To maintain healthy joints, you need to refrain from consumption of rich fatty foods, refined carbohydrates and alcohol, as they can be converted by body into inflammatory substances that can aggravate condition.

Increase your intake of foods high in dietary fibre (vegetables, fruits) and complex carbohydrates (oats, barley, bran). Reduce or avoid alcohol and caffeine consumption. Wheat, dairy products, corn, beef, tomato, potato, eggplant and peppers can aggravate arthritis. Light exercises like brisk walking help to keep joint cartilage lubricated. Being overweight can burden joints, especially knees, thus aggravating pain. Losing some weight will be of benefit.

I always wanted to have a girlfriend, however this involves meeting her parents and friends, lots of socialising, phone calls including initial phone call. Stuttering would be more prevalent on phone than in any other situation for myself. This for me would take courage and it was not until I was eighteen that I went on my first date. I took a young lady to a public house and to say I was nervous was an understatement, mainly it has to be said about stuttering in front of her. When entering pub I stated that I needed to go to toilet and asked if she would order drinks including a diet coke for myself. I did not need toilet; I just did not want to order drinks. I later explained to her about stutter I had and she was surprisingly fine about it.

At age of twenty-two I had been dating a young lady for a couple of years and she started talking about marriage. Fear of stuttering as usual held me back and I could not go through with wedding. I felt it was a certainty that I would stutter when saying vows and making speech. A few months later she left me. This was final straw I was now desperate to overcome stutter.

Gaining employment and working your way up career ladder can prove difficult for somebody who has a stutter. Most people stutter more when under pressure, therefore interviews can be very stressful. On a personal level it took a number of months to find my first position in employment. I always felt that stuttering held me back and that my full potential in my career and on a personal level could not be reached.