Slowly but surely & NSAIDS

Well I certainly woke up feeling a bit better.  If tomorrow isn't back to great, then I will take the advice of my friend and mentor- Cam!  Eliminating a few possible offenders- blueberries, chicken, nuts.   Speaking of Cam, I asked her if I could borrow one of her posts to read.  She has inspired me to keep going and has RA herself, of which she has put into remission through diet!  Her blog is very informative and well written...check it out!!  http://www.arthritis-alternatives.com/

Here is her most recent post.  One that really struck a cord with me.  The particular drug that she speaks of (Enbrel) was one I was just about to go on prior to this elimination experiment!  Scary.

The RA Pharmacy: NSAIDS


By Cameron Salisbury

Skimming the newspaper one morning my eye stopped in the obituaries, on a picture of a woman who looked about my age. The death notice said she had died of ‘complications of rheumatoid arthritis.’



Complications of RA? I didn’t know there were any, but I knew there were plenty associated with the drugs we used to control the disease.



In my rheumatologist’s office later that day I learned that this person was a patient of my doctor and in fact had an appointment scheduled for the next day. Neither the doctor nor her staff was aware that she had died.



As gently as I could I learned the facts: The dead woman had developed a cold while taking Enbrel. She had been taken off the drug but it was too late for her immune system to recover enough to fight off the infection. In the Western world in the 21st century no one expects to die from an infection, but that day, at age 50, this patient lay in a coffin in a funeral home.



I had always adored my rheumatologist, an irrepressible optimist, although I knew from the first that she totally discounted the down side to prescription drugs. They were all good to her. All the time. Despite our friendship, in the far recesses of my mind I silently wondered if she might be a highly educated, highly paid, drug pusher.



So I shouldn’t have been surprised when she continued to urge me to take a biologic, as though she had no first hand evidence that these drugs were deadly, as though this patient had not died in her care from the drug she wanted me to take.



Ten years ago David Fox, a prominent rheumatologist, wrote, “The treatment of RA remains insufficiently effective and distressingly toxic for many patients.”



Since then, nothing has changed. It’s important to remember than any drug is an intrusion into the miraculous, finely coordinated microscopic balance of our bodies. The effect of that intrusion can vary according to our own unique biology. Some of us may have a relatively high tolerance for a toxin and others will not. Any drug should be taken with caution and with an awareness that any unusual symptoms we develop could be a drug reaction.



The medical profession usually handles a drug side effect with another drug to counter the unwanted symptoms. Drug interactions with each other are almost never studied, so combining drugs is a walk into risk. The more drugs a person takes, the more side effects s/he can expect, the more unlikely a healthy outcome, and the more likely catastrophe.



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