Wego HAWMC: Sensationalize

• Say WHAT!? What’s the most ridiculous thing you’ve heard about health or your condition? Where did you hear it and what did you think?
• Share a ludicrous headline or cure.  Do a news search and choose a ridiculous headline or proposed cure about your condition and write what you think about it. Can’t find one? Write your own.

 The most ridiculous thing most people think when they hear "autoimmune arthritis" is that it just means "achy joints like grandma has." Most people don't understand that there's a huge difference between autoimmune arthritis, which is essentially an having allergy to your joints, and osteoarthritis (OA) , which is wear-and-tear pain caused from use. Unlike OA, autoimmune arthritis can affect children, can't just be managed with advil, and often involves WAY more organs than just your joints, including your heart and lungs. Autoimmune arthritis kills, OA does not. I don't mean to discredit the pain suffered by those with OA, but autoimmune arthritis is a whole different monster.

I just recently got offered a fairly absurd "cure" from my mom's old boss: "Earthing." Basically, the idea is that all disease is caused by electromagnetic waves in the air, and the only way that you can release the electromagnetic waves is by walking outside barefoot and sleeping on some metal which is grounded into the dirt outside your window. I just give it the old polite smile-and-not bit, not mentioning the extreme lack of science and the absurdity given my mostly-barefoot summers (because honestly, who wants to put shoes on swollen feet when they don't have to?)