A Sad Commentary On The Use Of Drugs To Treat Disease

Post by **tex** » Fri Jul 17, 2015 9:26 am

Hi All,

A recent research article about mortality rates associated with treatment methods used for ulcerative colitis caught my eye. The researchers concluded that the use of medications for treating UC significantly increases the risk of mortality when compared with surgery that leaves the patient with a colectomy. As someone who has had either a colectomy or an ileostomy for almost 10 years now, I can assure that living with an ostomy does have it's challenges at times. Few people dream of someday owning one. However, it's a much safer alternative in many cases, and now published research supports that observation.

Over five years, surgery was linked with a 33 percent reduced risk of death compared to medication, Bewtra's team found. The operations were performed between 2000 and 2011.

Surgery May Beat Drugs for Ulcerative Colitis: Study

The main point here is not that the surgery is so much safer than the use of drugs (because it's not — surgery is riskier) — the point is that the use of drugs is so risky. The long-term use of virtually all medications significantly increases the risk of various adverse outcomes, and even short-term use of many medications is certainly not risk-free.

But we've always known that here on this board. That's why we prefer to change our diet first, and only use medications if/when diet changes are not sufficient to allow us to reach our health and lifestyle goals.

But that article is only a brief glimpse into the closet full of skeletons in the back room of the drug industry. Yes, drugs can save lives, and they can make life easier. But as we all know, there are no free lunches, and everything has practical limits. If drugs weren't so dangerous, there would be no need to regulate them.

Tex

Erica P-G · Post by **Erica P-G** » Fri Jul 17, 2015 2:08 pm

Spot on Tex! Only use them as the last resort, then try to wean off as soon as possible.

Blueberry · Post by **Blueberry** » Fri Jul 17, 2015 2:13 pm

Makes since, and I was reading a similar mention the other day on Dr. Davis's Wheat Belly sight.

"Autoimmunity: Drug Abuse"

http://www.wheatbellyblog.com/2015/07/a ... rug-abuse/

excerpt:

...The conventional medical approach to autoimmune diseases ignores disturbances of intestinal permeability, molecular mimicry, immunomodulation by vitamin D and omega-3 fatty acids, composition of bowel flora, exposures to industrial chemicals or metals, and the notion that components of diet can initiate and perpetuate the immune system gone wrong.

Instead, modern healthcare chooses to focus only on turning off the immune responses with drugs. Some treatments are imprecise and non-specific drugs, such as steroids like prednisone, which, by shutting down the entire immune system, also make us susceptible to infections. Other treatments are more specific, such as tumor necrosis factor blockers, Enbrel and Humira. These intravenous agents only work occasionally with incomplete success, are extraordinarily expensive, and are accompanied by the potential for tuberculosis, viral and bacterial infections, liver damage or failure, and activation of viral hepatitis. They even allow other autoimmune diseases to develop—-an imperfect solution, to say the least.

The wonderful thing about addressing the potential contributors to autoimmune processes, such as eliminating grains, restoring vitamin D, and correcting disruptions of bowel flora, is that they help restore health in many ways, not just reductions in inflammation or autoimmunity. Eliminate grains, for instance, and depression can lift, blood sugars drop, visceral fat is lost–and autoimmunity can recede. Raise vitamin D blood levels to 70 ng/ml and your thinking becomes clearer, bone density increases, insulin levels drop–and autoimmunity can recede. And such interventions are safe and inexpensive, costing little compared to the thousands of dollars per month you’d spend for autoimmune drugs....

Post by **tex** » Fri Jul 17, 2015 2:53 pm

I certainly agree with Dr. Davis on that. IMO turning off the immune system is not only dangerous in the long run, but clear evidence that the medical community doesn't understand it well enough to be tinkering with it. We should be addressing the reasons why the immune system has problems, not turning it off.

Tex

Blueberry · Post by **Blueberry** » Fri Jul 17, 2015 3:17 pm

Tex,

I was thinking also it could be a concern for public safety. Many believe that disease prevention largely starts and stops with vaccines. There is more involved though when it comes to immunity. Important also is sanitation, eating healthy foods, limiting junk foods, avoidance of dangerous chemicals, concern with recreational drugs, and concern for medications that disrupt the immune system.

Post by **tex** » Fri Jul 17, 2015 5:49 pm

Blueberry wrote:I was thinking also it could be a concern for public safety. Many believe that disease prevention largely starts and stops with vaccines.

Yep, that's the cornerstone of the campaigns promoting vaccinations — vaccinate the herd in order to protect the few who cannot be vaccinated. But anyone who is using an immune system suppressant will not launch a satisfactory immune system response to a vaccine (because their immune system is no longer capable of adequately responding), so they cannot develop an immunity from the vaccine. In fact, it may be dangerous for them to have the vaccination. This obviously defeats the purpose of vaccination programs as doctors write prescriptions for more and more immune system suppressants. Some day you and I (and maybe a few other members of this board) may be the only people in this country who are not using an immune system suppressant.

And do doctors see any inconsistency in this type of behavior? I doubt it. They are happy campers as long as they are writing prescriptions — any type of prescriptions.

