Finding the best arthritis specialist is important if you or someone you love has arthritis or thinks they have arthritis. And here's why...

Arthritis causes more disability than any other disease. More than 20 million people with arthritis have limited function on a daily basis.

Life expectancy is shorter among patients with some kinds of arthritis than in the general population, and survival rates are comparable to those for Hodgkins disease, diabetes, and 3-vessel heart disease.

So imagine this... What if you didn't have your health... what if you became crippled from arthritis... or, heaven forbid, had the number of years left on this earth slashed by ten years or more... just because you didn't see the right expert soon enough.

Do you remember the Shah of Iran? He was the richest man in the world but after he was exiled from Iran, the Shah went from Egypt to Morocco to the Bahamas to Mexico, and finally to New York in a desperate search for medical relief.

He died in 1980 from cancer. All the money in the world couldn't save him. But what many doctors acknowledge is that if he had been seen by the right doctors sooner he could have survived to this day. So... it isn't just a matter of money.

Here's a secret...

What a lot of people don't realize is just because somebody is an "arthritis specialist" doesn't make them an expert or authority. So why is this important to you?

If you don't find an arthritis "expert" and settle for the "arthritis specialist"- especially one who "participates with your insurance", you could be setting yourself up for a waste of time, unneeded suffering and time away from your family and work, disability, and potentially... a shorter life span.

I'm going to show you how to tell the difference.

Here are the nine tips to finding an expert... and not only an expert... but the best expert. And the tips are presented in question format to make it easier for you to ask.

1.Are they board-certified? If they're certified, it doesn't mean all that much. But if they're not, it should set off red flags because the only reason for that is they haven't taken the board exams or worse yet... they failed them.

Here's another sneaky question to ask. Did they pass them the first time around? Because many don't! Do you want to see somebody who had to take the exams over and over again?

2.How many papers have they published? They should have published a minimum of 20. Twenty is a low number. Anybody can do it. Academic doctors have to do it in order to stay at their center. And doctors in private practice should do it. Why? Because doctors in private practice can continue to publish their findings and if they tell you they don't have the time to do it, they're lying.

3. Did they do their internal medicine residency at a major university teaching hospital? Very important since internal medicine is the foundation of rheumatology.

4. Did they do their arthritis training at a major center like the National Institutes of Health? This indicates the willingness to pursue their specialty to the summit and become a real expert.

5.Have they had a faculty appointment at a medical school? A faculty appointment either past or present means they have had the smarts to keep up and teach the next generation.

6.Do they have the letters FACP and FACR after the MD? That's important. The "FACP" stands for Fellow of the American College of Physicians. These people are the best of the best. "FACR" means they are board-certified in Rheumatology.

7.Do they have a specialty within a specialty? Do they have a certain skill that separates them from other arthritis specialists? They should. An example might be they are an arthroscopist or an ultrasonographer.

8.Is their office staff attentive to you? Because if they aren't, it doesn't matter how good the doctor is. You might not get your needs met.

9.And finally... do this! Go to Google and type in the doctor's name in quotes like this: "john doe" . A minimum of 10,000 mentions should be seen. If not, they're not an expert! This is the most important thing you can do. This one thing separates the experts from the also-rans who may not be able to help you.

What's your health worth? Missing out on family activities and work because of arthritis doesn't have to happen... but it could if the diagnosis isn't made or the right treatment isn't given.

Some people call our office and decide they don't want to see us since we don't participate with their insurance company. Penny wise and a pound foolish. Here's what's ironic... most of those people end up seeing us anyway later. But valuable time has been wasted.

You see the company man- the insurance company doctor, the doctor who signs the insurance contract, works for the insurance company. They must- by contract- treat you the way the insurance company dictates. They have no choice. You're at the mercy of the insurance company. The insurance company tells them what tests can be ordered, what treatments can be given, how long the treatment can be given, and so on.

... which probably isn't the best thing for you or your health.

Most experts don't sign insurance contracts. They want to do what's best for the patient.

Smart people go for the experts because, in the long run, it saves them time, money, and hassle.