Episode 22 – Adam Newton

Introduction: Doing 100 mile ultra marathons is one thing, doing it while living with inflammatory arthritis is a whole other story. Inflammatory with Debbie Wilson and Katy Pieris Navigating life with inflammatory arthritis.

Debbie: Hello and welcome to Inflammatory with Debbie

Katy: and Katy.

Debbie: This week we are delighted to welcome Adam Newton. He’s a personal trainer currently training for a hundred-mile marathon and lives with inflammatory arthritis. He’s also a dad to three beautiful daughters, so we’re going to be talking to him about his journey, how his condition has affected his work and fitness and how does it impact on his life as a dad. So, Adam, it’s lovely to have you with us.

Adam: Thanks for having me on.

Debbie: So yeah, so let’s start from the beginning. Take us back to the start of your journey.

Adam: Yeah, so my journey actually started with psoriasis first. I think in me 20s I never had any issues with my skin originally. In me 20s I went through a little bit of a stressful time. So, a couple of traumas and so on and I think just naturally as me I kind of held all that in really. So, from the outside its kind of just looked like I was, you know, getting by fine. But I think the stress came out in my skin. So, all of a sudden it came down with psoriasis and that’s really where it started. That was the very first symptom. I think fast-forward in a few years, the very first time I come down with any joint issues and I’ve always done, just to go back, I’ve always done a lot of charity work and different fundraising activities and it’s always been quite endurance based. So, I’ve always been used to me training. I’ve never had no issues training and never had no joint problems, never had any injuries, nothing. And I was training at the time for a 24-hour cycle, which basically was 24 hours on a bike non-stop and it was to do 500k. So, it’s 500k in one go.

Katy: Wow.

Debbie: Oh my gosh, that just scares me.

Adam: Yeah, you know, that’s it. So that was what I was going for. So, I was training for it, no issues. And then I come to the day, I see people had raised money for it and so on. So, you know, I was ready to go. And then six hours into the 24 hours, I started to get some pains that I’d never had before. And I’m used to training pain, like I’m used to feeling that. And I know the difference between just general kind of like, okay, my muscles are hurting. And this pain was just different. It was in my lower back. And again, I’ve never had anything with my lower back. And all of a sudden it was just burning, like my back was on fire. And it was like it was seeping into my body. So, it started in my back and then it went into my knees. And this was only six hours in. So, I had a long way to go. And then all of a sudden, my wrist started to kind of hurt on the bike as well. It was the only way I can explain it. It was just like it was seeping in through my body. So, I don’t know. I think just kind of knowing the fact that I’d raised all the money and everything, it was one of them. I just kind of got my head down and just cracked on and got through the 24 hours. I think in the end for the last six hours, I couldn’t take it anymore with my back. So, I had to lie on the floor and basically strap my feet into the bike and pedal from a lying down position.

Katy: And how did you feel? Did you feel really panicked at that point?

Adam: Yeah, I did. My wife was next to me for a lot of the time as well. And I was just saying to her, I just don’t know what’s going on with my body. I said, I’ve never experienced this. And I’d done 10-hour training sessions previous on the build up to do something like that. You’ve got to put a lot of hours in. And I had no issue, no pain until the day. So, I couldn’t account it to nothing. So yeah, in the end, I just couldn’t take the pain anymore sitting on the seat. So, I had to just revert to the floor and just lie on the floor and just strap my feet in and just pedal because my back was gone. But my knees were also everywhere at that point, really, to be honest with you. That was the very first sign that I kind of, that’s the very first thing that I felt of any joint pains and anything like that.

Debbie: So, did you think it was, were you hoping it was more of like a blip due to your training in that or did you think it was something more?

Adam: Yeah, no, I did. Do you know what? I didn’t because I couldn’t even have imagined what it would be. I couldn’t have imagined it would be arthritis. It didn’t even run through my brain. It wasn’t even in my thought process. So, I assumed kind of at that point, you know, because you’re sitting there for a long time thinking about it, we’re getting pain. I was like, it must be overtraining. This must be a sign of overtraining. So, the funny thing is though, after a week, it settled down like anything else. I didn’t actually have that pain after the week. So, I, at that point assumed that it was overtraining.

Katy: How long until it happened again?

