Happy World Arthritis Week! Famous People with Arthritis

It’s World Arthritis Day on October 12th and we’re promoting the “It’s in your hands, take action.” slogan all week long at SimpleTherapy. Starting off with a fun fact from http://worldarthritisday.org/

Did you know?

Rheumatic and muscoloskeletal diseases affect a quarter of all people in the european union- that’s over 120 million people- more individuals than any other disease group.

Check out some famous folks that we bet you didn’t know had arthritis, but didn’t slow them down:

Lucille Ball – the famed comedian from hit TV sitcom “I love Lucy” was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) disease in her late teens.

James Coburn – After starring in several Westerns and spy movies in the ’60s and ’70s, Coburn temporarily retired from film in the 1980s, due to arthritis. Luckily, in the 1990s he was able to act again, winning an Oscar in ’98 for playing Nick Nolte’s abusive, alcoholic father in Affliction.

Dorothy Hodgkin – Identified the three-dimensional structure of important biological molecules, including penicillin and insulin. She won the 1964 Nobel Prize in chemistry for describing the structure of vitamin B12.

Camryn Manheim – actress known primarily for her roles as attorney Ellenor Frutt on ABC‘s The Practice, Delia Banks on CBS‘s Ghost Whisperer and as Elvis‘s mother, Gladys Presley in the 2005 mini-series Elvis, and “Control” on Person of Interest was diagnosed with RA at 44 years old.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir – The French Impressionist is one of the first well-documented case of arthritis in history. Toward the end of Renoir’s life, he was often unable to paint because the disease but Renoir continued to work, sometimes tying his paintbrush to his hand so he could keep painting.

Source: http://www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20496769,00.html