I have a pupil, a lady in her 70's who is suffering from arthritis. She knows it is getting worse but is determined not to give up the piano until she has to.
The main problem at the moment is that it is painful for her to stretch big chords, but her favourite music is from the romantic era and does tend to involve big stretches.
Can anyone suggest any books of simplified romantic music that may not involve such large stretches, or any excercises I can get her to do that could help. I am assuming that it will be good for her to carry on playing the piano, but she is going to check with her doctor.
All ideas for improving the situation gratefully recieved.
She is playing at about grade 5 level.

There is alot of arthritis in my family and as such it is something I have always been aware of. There is a book that I use occasionally as I'm only in my 30's so only get the odd twinge at the moment, It's called 'Eat to beat arthritis. There has been alot of research into food that effects it, for example avoiding tomatos and rhubarb (2 of my favourites) really helps because of the acid in them. Also taking supplements of molasses (found in black treacle, yuck!) has been proved to help.

Playing the piano is a brilliant thing for it as it keeps the fingers working, so giving up is absolutely the worst thing she could do, although it might be painful it is far better than the alternative of not being able to move them at all, and still having the pain.

To be honest, to keep the level that she is playing at, you may have to adapt some of the existing pieces to make them more approachable, because there are certainly books around with easy romantic music in them, the AB's romantic pieces for piano being the obvious one and you will find books like Tunes you've always wanted to play, with simplified well known pieces in, but you may still get stretches in them and the only way to avoid it is to go back to grade 1/2 level pieces, which isn't ideal, so going through the pieces together and maybe rearranging chords or omitting the odd note might be the alternative.

Hope this has helped and good luck

I have arthritis. I gave up a full time teaching post and became a singing teacher recently. Over the last few years I took up the piano again. There are days when it is really painful...I enjoy playing Baroque...I suppose and that means a lot of runs and so on...... my right hand is the worst. I've never been confident with romantic piano music.....so would be interested if there were a simplified book. My philosophy is use it or lose it ...so I do keep going. I took up the trombone recently which is doing wonders for my elbow. I also play recorders but the tenor is tricky because of the stretch. I would say keeping the fingers going is really important so what about encouraging her to play more early music.... the stretching can become impossible sometimes. Most of the simplified books I have I have found in charity shops...I'm only in my 40's. Don't know if this is any help

Also avoiding apples and especially citrus fruits, they are the worst for acids that collect in the joints. I had a friend who was convinced she was becoming arthritic, she went to the doctor and he asked her if she drunk a lot of fruit juice. She did, she was a sucker for orange juice and would drink nearly 500 ml of it a day - because she thought it was healthy. She was told to cut out the orange juice altogether and avoid acidic fruits. She did and within three weeks all the stiffness in her joints had gone.

I can highly recommend glucosamine and chondroitin supplements too. My formerly dodgy right hip (from a fall off a horse) no longer gives me any bother, even on the coldest and wettest days. Be aware though that it is possible to be intolerant to the glucosamine, it can upset some peoples stomachs, but I don't think side-effects like that are very common.

So tomatoes aren't good for us and yet the lycopene(sp?) is good for the skin and acts as an anti-oxidant. You can't win, whatever you eat. I believe everything in moderation, possibly the best way to avoid sudden onset of a food intolerance or the opposite by being deficient in some essential mineral/vitamin.

I agree with the advice of keeping the hands moving. The very reason our joints 'stiffen' as we get older is because we simply don't move them around enough. Unless someone has a medical reason not to move in a particular way, then keep that body moving. Dancing is far better for you than going to the gym or jogging (huge strain on the hips, knees and ankles).

Just to add to Amanda's recommendation of glucosamine - most glucosamine is derived from shellfish, so if you are allergic to seafood you need to hunt around for one that isn't.

Artificial sweeteners can give arthritis symptoms, particularly those that sell themselves as sugar substitutes rather than just sweeteners (i.e. are granular).

I believe that a lot of shellfish allergy sufferers can take glucosamine, because it is derived from the shell itself and not the fish inside. Hopefully someone else can confirm this, or otherwise.

My specialist told me playing the piano was the best thing I could do for arthritis in my hands.

Not sure which part it is derived from, however my mother had a bad allergic reaction to it - it probably depends how severe your allergy to seafood is, however I do know that all containers of it here (in Oz) have to have warnings on the bottle, and that they do make a synthetic glucosamine that is fine.

Avoid monosodiumglutamate in foods too - that used to really make my mum's arthritis bad......

Thanks for all the advice. I told the pupil in question that my forum friends would come up with everything from ideas for music to exercises to dietry advice, and you have been a great help. I shall pass all this info on in the next lesson and I'm sure my pupil will be much encouraged.

I had a discussion regarding arthritis just last week with one of my patients - and it sounds like a mad idea... but.. Nettle stings. A neighbour of hers came around to her house asking if she had any nettles in her garden. Odd request she thought, yet when she asked, that was the answer. The effect of the nettle stings apparently relieves the arthritis very effectively. Go figure.

Not evidence based or peer reviewed. Just throwing it out there. Might help?

Yes, I've heard about nettles being good for arthritis too.

Does nettle soup work? I think that might be a nicer way around it!!!!

Diversion, Opiates, Acupuncture, & The gate theory of pain perception.

In simple terms the nettle stings hurt and are new, so your brain (or nervous sytem at any rate) "opens the gate" to the pain from the nettle stings. This masks or diverts the pain from the arthritis, "closing the gate" to that. When the nettle sting has worn off the arthritis gate stays closed for a while. There are also the body's own opiates, the endorphins and encephalins, which are certainly released in response to the pain of the nettle stings but these wear off before the analgesic effect so there is something else going on, hence the Gate theory. Furthermore, it will depend on where you rub the nettles. Science really doesn't understand accupuncture (so far as I know) but there really is very little no doubt that it works, so if you rub the nettles on an accupuncture point (called a node, I think) you are likely to get an enhanced response.

All those years of medical training not entirely wasted!