Life is good!

Fundraiser is moving along - we've raised enough money to catch us up and keep us going for a few months. I just wanted to thank everyone that has donated so far - every single dollars helps! Don't forget we've got some great prizes for our top contributors you can find information on prizes and how to donate at:

/help/fundraiser2003

We *still* haven't heard from our February Arthritis Warrior. Nancy Phillips - if you're out there - please, please drop us a line!

Moving on - here's Ron...

~Kimmy

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Ron's Ramblin's
(Ron@arthritisinsight.com)
Ron Griffin aka IndyRon

Wow, it actually feels like spring has arrived. Thank goodness. The flowers are blooming, the trees are budding and life is all in all pretty darned good. It is hard to believe that I have been retired for a month now. Where did it go. I seem to be busier now than I have been in a long time. I guess that is a good thing, but somehow I thought that the "TODO" list was supposed to be getting shorter, not longer. Oh well, one project at a time and we will get them done... and if not, who cares.

I have had Evan here with me for a week now and the twins for a few days... We really have been having a ball. I had forgotten how good it feels just to be outside and doing almost anything. Today, we redid the front of the Condo and put in a new flower bed with a "rock wall" around it. I certainly am glad that I had three healthy kids to send on search and rescue missions to liberate rocks to stand guard around the garden. LOL, they seemed to have a ball finding just the right stone for the right spot.

I hope that each of you has a wonderful and relatively pain free week this week.. Until next time:

(((((HUGS))))) to all

~Ron

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Your Weekly Giggle
Little Helpers

Have you noticed that children sometimes try to be helpful, but it makes your life more complicated?

I heard a story about a mother who was sick with the flu. Her darling daughter wanted to be a good nurse. She fluffed the pillows and brought a magazine for her mother to read. And then she showed up with a cup of tea.

"You're such a sweetheart," the mother said as she drank the tea. "I didn't know you could make tea."

"Oh, yes," the little girl replied. "I put the tea leaves in the water like you do, and I boiled it, and then I strained it into a cup. But I couldn't find a strainer, so I used the flyswatter."

"You what?"

And the little girl said, "Oh, don't worry, mom. I didn't use the new flyswatter. I used the old one."

Check out all the jokes at:
http://arthritsinsight.com/fun/jokes
Send yours in today!

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Tina's Tips
Tina@arthritisinsight.com

Arthritis can affect your ability to do even the simplest of tasks. I've heard some people say, "Accept your limitations." I'm not sure accepting them is the way to go. I prefer to challenge those limitations, work around them, finding alternate ways of achieving the same goal. Every week I'll share some tips I've found to work around those annoying limitations and I hope all of you will send in your tips too. We may not be the next Martha Stewart, but sometimes the simplest things can help so much.

Many, many thanks to Betty for this week's tip:

Arthritic Hands? In attempting to open those large containers of laundry detergent my hands took a beating until I discovered (by accident) if you just grip the lid and turn only the container off comes the lid with a minimum of effort...same putting the lid back on. Rest the container on something if necessary to steady the booger!

Check out more tips at /living/tips.html and send in yours today to Tina@arthritisinsight.com Keep those tips coming!

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What’s New
Check out all the latest updates at /updates.html

Fundraiser 2003
We'd like to thank Valerie Marsden, Joy Ackerman, Alice Hudson, Eugena Hall, Nann Bell, Sylvia Smith, Karen Krasean, Joanne Paradise, Diane Keeney and Betty Horne for their generous donations!
/help/fundraiser2003

Rosie's SOS
She's back and she's navigating...
/living/family/sos

Members CAN
Rickie creates and Jen learns!
/community/can

Photo Album
Take a walk through Cindy's garden...
/community/photo

Our Pets
Barb tells us about her cat Lucky.
/living/pets/pets.html

Newsletter
The very latest edition is up and ready for you.
/community/newsletter

News
KaeKae's been working hard. All the latest arthritis and general health news gathered from all over the internet - just for you.
/news

Our Pets
Patti tells us about her pooches.
/living/pets/family.html

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Arthritis Insight Chat
/community/chat

The Arthritis Insight Chatroom is a great place to spend a cold, snowy evening. Stop in a warm up with your friends next to the fireplace. We always have hot cocoa and coffee ready!

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Cooking with Char
Char LeFleur
Char@arthritisinsight.com

Hello friends! And welcome to SPRING! The early flowers are almost blooming, the trees are starting to leaf out, the grass is greening, and I love spring!! Although Saturday morning we woke up to snow on the ground. (sssshhhhhiiiiivvvveeeerrrrr!!!) But April is here! And that means Gimpfest is getting closer all the time!

Just a reminder that my husband and I will be hosting Gimpfest in Iowa this summer. Please see Gimpfest: Iowa for dates and details. They really are more fun than you can imagine! So please, attend if you possibly can. You won't regret it!

I recently had a request for vegetarian recipes. Well, I am an omnivore, through and through, but I managed to find these----enjoy! (They actually sound like they would taste great!)


Cabbage Casserole

Ingredients:
1 small head of cabbage, shredded or chopped fine
1 large jar of favorite spaghetti sauce (or make your own)
1 cup rice (I used white, but I'm sure that brown would work too, though you may need to add more water)
1 cup water
1 cup of sliced mushrooms (I'm sure other veggies would work too)

Directions: In a dry, nonstick skillet "fry" the rice until it's brown in color. Then put half of it in the bottom of a large casserole dish. Layer half of the shredded cabbage on top of it. Mix the water and the spaghetti sauce and then pour half of it over the cabbage. Spread half of the mushrooms over this. Then repeat your layers. Bake for about an hour in a 350 degree oven.


