Rheumatoid Arthritis

I was diagnoses with RA at 17. I've been on every drug there is. The lasest was Vioxx which worked better than anything I've ever had in the past. However, for the last several months, I have been taking shark cartalidge, fish oil, garlic, liquid b complex and a good multi-vitamin with iron. I don't know if it's one thing or a combination of all of them, but I haven't taken the Vioxx now for months.

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Sometimes the last minute is the best one.

nobody has mentiond flax seed oil i have read many times that it is good for that

Hey Chickflick, I do not know if it would help fibromyalgia, but people use the recipe for osteo. Some people say it helps others say it does not. Adding a little lime juice would be ok I guess.

My MIL and DH use Cosamin DS for their arthritis and swear by it. Here is a link:

http://www.cosamin.com/consumer/cosamin.htm

Lots of good info, with a bonus, my wife has fibro but she is also bi-polar and has never given the Herbs a fair chanch to see what will work for her. She is pretty much dedicated to the pain killers, at the rate she takes them I am sure she is an addict by now. Maybe if I can slip some in and make sure she takes them every day she will see less need for the pain killers. I also have high blood pressure and cholesterol, have tried the more common things for control, garlic, Q10, niacin but have not found anything that works. Here in Utah if you tell them you have high blood pressure when you get a drivers license you have to get a doctor to sign a form every year that you have been under treatment for it, not sure how many would sign it if you were self medicating and not coming in for regular tests. Well got some reading and studying to do, Thanks Westbrook.

I also have to wonder, if they (Rx meds) are so great, why do the big pharm. co.s have to keep coming out with new ones? And each one is supposed to be so much better than the last. The newer ones are definitely more expensive than the old, but I have not found them to be more effective.

My father has RA, and he's been on different medications for years. For him, the older ones tend to work better in terms of pain relief, but then after 2 to 3 years, a medication that worked fine would become less effective, then they'd switch him to another . . . he's been cycling through most of them.

The new drugs are effective for a significant portion of the population. In fact, many of the side-effects (quite terrible) associated with the older drugs are reduced with the newer generation of drugs. Strangely enough, though, my father has rather severe side effects with some of the newer medications as opposed to the older ones. :no:

As for the cost, what a lot of people fail to recognize is that research and development of new drugs cost big bucks. For the older drugs, they've been around for awhile, and many are now available in generic forms which brings down the cost. For the newer generation, they're trying to recoup their costs, and I don't blame them one bit. The cost of the actual production of a drug may not be much, but what goes into it on the front end is astronomical. Out of the hundreds of drugs in research, only a handful make it to final approval, and so the cost of the "failed" drugs needs to be recouped as well. The reality is that drug companies are in business to make a profit.

The smaller the treating population who takes the drug, the more expensive it is . . . basically, the population available to spread the cost of R&D and production is smaller, so the per capita expense is higher. Deny the drug companies the ability to make a profit, and we'll find that very little research goes on unless the treating population is expected to be pretty large.

Don't get me started on the drug companies' advertising, though. That is a whole 'nother kettle of fish. :no:

For those of you unfamiliar with RA, please note that it is very different than "regular" arthritis. As noted by those who suffer from RA, it can be positively debilitating with twisted joints and the like. It is nothing to mess with, and treatment by a knowledgeable rheumatologist is absolutely necessary, no two ways about it. Also, I'd like to echo Ginnie5's warning to be careful about mixing herbal treatments and prescription medications. What a lot of people don't realize is that herbal treatments, while "natural," do have an impact on the system and can cause serious problems, even death, if taken without a full understanding of interactions. Just because they're "natural" doesn't mean that they cannot be misused (just like prescription drugs).