Adam: So, the next event, again, it was from another event, and it was, this one wasn’t, well, I suppose having kids is an endurance event. Probably you can class it as that. So, the next one was when my daughter was six months old and it was only a couple of months later and this was my second daughter and she got hand, foot and mouth quite bad and she passed it on, like obviously, you know, to the family.

Katy: I got that from my son. I know what it is like.

Adam: Oh yes. Oh, it was the worst. It was so bad. We all got it. So, I had two daughters at the time. I had the six-month-old and I had the one-year-old as well. So, I had my wife. So, we all got it. We got the, you don’t know them, the symptoms. It’s like blisters in your mouth, blisters on your hands and your feet. Just all the classic signs of that. We all got it, and I couldn’t shift it. I literally, the blisters wouldn’t go. I was, my mind was just staying and the pains that I started to get on the bike started to come back again in my joints, mainly at the beginning. It was in my back, my lower back, just getting out of bed in the morning. And then again, it started to seep into everywhere else. And yeah, that was it. From that point, that was when it really settled in.

Katy: And how long till you kind of went and saw a doctor or got looked at?

Adam: Yeah. So that happened in, was that February? I think it was only within a couple of, it was only a couple of weeks. It was just starting to get a little bit worse. Obviously, I train, and I train people. So, you know, I’m always picking things up and I started kind of going around and work just with like a strap on like my right hand particularly was quite bad. So, I had like a wrist brace thing on. And I think I was just saying to people at the time, I think I’ve like pulled my wrist. I was feeling a bit stiff everywhere. I was like, oh, I, again, I wouldn’t have, I couldn’t have accounted for what it was. So, I think I must have a bit of a strain or something like that. So yeah, I just started wearing this. And then at that point I was like, I probably need to go and get this seen too.

Debbie: So, was that, did then see your GP? Is that when they first mentioned the word arthritis to you?

Adam: No, she didn’t mention that to me. They just said, we’re going to, we’re going to, we’re going to refer you on. It all happened really fast. And they said, we’re going to refer you on to rheumatology.

Katy: Oh, so straight away from that first visit. That’s incredible.

Debbie:  Yeah, it doesn’t often happen.

Adam: So, I’ve heard, obviously I’ve spoken to quite a few people now with it. And I mean, people have been telling me that it takes a long time to get diagnosed, especially with ankylosing spondylitis, the latest, it can be a long time. So no, mine was quite fast. I was straight into rheumatology kind of within, I think it was a week or so.

Katy: Brilliant. That’s brilliant.

Adam: Yeah, it was a really quick turnaround. And then I think the next point was just getting blood tests done, getting scans and obviously all the things I had to do to kind of, you know, figure out what’s going on with that.

Katy: And how did you feel, you know, when you got that diagnosis, how did you feel, you know, you’re a dad of two small children, you’ve got a very exhausting job as a PT, how did that make you feel? How did you explain that more widely?

Adam: I think at the time, I’ll be honest with you, I played it off as I play everything else off. There was no rake, there was, I was very naive to it, and I was quite ignorant probably in that diagnosis and thinking it’s not going to affect me. You know, at that point, no physical challenge, nothing physical could have fazed me. And I think I’ve said it before, but, you know, at that point in my life, I’d only really had, you know, colds, flu’s, food poisoning, you know, any kind of illness that’s got an expiry date to it. I’d never even thought about, you know, an illness that would affect me for the rest of my life. And at that point, I thought, in all honesty, give me a couple of weeks, give me a couple of weeks and I’ll, you know, I won’t feel this.

Debbie: Do you think there’s something about being a man in that? Because obviously men generally do just a very blasé about their health conditions and they don’t want to talk about it. They don’t see anyone and they’re like, man flu, I’ll be fine in a few days. Did you think of it in that situation?

Adam: A hundred percent. That was my mentality. That was always, it’s always been kind of my mentality, you know. I think, you know, kind of going back to psoriasis at the beginning, that’s the whole, you know, that’s the whole problem there. You know, yeah, I went through times of stress and trauma and didn’t speak about it, didn’t do nothing. And I think eventually, you know, your body will, your body will find a way to get that stress out.

Katy: And how did you talk to friends and family about the diagnosis?

Adam: I never really, it’s, you know, my wife’s taken on a lot. My wife’s taken on a lot of that then really. Friends, not really.

Katy: How do blokes talk to their mates about this kind of thing?

Debbie: Or do they not? Or do they not?

Adam: It’s a really kind of casual conversation. It’s nothing, it’s not, you know, it’s nothing. You know, I just didn’t make a big deal about it.