Creamy Rice & Spinach Casserole

Ingredients:
several cloves garlic, minced
1 medium to large onion, chopped
3-4 Tbs. olive oil
3-4 Tbs. flour
2 cups soy milk (plain)
1 cup vegetable broth
salt & pepper to taste
1 10-oz package frozen chopped spinach, thawed & drained
4 cups (cooked) brown rice - approx.

Directions: In a large pot, saute garlic & onion in olive oil until softened. Sprinkle w/ flour & stir until mixture is pasty. Add soy milk & broth. Cook, stirring, at a low boil until sauce thickens. Season w/ salt & pepper. Remove from heat & stir in spinach & rice. Add just enough rice so that mixture is still creamy, not dry. Bake in a greased, 3 qt. 9x13 pan at 350 deg. for about 30 minutes, until bubbly. Reheats well. Pasta could be used instead of rice. This recipe is very flexible, so use your imagination. We like it with lots of garlic! Serves: 6-8


Rainbow Enchilada Casserole

Ingredients:
1 medium red onion, chopped 1" square
1 medium yellow pepper, "
1 medium red pepper, "
1 can black beans, drained
1 can chickpeas OR kidney beans, drained
juice of 1 lime
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 jars salsa (we like hot!), 22 oz. each
1 pkg. fat free flour tortillas
salt to taste
pepper to taste

Directions: Combine the vegetables, garlic, lime juice, salt and pepper in a large bowl. Allow to marinate about 2 hours if possible. Cover the bottom of a 9 X 13 casserole dish with one jar of salsa. You may want to heat the tortillas for 15 sec. each in the microwave, if they are frozen. Fill each tortilla with a few tablespoons of the veggie mixture and roll tightly. Place each tortilla, seam side down into the casserole, atop the salsa. Take any remaining vegetables and combine with the second jar of salsa and pour atop the tortillas in the casserole. Bake uncovered in a 350 degree oven for 30-40 min. Remove and allow to cool for 10 min. This tastes WONDERFUL and it's virtually fat free! Additionally, we've found it tastes even better the next day! For an even more substantial variation, add 2 crumbled, heated Boca burgers (vegan) to the veggie filling. You can also add hot sauce, lemon juice (if you don't have a lime handy) or any other vegetable to the filling, although we've found this seems to taste (and keep) the best! Serves: 4-5

If you have questions, comments or suggestions, or have recipes you would like to share, please send them to Char@arthritisinsight.com.

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U.S. Food and Drug Administration
FDA Consumer Magazine
March-April 2003
http://www.fda.gov/fdac/features/2003/203_dtc.html

The Impact of Direct-to-Consumer Advertising
By Carol Lewis

When it comes to advertising prescription drugs on radio and television and in magazines, doctors say that, for the most part, the ads help people more than hurt them. Preliminary results of a Food and Drug Administration survey, released in January, also indicate that most physicians view direct-to-consumer (DTC) ads as one of many factors that affect their medical practices and their interactions with patients.

For decades, prescription drug makers promoted their products exclusively to health-care professionals, who were expected to interpret drug information for their patients. But about 15 years ago, partly because of the increase in the number of patients making their own health-care decisions, some manufacturers began to produce ads targeted to consumers. Since then, DTC advertising has become a popular promotional tool.

The FDA oversees the advertising of prescription drug products under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act and related regulations. That means the agency must ensure that prescription drug information provided by drug firms is truthful, balanced, and accurately communicated. This is accomplished through a comprehensive surveillance, enforcement, and education program, and by fostering better communication of labeling and promotional information to both health professionals and consumers.

The 500-physician survey, released in January 2003, is the third in a series of evaluations that the FDA is using to understand better why doctors prescribe the way they do.

Comparison of this and two previous surveys indicates that awareness of DTC ads is increasing. For example, 81 percent of respondents in 2002 reported seeing or hearing an ad for a prescription drug. This figure is up from 72 percent in 1999. But 58 percent agreed strongly that DTC ads make the drugs seem better than they really are.

The results of all three surveys, which will be summarized in a final report expected to be issued early this year, will help the agency decide whether advertising rules need to be changed to ensure better public understanding of a drug's risks and benefits.

"Much of our compliance and enforcement activity is spent trying to ensure that companies don't low-ball risks in the ad and provide inflated expectations of benefit," says Janet Woodcock, M.D., director of the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research.

Other highlights of the survey include:

• Most physicians agreed that because their patients saw a DTC ad, he or she asked more thoughtful questions during the visit. Some thought the ad made their patients more aware of possible treatments.
  
• Many physicians thought that DTC ads made their patients more involved in their health care.
  
• Physicians thought that they had to provide additional information to patients beyond what had been retained from the DTC ad. About 75 percent of physicians surveyed believed that DTC ads cause patients to think that the drug works better than it does, and many physicians felt some pressure to prescribe something when patients mentioned DTC ads.
  
• Eight percent of physicians said they felt very pressured to prescribe the specific brand-name drug when asked.
  
• The ads can prompt thoughtful discussions between patients and physicians that result in needed treatments being prescribed--often not the treatment mentioned in the ad.
  
• DTC ads help educate patients about their health problems, and provide greater awareness of treatments. The study demonstrated that when a patient asked about a drug, 88 percent of the time they had the condition that the drug treated. And 80 percent of physicians believed patients understood what condition the drug treats.
  
• Doctors believe that patients understand that they need to consult a health-care professional about appropriate treatment. Eighty-two percent responded either "very well" or "somewhat" when asked if they believe that their patients understand that only a doctor can decide if a drug is right for them.

AI Staff
Page last updated on April 2, 2003