Moderate exercise reduced the onset of arthritis symptoms in women age 72-79 by 46%.

The Australian Longitudinal Study of Women followed two groups of women (ages 48-55 and 72-79) for three years who had reported no arthritis symptoms. Those exercising 1.5 hours per week experienced significantly less arthritis symptoms, and 2.5 hours per week showed an even greater preventive effect. Moderately active middle age women reduced their risk by 29% while the older age group reduced it by 46%.

PositiveTip: The older we get the greater the benefit of exercise. It helps prevent arthritis symptoms and aids in better management of the pain and stiffness.

Loving relationships reduce the perception of pain and stress.

Researchers investigating pain responses found that when women are able to view a picture of their partner, as opposed to photos of an object or a stranger, they experienced a lower perception of pain. The longer the women had been in the loving relationship, the stronger the brain activity where they sensed feelings of safety -- an area that can inhibit signals of fear and anxiety. Also, brain activity was lowered in the area responsible for a stress response.

PositiveTip:  Love can heal a host of problems. Everyone gets sick and has pain, but strong, loving relationships will make life less stressful and painful.

Glucosamine, chondroitin and the combination are no better than a placebo for joint pain.

A meta-analysis of 10 randomized controlled trials of glucosamine and chondroitin alone or in combination and placebo has found these products give no benefit over the placebo for the relief of hip or knee pain. Six of these trials also found they had no effect on joint-space narrowing.

PositiveTip: While apparently safe, strong evidence suggests taking glucosamine and chondroitin supplements is a waste of hard earned money.

Procedural pain control improved by skin-to-skin contact with mother!

In a randomized clinical trial of 640 healthy full-term newborns in Brazil were studied to what method reduced the pain of an intramuscular vaccine injection the most. A validated facial pain expression score was determined at the time of injection. Skin-to-skin contact with the mother plus 25% oral dextrose was found to control the pain most effectively. Several reader comments suggested the investigators should have included skin-to-skin contact with breast feeding instead of the oral dextrose.

PositiveTip: Most mother's have intuitively known that skin-to-skin contact and breast feeding makes an infant's life better--but it is good to see science confirm it!