The anti-TNF drugs especially must really be hot items these days, because I can't turn on a TV in the mornings to watch the world news without being flooded with ads promoting those drugs. I've come to the point where I tend to use my DVR almost all of the time in order to skip past all those ads. Listening to all the warnings about the dire side effects they can cause is enough to bring on nausea (which also just happens to be one of the side effects of many drugs).

But obviously the drugs must be popular, or Big Pharma wouldn't be spending all that money on ads. And guess who's paying for all those expensive ads. Big Pharma rips us all off on all of the medications that we buy, so that they can afford to spend billions on advertising other drugs.

And most people in this country who truly need certain drugs to treat cancer, for example, can't afford the medications they need, because those drugs are now priced out of reach of all but the wealthy. And I'm not talking about the price of the drugs, I'm talking about the copay. Few people on medicare can afford cancer treatment drugs these days unless they happen to be wealthy enough to be able to buy special supplemental insurance. Those drugs could be reasonably priced if the pharmaceutical companies didn't waste so much money promoting drugs, and padding their bank accounts. May the bird of paradise fly up their greedy nose. And may that bird of paradise have MC, including uncontrollable D.

Tex

Clemmie · Post by **Clemmie** » Sat Jul 18, 2015 2:24 am

I inject Humira because I have Spondyloarthropathy and without Humira I wouldn't be able to move. Believe me, with the known possible side effects, I, and the many who do take these drugs, wouldn't be taking them unless it was absolutely necessary. You have to weigh the benefits against the bad and, whilst any of the side effects could cause dire consequences, at least for the time being, I am able to walk, move my arms and actually live without constant severe pain. And it also has the benefit that when my LC flares, I can actually get to the toilet in time lol! That's a big bonus!!! I have tried many other therapies, both conventional and non conventional, some have help for a time, others not at all, but you get to the stage where you just want to feel normal. I agonised for months before I agreed to taking anti TNF but it has made such a difference to my life. Nobody takes that decision lightly. Now that I'm not in pain I can concentrate on boosting Vit D ( which I have managed in the last year), cutting out gluten( which I am doing at the moment) and generally trying to sort my life out and feel better overall. Hopefully, one day I will be able to stop Humira but until then I am grateful for its benefits whilst being aware of its side effects.
im not trying to be confrontational here, I just wanted to show it from the perspective of someone who uses biologics.
Clemmie

Post by **tex** » Sat Jul 18, 2015 9:44 am

Clemmie,

I understand. We do what we have to do, after we consider all the options. My concern is how heavily these drugs are promoted in the USA. They are advertised as the first choice for treatment (not as the last choice), and that should be illegal IMO, because some people will not even consider other, less risky treatments because of the way those medications are promoted.

Please be aware that to date, virtually every member here who was using one of the anti-TNF drugs has not been able to achieve remission of their MC symptoms, despite making drastic changes in their diet, and doing everything else they could (short of discontinuing the use of those medications). In fact, many of those members reported an increase in the intensity of their symptoms following their injection/infusion of the anti-TNF medication. That's pretty clear evidence that the drugs trigger MC reactions. And so far, no one has been willing to stop using the drugs long enough to allow their diet changes to heal their gut so that all of their symptoms would resolve. Yes, those medications are very effective at controlling certain AI issues, but they carry a lot of baggage.

Many, many people have been able to control their other AI issues (other than MC) by taking low dose naltrexone (LDN). LDN carries virtually no known risk of any serious side effects. But trying to find a doctor who will prescribe it is like searching for the holy grail. Why? Because most doctors receive their drug update training from drug company reps. LDN is extremely cheap, so no drug company can make any huge profits from it, so they will never promote it. And if a physician should ask about it, I have little doubt that the drug company reps have a well-thought-out response to convince the docs that LDN is either ineffective, or dangerous to use, or both. Drug companies hate cheap drugs, so they do their best to discourage their use.

About 15 years ago, I had arthritis so bad that I had to use a cane just to get around on many days. On a few days I had to use 2 canes. After I changed my diet, and my gut healed, my arthritis vanished, and I threw away the canes. Osteoarthritis appeared about 5 or 6 years later, and EnteroLab test results showed that not only was my diet cross-contaminated with traces of gluten, but I was producing antibodies to casein. After I cleaned up my diet, the osteoarthritis also disappeared, and has never returned. 15 years ago, when I walked down the aisle of a store, I was slower than everyone else, and everyone was going around me. These days, everyone else is in my way, and I'm going around them.

If physicians were truly objective, and their training included a year or 2 of study in nutrition and food sensitivities and their effects on health, drug sales would crash. Diet changes would be the norm, for treating virtually all AI issues, digestive system issues, and many other issues. Prescriptions for the use of powerful drugs would be reserved for infections, cancer, and a few other issues that are not caused by diet problems.

Of course most physicians would disagree with me, because no one wants to admit that they are wrong, and have to relearn how to do their job, but eventually the medical profession will have to face up to the facts, and change their approach to healing. It surely will not happen during our lifetimes though.

Tex

Erica P-G · Post by **Erica P-G** » Mon Jul 20, 2015 1:22 pm

I absolutely Love listening to you talk Tex...you always back up what you say with Science or Personal experience or Opinion. Either way it makes me think at every junction