When I was 22 I started to develop bad arthritis in both hands, which is worrying when you're a guitarist. At the same time in my other job, I happened to be doing statistical research into medical conditions for the insurance industry - if they're going to insure your life they want to have an idea how long you're going to live! One of the things we stumbled on was that the most common link between food and arthritis was dairy products. This was based entirely on empirical data available at the time.

Being largely vegetarian, I tended to eat a lot of cheese, so for a month I gave up cheese, cream, butter and used skimmed milk in my tea. Coffee I drink black anyway. Miraculously, the arthritis disappeared completely. As a control, over the next year I went back onto dairy several times and on each occasion the problem returned. Fifty years on and I'm still pretty much arthritis free, except when I indulge in too much ice cream. OK so I didn't say I have that much will power. Anyway, it means I can still continue to do Eddie's session work!

Free online guitar lessons. Cours de guitare gratuit en ligne.