Medicine: Arthritis Treatment

Some 3,000,000 people in the U. S. who hobble around with stiff, aching joints are waiting for an arthritis cure. Doctors have tried warm baths, short-wave treatment, artificial fever therapy and vaccination, but have achieved few cures. Arthritis has over 65 variations and doctors cannot agree on any one cause. Certain it is that there is an arthritis type: a tired, nervous, constipated individual easily susceptible to colds and infections who may develop a full-fledged arthritis after a streptococcus infection, or a series of slight injuries to some organ.

Two types of arthritis are recognized: atrophic and hypertrophic. The atrophic form may occur in persons anywhere between the ages of 20 and 50, causes swelling of joints, wasting of bones and muscles, destruction of cartilage sheathing the ends of the bones, and fusion of joint bones. The hypertrophic form, which usually occurs in older people as a result of wear & tear, is less severe, less painful. The ends of the bones grow thicker and their cartilage coverings slip off and work their way around joint cavities (joint mice), leaving the raw edges of the joint-bones to scrape together.

Last week at a meeting of the Atlantic County Medical Society, 60-year-old Dr. Samuel Stern of Atlantic City announced that he had successfully used a new drug, Arthranol, for the treatment of arthritis. Arthranol is a highly complex salt made from a nitrogen compound, phosphorus and iodine. Since most doctors believe that a focus of bacterial infection is responsible for arthritis they have leaned toward vaccine treatment. Dr. Stern has long held that the most important beneficial elements in a vaccine are the aminoacids produced by bacteria. In hunting for a more potent form of aminoacid he hit upon a salt which has a nitrogenous constituent similar to that of aminoacids.

In four years 35 physicians all over the U. S. have given 250 patients intramuscular injections of Arthranol. Over 90% of the patients were relieved. Many patients with the less severe hypertrophic arthritis were completely cured, and those with the incurable atrophic form attained greater freedom of movement. Said Dr. Stern: "First benefits in acute stages are evident in from 24 to 72 hours. No ill effect has been noted. . . ."