As a popular morning news anchor and reporter for KUSA TV, 9News, Gregg Moss needs to put on a good face to hide a painful truth. He has arthritis. And what’s also true is that arthritis isn’t just one disease.

Moss was only 38 when he was diagnosed with not one, but two of the more than 100 forms of arthritis. It took several months of ruling out other diseases because the symptoms initially pointed doctors in other directions. “We went through a series of tests to rule out heart conditions, brain tumors, neurological kinds of things,” he notes. “At first they thought it was a heart condition because of my age. At one point they diagnosed me with MS and gave me six months to a year to walk.”

That sobering diagnosis was proved wrong when he was finally referred to a rheumatologist who identified two forms of arthritis, psoriatic and ankylosing spondylitis. As is common, Moss had never even heard of either one. “It seems strange that I had never heard of what I was diagnosed with,” he says. “It was a relief, but at the same time, I was apprehensive because I really didn’t know what it meant.”

What he does know is what living with the two diseases is like. “Each one had different symptoms, and each person experiences these diseases a little differently,” he explains. “Mine impacts not only my joints, like rheumatoid arthritis does, but everywhere in my body. I have pain and inflammation and the ankylosing spondylitis lesions are through my entire spine. And there is lots of fatigue.”

Research into the many forms of arthritis has led to many new drug treatments for arthritis diseases, but there is no magic bullet. Yet. “There are lots of choices now,” notes Moss, “but they run their course about every three years. Your body builds up a resistance to them. I hope they have something new when I get resistant to these treatments.”

How does Moss deal with the pain? “I’m a pretty good weathervane. I can tell when there’s a front moving in,” he laughs. “The thing with an auto-immune disorder is that your body is just constantly fighting every healthy organ in your body. And that makes you so tired, you know, by the end of the day, it’s like you’ve been running 10,000 miles an hour and don’t even know it.”

Moss has some advice for the more than 46 million adults in the U.S. (one of every five adults) who deal with arthritis diseases. “This is a really serious disease and it doesn’t get the headlines others do, but it should. As the country grows older, more people are going to be diagnosed with it. You have to have a strong mental attitude. Every day you decide to be positive. You change your lifestyle to deal with it. Even my kids have been affected. They can’t jump on dad like they used to.”

“Arthritis doesn’t just hit old people,” Moss adds. “I was only 38. There are more children with arthritis than with diabetes, as incredible as that sounds. There is a lot of hope with this group of diseases. As long as there is research funding, new treatments will be developed and maybe a cure can be found.”

Gregg Moss just happens to be that one in five adults dealing with arthritis. But he’s learning to deal with it while living in the spotlight.

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