Katy: And do you think your friends understand?

Adam: They do now, but at the time, no. Because, you know, to look at me, you know, they see me training, they see me doing things to be like, you know, you must, you know, you must be okay kind of thing. But people don’t really, and even to now, to today, you know, you’ll see me doing these runs, these events and training and doing all that. But that’s very much manufactured to what I know I can do. But, you know, at the time, you know, my friends especially would be saying, right, do you want to go for a game of tennis? Do you want to go for a game of football? And they don’t realize that that is actually completely different to, you know, going for a slow jog, you know, kicking a ball. People don’t realize, okay, my toes are in agony. So, it’s like, it’s all that stuff at the time, like all my friends would be asking to do things and that I would always have done in the past. But I just couldn’t, I just couldn’t say yeah.

Debbie: Yeah, and so has that impacted you think on your job? Because obviously you’re a PT, you train people. And do you talk to them about what your condition as well? Because can you show them what to do?

Adam: Yeah, so funny enough, I think, you know, the people I’ve spoken to most has been my clients, to be quite honest. You know, I spend a lot of time, and I’ve built some really, really, really good relationships over a lot of years with these people. And they see me, you know, there’s no harden really from it. You know, there’s no harden, you know, people see me limping around. You know, so I start, I’m probably not your typical ideal routine for someone with arthritis. I wake up every day at four, I can move for nearly three hours a day.

Katy: Blows my mind.

Adam: Yeah, every day I’m up, you know, that’s been five years now. So, I’m up every day at four o’clock. And I spend first kind of 45 minutes of the day actually just moving my body.

Katy: So that’s important, isn’t it, with your condition to…

Adam: Massively. Yeah. Massively, especially at that time in the morning, you know, your body’s probably not ready to be woken up. As it can be, I do go to bed early. But yeah, so by the time I get to work, you know, six o’clock in the morning, people, my clients see me hobbling. And so, there’s no real harden, you know, away from that. So, I have to be honest with them because, you know, there was a period of time where I was struggling to pick up weight and, you know, give them the weight and do things. So, it’s very lucky for me that, you know, I had such good relationships because, you know, they understood.

Katy: And that’s great that you felt comfortable sort of talking about it. Because again, that’s raising awareness as well with more of the general public. And one of the things we’ve covered quite a bit on the podcast is the conditions can be quite excluding. And you mentioned your friends not sort of getting it. Has it changed relationships around you?

Adam: Yes, it has. I think there’s also been a combination of, you know, when you’ve got kids as well, you definitely don’t see your friends as much as you used to. Yeah, but just as a bit of an added extra, yeah, because, you know, I cut out drinking alcohol. I never used to drink alcohol a lot anyway, but I cut out drinking alcohol, I suppose. I don’t go to, you know, there’s things where we used to go and, you know, not nights out, but we might go for like a game of poker in someone’s house. And I know them games can go on until, you know, 12, 1 in the morning. And I know for my condition, you know, them, late nights, they don’t work for me anymore. So, you know, they’re the type of things even to now to today, you know, if my friends see me, they kind of know that I’m not going to be out. I’m not going to be out late. You know, I’m going to be home because I’ve got a routine. I’ve got a routine that works for my condition. Yeah, I do speak, I mean, in all honesty, I do speak to people. So, my mentality now compared to what it was, so I’m talking from your last question, you know, at the beginning of the condition time, my whole mentality now about talking about it is completely different. You know, now I do speak about it, now I’m aware of it, but I’ve probably gone through a long journey to get to this point.

Debbie: Did you ever feel shame in it? Because I think when both Katy and I have been diagnosed, because I was diagnosed in the 80’s many, obviously many years ago, and I never spoke about my condition at all because I felt so much shame on that. And I’m hoping that the generations have moved on and you don’t. But did you feel any sort of shame when you had that sort of initial diagnosis?

Adam: Yeah, I think when it really started to… So, with my day-to-day, just hobbling around, there was shame for me in my environment, in a gym. You know, I’ve gone from being able to do whatever I wanted to being able to barely do anything for quite a long period of time. And that was, you know, that came with a bit of shame. And, you know, just in the park and stuff with the kids, you know, things where, you know, to look at me, you wouldn’t know. But then, you know, if you’d asked me to kneel down on the floor, you know, I’ll struggle. So, there is definitely shame there, yeah, 100%.

