Jackie had old bones in a young body

Jackie was still young when she was crippled by arthritis.

BY Jackie Pereira 15 June, 2007

Old bones in young bodies

When most people hear the word “Arthritis”, they think of elderly people with misshapen hands, bent backs and an inability to walk far or faster than a shuffle. While this can be true, it is only a very small part of the picture. Although there are more than 100 different types of arthritis, the most common are osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis.

The fact is that arthritis can strike anyone at any age and some forms are even predominately found in young people. Almost 60% of all people with arthritis are aged between 15 and 64. Almost 1 million visits to the doctors last year in patients under the age of 64 were due to pain caused by arthritis, 20% of those were under the age of 40.

Nearly 120,000 young people were diagnosed last year with osteoarthritis using X rays, but doctors say that this figure is likely to be much higher as many young people either do not get their conditions diagnosed or are misdiagnosed.  Almost 180,000 were diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis.

Women are three times more likely than men to get rheumatoid arthritis, the most debilitating form of the disease. Unlike osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis typically affects the entire body. It is especially painful and commonly strikes women in their twenties and thirties.

One such woman is Jackie Pereira, a 35-year old call centre operator from Dunfermline, Scotland. Jackie could barely walk her young son Jordan to school in the mornings until she discovered Celafen cream.

Jackie says:

"I began to suffer from bad pain in my knee joints years ago. I have got arthritis early in life because years ago when I was a teenager I contracted a viral disease that left my joints damaged."

Living in Scotland Jackie suffered more than most from the cold and damp and some mornings she admits it was too painful to even walk down the stairs.

"I stopped being able to walk Jordan to school years ago due to the arthritis in my knees, but when I had to hobble just to get down the stairs in the mornings, I felt like an old woman. Although I knew my condition was not my fault, I also felt guilty that I could not play active games like football with my son, especially as his dad was not around. He wanted me to be an active mum and instead all I could do was sit on the sidelines and watch him kick a ball around."

But because Jackie  took so many painkillers as a teenager her stomach is very sensitive to NSAID’s that her doctor had prescribed her for her arthritis. In desperation she tried just about every natural remedy there is but nothing seemed to make much difference, until she opened her local paper one morning.

"I first read about Celafen in my local newspaper, they were advertising for people to take part in a trial on it. I immediately enrolled as it sounded like an exciting new product and I had nothing to loose as no other treatments were working for me."

"The minute I got the cream in the post I rubbed it into my knees. I don’t really know what I was expecting but what happened was incredible. Within just 30 minutes, or maybe even less, the pain in my knees began to subside. Not only did the pain reduce but I noticed that within about an hour of apply the cream my knees felt less stiff as well. My knees had not felt that good in several months and I had only the cream for 30 min.."

"I now use the cream twice a day, morning and night and I take the Celafen capsules too. I’ve been doing this since Christmas and this half term I actually played a game of football with Jordan for the first time since he learned to kick a ball when he was five years old. I feel like a new woman and I a proper mum to Jordan now. I usually dread January and February as they are the coldest months and my joints get really painful, but this year I barely noticed the pain. I still have the odd twinge now and then if I overdo it, but generally I’d say I feel almost back to the way I was five years ago."

"I think anyone with arthritis needs to consider non –drug alternatives in their pain management treatment plan, especially if it’s early onset arthritis like mine, otherwise you are looking at 30-40 years at least of taking drugs every day of your life, which cannot be good for you and when there are alternatives as good as Celafen, why take drugs?"