Thanks for the suggestions, Flip. Especially the tip about the C chord. (I've gone back to a non-barre F and non-barre versions of the B minor chord, both of which can be moved up the neck, just without hitting the E and A strings, because of a Bouchard's node on my barre-ing finger that hits the fretboard painfully when I do a barre.)   

But I didn't think diet had much to do with osteoarthritis, which is what I have (not rheumatoid).    Plus, even when I control the pain and stiffness with topical or ingested treatments (e.g., glucosamine, NSAIDS, capsaicin, etc.), my left hand fingers (the first two anyway) won't fully straighten and the distal joint on my left ring finger hardly bends, making it very difficult to play most barre chords except for Fmin.    Does changing your diet enable really stiffened arthritic joints to actually bend again?

Genie