Katy: And do you think the condition maybe makes you better at your job? Because you can maybe… People that maybe come to you for help with training, maybe, you know, they’re not very fit, so they’ve got their own medical conditions. Does that make you find it easier to help them than maybe it would have done pre-diagnosis?

Adam: It’s made me much more aware. I’m much more aware of things. You know, anybody with any kind of conditions now related to joints, you know, I feel like I can relate to it where I wasn’t truly able to relate to that. There’s a difference, isn’t there, between feeling it yourself and being able to relate to it, you know, from something that you feel yourself. So, yeah.

Debbie: And just going back to your kids, obviously, you said, you know, kneeling down is hard. And you’ve got three children under the age of four, well, one’s nearly five. But how do you deal with that? Because obviously, it is so physically, they want you on the floor, they want to climb all over you. What do you tell them? Do they understand your condition?

Adam: No, no, I don’t think they do. I think the older one understands sometimes, you know, when they hit you or, you know, land on you in like an awkward way and hit like a pain point, you know. So, I have a little conversation with her that I’ve got, you know, kind of sore joints and stuff and sore hands and, you know, daddy’s got sore feet and this and that. So, I will talk to her. The other, you know, the two-year-old, she has no idea. She’s just bulldozing into me like, whatever. But no, I think I struggled a lot. I struggled a lot at the time. That was one of my biggest struggles because especially when I very first got diagnosed with it because, as I say, my younger one at the time, she was only six months, seven months. So, she was at that point when she couldn’t walk. She still needed a carry-on, but she wasn’t at the newborn stage where she didn’t weigh anything. She was a little bit of weight. And she felt so heavy on my hands at that point because, you know, the pain at that stage was really bad. And that was a big struggle for me because I just had to grit my teeth and just kind of, you know, get through it because there’s a whole aspect of it, isn’t there, where, you know, even for my wife, I need to be doing, I need to do stuff as a dad. You know, I need to take the bed and the load off her at times. And, you know, I still need to be able to do them things. So, I just had to kind of, you know, just get my head down and just do it.

Debbie: Has that caused any issues between, you know, you and your partner? Because I think it has, I think, for us as well, you know, being mums and just with inflammatory arthritis on top of being a new parent, that hormones and obviously everything everywhere as well. But, you know, kids, babies don’t sleep. All the crying and everything has, it must have been quite stressful in your household.

Adam: Yeah, yeah, I think, yeah, it was. But, you know, like my wife is honestly, like she is like literally the best person that I could ask for when it comes to this condition because she’ll listen to everything I say. You know, she’ll listen to every single thing. And there’s no, like I couldn’t have asked throughout the time for anyone better.

So, honestly, she didn’t get angry about no situations or nothing like that. So, I’ve been really lucky. I’ve been really, really lucky, to be honest, throughout having it that I’ve had that support.

Debbie: That support is absolutely key because obviously it must have been quite hard for her, having two very young children, having her husband being diagnosed with a long-term health condition, but trying not to let that impact on your family life. I think it’s admirable of how you’ve both dealt with that completely.

Adam: Yeah, thanks. Honestly, it was tough. It’s so we deal with it much better now. And that’s simply just for the fact that I’ve now started to learn and kind of understand it a bit more. And I’ve been able to keep my symptoms at bay a little bit now. But at the time when it was all new, it was quite a challenging time.

Katy: And when you went to have your third child, obviously you’d been diagnosed at that point. I know for me as a woman, I had to come off some of my medications to try for children. What’s that kind of process in your case? Obviously, it depends on medications and things that people are on. What was the process on your side? Did it affect sort of trying for a baby or was it you just went ahead as normal?

Adam: Yeah, no, we just went ahead as normal. I didn’t have the conversation with any doctors or anything about the medication I was on for having kids and stuff. We just didn’t have that conversation. So as far as I was aware, I don’t know whether it was, whether it made it more difficult or not. It was like, I just didn’t have that conversation with anybody and it didn’t seem to affect anything.

Katy: And they didn’t have that with you because as soon as I was diagnosed, that was the first thing they said that I was like, in my fertile years, they kind of said, are you planning to have kids? And that was a conversation they had right on diagnosis day. So, it’s interesting to kind of see, you know, that obviously wasn’t a conversation they had with you as a man. And there might be reasons for that, or they might not have just crossed their mind. I don’t know.

