Juanse: Or it could be that most were never arthritis?
My guess is that it is a combination of misdiagnosis, and, as Bill T pointed out, that by and large humans react across a spectrum WRT treatments. And, in many cases, the conditions themselves can cover a wide range of severity and even causative agents. Humans get it wrong with amazing frequency. As an example, how many times have any of us had someone tell us that they got stung by "a whole mess of bees" while mowing, yet had no embedded stingers? Ground dwelling, yellowish flying, insects with smooth stingers, hmmmm, sounds like what we call yellow jackets (probably Vespula maculifrons), but hard to convince someone, who is nursing a dozen stings. As far as reactions go, my kid sister and I are on opposite ends of the spectrum. She gets huge welts from mosquito bites and her arm will swell up for days from a sting. For me, bee stings usually look like mosquito bites and are gone in a day or two. My Better Half, Erin, is dealing with another season of poison ivy, with runny wounds all over, even though she hasn't touched a plant. I am on regular PIE - Poison Ivy Eradication - patrol and am around it regularly but don't react. I tell her not to pick up the cats or chickens, which we KNOW are in it, but she won't listen. On the other hand, I have had two bouts of ocular neuritis, essentially plaques or sclera that form on the optic nerve similar to the ones in the brain from MS. The second attack three years ago took all vision from my left eye. It appears to be another autoimmune condition, but bee stings haven't helped (or maybe, I would be blind by now or with full blown MS, if I didn't keep bees???). Anyway, we are all simultaneously the same and unique, we all have our burdens, but we all slog along doing the best we can.
Bill
Claremont, NH USA
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