Prevention - Between Attacks: Furniture (Part 2)

Bedroom

Go upstairs and look around. Your bed is far more likely to be too soft than too hard. The makers of beds know this now and make the bases of beds firmer than they did. For years, however, they have made beds for a public that believed that if you could sink into a bed it must be a good one and that if you could sink further it must be a better one. Technique outran reason and the result was a horrid soggy thing, becoming even more soggy as the springs lost their strength through use: it fixed the sleeper firmly in whatever position he chose at the time he went to sleep and allowed him no chance of relieving the pressure on the parts of the joints that were in contact with each other. Continued pressure meant that the cartilage could not regain its proper shape and that the blood was pressed out of the bone immediately under it. The result of this was that the cartilage died prematurely and that joints already damaged deteriorated faster and, incidentally, more painfully. In short -- soft beds make rheumatism worse.

You probably cannot afford a new bed. I am sure, though, that you can afford a piece of hardboard or, better still three- or five-ply to go under your mattress. This is not like condemning you to sleep on the floor or the next best thing to a bed of nails. Try it and see! The first night or two you be a bit fidgety because your body is straight instead of sagging, but after that you will wonder why you ever put up with things as they were. Even on a rigid surface an interior spring mattress is reasonably comfortable, and on the surface provided by board on a spring base it is the best compromise short of a new bed. If you sleep in a double bed and the other half is not prepared to try, get a piece of board 2 ft by 3 ft for your side and leave the other half to ache!

The height of the frame of the bed may also make a great difference to your comfort.

Car

Upholstery and the shape of seats are also the concern of the car manufacturer, The difficulty he faces is similar to that facing shoes manufactures. Human beings are even more varied in the shapes and sizes of their whole bodies than of their feet, but the car manufacturer who caters for the general public cannot afford to supply as wide a range of products as the shoe manufacturers can. He has to sell enough cars to stay in business. The cars must be fashionable and must be cheap enough; both these requirements may be in direct opposition to that of comfort. Furthermore, there are engineering considerations; it is no good working out a wonderful cockpit for a car if it means that there is no way of running a link from the accelerator pedal to the engine, any more than one can spoil the stability of the car under heavy braking for the sake of having the driver in a certain position. Yet another compromise is that which concerns use; the position and type of seat which is best for negotiating rough town is different from that which is best for negotiating rough roads, which is different again from that which is best for driving at 100 m.p.h. on a motorway, even for the same person.

If you are choosing a car do pay great attention to whether the seats suit you. You will be mush safer as a driver, as well  as happier, if your rheumatism is not playing up because of an unsuitable seat. If you cannot find a seat that is comfortable, either pad the existing seat with something firm (soft cushions are useless), or better still, buy a seat that can be adjusted to put you in complete and comfortable control of your precious vehicle. Much of this question of seating in cars applies to the passengers as well: a mediocre seat can be made far less of a menace to the passenger's rheumatism by a little thought. Another thing that helps rheumatic passengers and drivers is to stop every hour, or better still every half an hour, and walk twice round the car. Coach drivers realize the importance of these stops: it is not just for toilet and tea that coaches make frequent stops; the muscles and the respite from noise and movement allows you to stay fresh much longer. Private drivers only too often slog on and on and in so doing gain a whole host of aches and pains as well as the few minutes of time that some think are so precious.

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