flower image: Weighing a possible heart attack against certain pain

If properly informed, patients can assess the benefits of anti-inflammatory drugs


Most film scenes in England in May and June are set against a backdrop of early summer sunshine. As a result, the images immediately conjured up of the Chelsea Flower Show, tennis at Queens or Wimbledon, or the Queen’s birthday parade is of blossoms and summer fashions.
Reality, as those who dodged the downpours and sheltered beneath umbrellas at Chelsea this week will know, is often rather different from fiction. Woody Allen may have become a great fan of the soft grey light of overcast London, but most of us are attached to, and hope for, the postcard tradition of blue skies and flowering lilacs.



Damper and colder weather than usual does nothing to improve the mobility of gardeners whose joints have become gnarled as the result of years of working in all weathers. This year the Arthritis Research Campaign, in association with Seven Seas, the company once famous for its trawler fleet, but now for marketing fish oils rich in omega-3, have co-operated with the garden designer Alex Hart to enter a garden at Chelsea that is suitable for people with arthritis. Hart has personal experience of what is needed as he suffers from reactive arthritis. Despite his recurrent painful inflamed joints, including those of his legs and ankles, he continues to satisfy his passion for gardening and plants and this year his garden received a silver award in its class.

The hard labour that goes into gardening may contribute to arthritic hands, spine and knees, but continuing to garden provides its aficionados with fresh air and interest. The bending and stretching that even easy gardening demands keeps the joints flexible as they are worked through a full range of movements. It is also possible to vary the intensity of the gardening by doing different tasks from the wide variety of jobs that are always crying out to be done. A brisk spell of raking, brushing or hoeing can be offset by pruning or (in some parts of the country) by watering. Gardens can be adapted for those with arthritic spines and knees so that beds are easy to reach and paths readily kept weed-free.

Dr Thomas Stuttaford