Pain and Strong Endeavours

Carlyn Zwarenstein felt the first signs of ankylosing spondylitis, a rare type of arthritis, at the age of twenty-eight. An aspiring writer and young mother in Toronto, she was devastated by the sudden onset of disease and its resulting pain. The chronic inflammation that began at the base of her spine gradually moved upward, making it nearly impossible for her to find comfort, whether sitting, standing, or lying down. “The muscles at the front of my neck are as short and tight as steel cables,” she wrote about the experience. “A dull burn at the back of my neck radiates down to my tailbone. My lower back feels unstable, an oddly unbearable sensation, as if my spinal column were inadequate to support the rest of me.”

After enduring two years of violent side effects from anti-inflammatory medicine, she asked her rheumatologist to give her something different — something that could...