Deborah Schwab, RN, NP, MSN
Blue Shield of California
Excerpted from The New Medicine Outtakes

We have a program for arthritis based on the work done by Kate Lorig at Stanford that we use for our elder population, our Medicare programs. Some of it is mind-body. A lot of it is based on self-help – understanding the properties of having arthritis, understanding how behaviors like stretching and exercise can help, and understanding how to adjust your lifestyle by keeping a log of your pain… Understand that some underlying problems with arthritis are there to stay and it’s up to you to work to manage that in partnership with your physician.

There are many programs or interventions now because of the explosion in clinical study and literature… Mind-body interventions are really one of those areas where there are some good studies that are showing proven results. Those interventions are usually very easy and straightforward. They’re often person-focused, patient-focused. So, patients who want to evoke those should feel free to do that and shouldn’t have health care profession telling them not to, because there are outcomes associated with it. At the same time, because there’s so many crazy theories out there, you don’t want to just say the sky’s the limit, do whatever you want. The real jewel is trying to pick out the interventions that do achieve outcomes.