Nicky,

you are perfectly right. it is not longer thought that autoimmune disease are the result of an "hyperactive" immune system. in fact HIV has taught us quite a lot with regards to that. because it came as a great surprise that people that clearly have immune deficiency, also have a much higher prevalence of autoimmune disease.

in fact the more accurate way to see it is as dysregulation of the immune system. the immune system can be seen as an "army" which is fully equipped to attack any possible "invader". because of that it has to be kept under very tight control. we are very far from fully elucidating the very complex mechanisms invovled, but at least we know that we don't know.

there are basically multiple sub-populations of lymphocytes that are responsible for that, and we are constantly discovering more. in the past it was thought that there are T helper cells (CD4+, which are the ones that are low in HIV) and T supressor cells (CD8+) we now know that it is much more complex then that. and some of the T helpers are actually T regulators, and only appear to belong to the same population when in fact they have very different roles.

there are many new treatment approaches that try to modulate the immune system better. "tackling" what is wrong and not just "shooting" blindly at all the immune cells and other innocent bystanders. the first among which was rituximab which is a targeted therapy aimed at destroying only those cells that produce antibodies (B cells). the problem is that is not extremely efficient and also that it does not differetiate between normal B cells (which produce antibodies against pathogens that can attack us) and the abnormal ones (that produce the autoantibodies).

and in fact there is a lot of interest in trying to find various "natural" products such as green tea, curcumin etc, that are known to have an effect on the immune system, and utilize them as less toxic agents.

and I can tell you that herbalists can be just as arrogant as physicians, and some refuse to give away their "secrets" and join forces in this type of research.

alice

Doesn't offend me in the least. I respectfully disagree. I appreciate the idea of Eastern medicine; however I believe that Western medicine is what is going to keep me well. I practice Tai chi for the relaxation and meditation, I don't have any problem with Eastern practices. However, when looking at Eastern medicine, it is insufficiently controlled to say what is actually helping. Herbal medication to "boost" your immune system is something I will happily avoid based on my understanding of what is happening in my body and on the advice of the top MG specialist in Canada. If you believe they help you, great for you. There is a lot to feeling better to improve your outlook on life.

Brian, I'm not offended. I don't take "herbal" medications, just to clarify that point. I only take Mestinon for my MG, just like you.

I do want to also clarify that Betaine HCL is not an herb and does not have a "Placebo" effect on me. It is made from sugar beets. Pepsin made from pork. Without it, I can't digest my food. I get very bad reactive hypoglycemia from the "dumping effect" of undigested food going into my small intestines. I get more frequent infections. My GI tract would be full of food peutrifying; not a very healthy situation. And given my family history of GI tract adenocarcinoma, no one could tear that Betaine HCL away from me. Or my acidophilus.

The B12 methylcobalamin I take daily I absolutely need to take or I'll end up with a deficiency again.

Which brings up another topic. My insurance doesn't pay for these two "drugs" (Betaine HCL and methylcobalamin) but I need both to stay healthy. The only reason they don't is because they aren't prescription drugs. I should not have to pay for them. Western doctors don't write prescriptions for anything not from a drug company. Eastern doctors do.

I could go on and on but it doesn't seem fruitful to do so. We will indeed have to agree to disagree.

Annie