About US - Aids for Arthritis Inc.

Welcome to our Living Better with Arthritis website!

The Living Better catalog began in 1979 when we found ourselves dealing with a health problem that was dramatically affecting the quality of our lives and our ability to care for our family.

Peter and Wendy McBrair, Founders of Aids for Arthritis Inc.

When my wife Wendy, a registered nurse, and I learned of her diagnosis (in 1972) of rheumatoid arthritis we were shocked. Cooking, getting dressed, cleaning, making beds much less taking caring our two small children was quickly very difficult. Working as a nurse was not even a possibility.  I began looking for anything that would ease her pain and help her to get things done more easily. While we learned of a few products, they were difficult to find and even harder to purchase. The idea of identifying products that would help people with arthritis and other difficulties and sell them was soon a part of our McBrair family legacy. Just 30 products were listed in our first catalog and as with all catalogs printed since, were distributed to rheumatologists. These doctors, who were on the cutting edge of helping people with the many types of arthritis, quickly realized the catalog was a great resource to their patients.

With good medical care and by putting various self-help strategies to work, Wendy slowly started feeling better making it possible for her to return to her career. The next thirty years were spent in arthritis education teaching other patients self-management techniques. Helping people to begin support groups, serving on committees and in leadership positions of the Arthritis Foundation, helping to pass the Arthritis Quality of Life Initiative in New Jersey, directing a hospital-based regional arthritis center to provide support, education, and services to people in the community with arthritis were a few of the activities she developed. Wendy also had the opportunity to serve on the FDA Arthritis Advisory Committee and as a consultant to drug companies developing arthritis drugs. She has written more than 20 articles for Arthritis Self-Management magazine.

Meanwhile, I continued my quest to find as many quality products to help people with various disabilities including arthritis. We have found that all of the products are helpful for people with not only Arthritis but Fibromyalgia, Multiple Sclerosis, and aging in general.  Our kids and grandkids use them too!  Today more than 250 products are sold through the internet aidsforarthritis.com and the Living Better with Arthritis catalog. We review and test all products being considered.  If in doubt, we consult physical and occupational therapists. Comments from those who purchase products are also included in our decisions as to what products to carry and/or continue.

We hope the products you find here will help make living with any disabling disease easier and less difficult for you, your friends, and your family.  Let us know if you know of a product that could help others. Contact orders@aidsforarthritis.com.

 

Peter and Wendy McBrair

Founders

Aids for Arthritis Inc. and the "Living Better" catalog