Adam: No, no, no one has any conversations with me about that side of things. So, I just never, I never, it never really crossed my mind either.

Debbie: Yeah. Interesting seeing how different it is for men and women.

Katy: And you had already got children as well. So, you know, you were obviously, you know, in that frame of mind. Yeah.

Adam: No, not once. Honestly, not once did anyone really mention anything about, you know, kids or having more kids or nothing.

Debbie: Wow. That is surprising. But a few moments ago, you mentioned you found ways of keeping your symptoms at bay. What has worked for you?

Adam: So that’s been a, it’s been, that’s been a long, long process. Yeah. I feel like, you know, for me looking back on it now, you have to go through like a bit of a, there’s so many different parts of it and different feelings and emotions and, you know, everything. I suppose my very first thing started with denial, and it was like, I’ll eat what I want. I’ll eat what I want. And I’ll do what I want, kind of thing.

Debbie: I think we can all relate to that.

Adam:: Yeah. Honestly, there’s so many different cycles you have to go through. And then eventually you kind of come to like, okay, acceptance. And that’s when you start thinking about solutions. And for me, the solutions naturally came in by food and exercise. What can I do? What can I try to do around my food and exercise to, you know, keep this at bay and so on. And that was so much, so much trial and error, so much trial and error. And even to today, you know, I’ve got kind of my processes that I do. I’m unsure whether that would work for somebody else. You know, I don’t know because so many people say, right, okay, sleep’s a big thing. Well, I don’t sleep much. I haven’t slept much because I’ve had the kids and all that stuff. So, it’s very difficult. But I think what works for me generally, if I was to kind of put a blanket over it, would be just good nutrition. Good nutrition is key. I think just trying to stay away from things that you know are going to cause flare ups and just keeping your body on the move as much as you can in whatever capacity that you can. It doesn’t have to be intense. It doesn’t, from me as a PT, it does not have to be intense movement, intense activity. It can be anything that just gets your blood going around your body and just kind of lubricating your joints and so on. So, I think the two fundamental things for me away from, you know, kind of medication and stuff would be just keeping in control of your food and also moving your body.

Debbie: Yeah, I think that’s the narrative that we’ve been trying to say is it’s not always that intense exercise because sometimes that can be very detrimental to you. But it is, you know, I think desk jobs are probably the worst for us, but it is constantly moving just to kind of keep our joints, just keep it going. And, you know, we can control what we eat. Sometimes the fatigue, you know, just makes you want to have a quick sugar rush to get you through. But it is, but we can control that, you know, our joint, our diseases, sometimes we can’t, that can seem uncontrollable. But we can control our diet and what we eat.

Katy: What would you, going back to five years when you were first diagnosed and thinking about what you’ve learned to now, what would be, what would you say to your sort of yourself 24 hours after diagnosis based on what you’ve learned now?

Adam: That is a good question. What would I say? I think I would say that firstly, you’ve got to acknowledge, you’ve got to try to get to that acceptance stage as soon as possible. And I wasted too much time kind of thinking that it was nothing. I just wasted too much time doing that. And I don’t know whether that was just a process I had to go through, but I would say just kind of get to that acceptance stage. And also, you know, you’ve got to actually realise that you are not alone with it, and with that condition, because I really did feel alone because, you know, it was conditions there that were associated with, you know, possibly like an older person. And I felt like, okay, am I the only young, younger person with this condition? And I really did feel alone around it, and I couldn’t really speak to anybody about it. But I would say, like one, you’re not alone. So, you need to reach out and speak to other people because you’ll be able to find somebody in your situation, in your scenario. And I would say, do some research straight away around it. Just do some research yourself around it, and really take the advice of, you know, even at the beginning for me, the doctors, I just didn’t take too much advice. I think take as much advice as you can. And there’s so much trial and error, so much trial and error, like don’t be deflated when something doesn’t work, and you get a flare up. You’ve just got to keep on, you know, there’s so much trial and error along the way until you get to the point where you can somewhat manage it.

Debbie: Yeah, no, that sounds absolutely perfect. People do feel alone, which is why we’re doing this. And you also have your own podcast as well. So, can you tell us more details about that? Where can we find you? What platforms are you on? Be great.

