Basic info on sarc & meds

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Here is the post I promised . It doesn't include nutrition information; I'll find some info & post it as soon as I can.

There are some theories that state we probably ended up with a virus - possibly a rogue tb strain. Since it was viral, it went untreated, and somehow it turned on our immune systems, and now they don't shut down.What they do know is we produce to much of the TNF-a cells. The immune system sends out the white cells to fight infection, then when that crisis is over, the immune system sends out TNF-a cells, to clear out the white cells. Then it sends out TNF-b cells, to clear out the TNF-a and stragglers-- and we're back to "normal." Only we don't clear them out, we build one upon the other, and they calcify forming granulomas.There is also speculation that we have some "mycobacterium" that started this-- and there are hundreds of varieties of mycobac. However, we don't all test positive for mycobac-- so again it's hit and miss. They are now finding a huge correlation between people exposed to alot of exposures to viruses (medical workers, teachers, clergy, grocery clerks...) and pesticides, agriculture dusts and deserts- many of the vets that spent time in Iran and Iraq are having problems, as are alot of the people who worked at the Twin Towers -- so there again, you've got dust, ashes, and chemicals, etc. They used to think this was a "rare" disease-- but it has been misdiagnosed or ignored in many- as our docs still think it's benign--and will burn itself out. What's interesting is that if you can forego the steroids-- prednisones, then it stands a higher chance of burning itself out. But for those of us where every sinus and allergy season meant we lived on SoluMedrol packs, and prednisone- we were up against the wall from the getgo. Add not being able to breath, to think, walk, multi-task-- on and on.. and we end up on high dose steroids. We get the symptoms calmed down, we wean off it- and we're good for awhile. Then it comes back, maybe as sarcoid-induced arthritis (which will be misdiagnosed as arthritis, or fibromyalgia, or chronic fatigue) and we may be short of breath and need a nap following our morning shower, and we may have iritis (inflammatio of the iris of the eye) and we may have leg or extremity weakness-- and we're off and running. They want to put you back on pred-- the magic bullet, but that doesn't stop the progression. It just masks the symptoms. When it comes back, or is effecting the CNS or PNS (Central or Peripheral Nervous System) then you have to get them to look at steroid sparing meds-- the DMARDS. (Disease Modifying Anti-rheumatic drugs), the anti-inflammatories, the Biologicals, BRM's-- biological Response Modifiers-- ie. Enbrel, Humira, Remicade, Cellcept-- and see what combo is going to work.The site www.arthritis.org has a fantastic drug section that explains all these meds, and what they do and the side effects--

Ramblin' RoseModerator COLTS STILL ROCK!