Adam: Yeah, so I do have a podcast, and that’s called Through the Eyes of Adversity, which I’ve got on YouTube, on Spotify and everything. I’ve got my Instagram page for it. And that really started from my journey with arthritis. You know, I was recommended to start speaking about the journey a little bit. And sharing it with other people, which I did. And luckily, I’ve got people on this podcast that also, again, similar to my age, and very relatable and so on. But they use sports and movement and activity as a way to help with the condition. And that’s what it’s all about. It’s not just arthritis, though it’s anyone with any form of adversity in life. You know, this is my piece of adversity, but other people have got their own, and their own journey, their own conditions, mental health, physical. And I think for me, I’m so passionate about the fact that movement and movements is one of the key factors, I think that can help you. Again, both mentally and physically. So that’s what the podcast is all about. And it’s just a real bonus when I get people on there that have got kind of these same conditions as me, because I can really relate to. So yeah, it’s been really nice to do. And I feel like, you know, just having that conversation, it’s helping me as well, because like I said, I didn’t used to really speak about this stuff. And now just sitting down with people, actually, and just having that conversation, it’s been quite nice for me to do it. I don’t talk on there as much as what I have done on this. I usually just ask the question and sit back really. But once every while on there, I do get a little moment where I can, you know, give a little bit about my background. And with the very first episode that I did was actually, it was 15 minutes of me just talking to a camera about my journey. And I didn’t go into the ins and outs of it. But that was a pretty tough 15 minutes, because just the first time I’d like really recalled kind of step by step, a little bit about the process and some of the stuff that I spoke about today. So yeah, even on this, I think it’s very tough to actually, there’s so much that’s happened over the last four years, which has impacted so many different parts of my life. From the condition, it’s so hard to cover it all. It’s nearly impossible to cover everything on there, because the condition affects every aspect of your life in some way, shape or form. And I mean, literally every aspect of your life, it does affect.

Katy: And where can people find you on Instagram? Yeah, so it’s just my name, just Adam Newton, Adam underscore C Newton. So, if you just type in that, I’ll take you to it. And then it’s through the Eyes of adversity that’s on there. And again, that’s got to link them to the YouTube as well.

Debbie: That’s fantastic. Thank you so much, Adam. We’ll put all of these details in our show notes as well, but it’s been absolutely amazing hearing your story, knowing that you’re a PT. Have a fabulous Father’s Day. I hope you’ve been spoilt rotten on Sunday. And yeah, good luck with your 100-mile marathon next year. Thank you so much.

Adam: Thanks very much. I enjoyed it.

Debbie: Thank you.

Katy: Thank you.

Debbie: So, Adam was fantastic. We really thank him so much for giving up his time today, but don’t forget to sign up to our newsletter at inflammatoryarthritis.org. We are on social media. We are on Blue Sky, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. We do have our appeal still going, so please donate where you can. Again, the links will be in the show notes. And please do follow the podcast. Wherever you get your episodes from, then you’ll get the most up-to-date information and the episodes about Inflammatory!. Until next week, it’s goodbye.

Katy: Goodbye.

In this powerful episode, personal trainer and father of three daughters (all under the age of 5), Adam Newton shares his journey of being diagnosed with inflammatory arthritis while pursuing extreme endurance goals, including training for a 100-mile ultramarathon. His symptoms began with psoriasis and escalated following a 24-hour charity cycling event. Although quickly referred to rheumatology and diagnosed, Adam initially downplayed the seriousness of the condition, pushing through pain and keeping it mostly to himself.

He opens up about the emotional and physical adjustments he’s had to make, from stepping back from sports like football and tennis to managing family life during painful flare-ups. Adam was diagnosed when his second daughter was just a few months old, and he speaks candidly about the crucial support he’s received from his wife throughout his journey. He also reflects on how he talks to his daughters about his condition in an age-appropriate way, and how he eventually opened up to friends, helping them understand the reality of living with arthritis.

Through trial and error, Adam has found ways to cope, emphasising the power of good nutrition, gentle movement, and a consistent routine. His transparency with personal training clients has helped build stronger relationships and foster empathy.

Adam also hosts the podcast Through the Eyes of Adversity, where he speaks with others about how movement supports both physical and mental health through life’s challenges. He encourages anyone facing a new diagnosis to seek support, do their own research, and know they’re not alone.

Find Adam on Instagram at @adam_c_newton, and listen to his podcast on YouTube and Spotify.

Please do donate to our urgent appeal to keep the podcast going, https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/inflammatory

Do follow the podcast as it is easiest way to get updates on the podcast.

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