Just a reminder for all to stay on the main topic here and avoid negative personal remarks.

Imuran .........

" Azathioprine is an immunosuppressant, that is, a drug that is used to suppress the immune system.

The exact mechanism of action of azathioprine is not known.
Safety and efficacy of azathioprine in children has not been established.

The most common serious side effects of azathioprine involve the cells of the blood and gastrointestinal system.

Azathioprine can cause serious lowering of the white blood cell count, resulting in an increased risk of infections.

All patients taking azathioprine require regular testing of blood for blood cell counts and liver toxicity testing....."
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As i previously stated in this thread, all drugs surpress the immune system and slow down / stop the metabolic process.

" The exact mechanism of action of azathioprine is not known.......... "

so its ok for adults to take it even though we really do not understand what it does in the body but do not give it to smaller versions of the human race because it will probably be toxic and kill them.

carry on.

s

I thought that the whole point was to suppress the immune system. Autoimmune disorders are the result of an overly ambitious immune system.

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t he human body is a sea of metabolisms.

anything that helps this process, strengthens your immune system and reverses disease.

but............
the " fraud and deception assoc. " aka the FDA, is fully responsible for getting a " safe food and drug sytem " in the USA.

they need to be fired.

" metabolic syndrome " is fully alive and well in america and it is linked to over 75% of all diseases.

if metabolic syndrome is present, there will be high levels of lipids( fats), high sugars, high proteins and high triglycerides in the blood of all americans.

every cell in the body is dependant on the quality of the blood.

high proteins gives you kidney disease. ( undigested proteins )
high lipids gives you heart disease and stroke. (undigested fats )
high sugars gives you diabetes (undigested sugars )

so all undigested nutrients = toxic blood.

if your blood is healthy, your body will be healthy.

if your blood is sick and toxi, you get to die early.

health is when your body can build cells faster than it can break them down.

sickness and disease is when you are breaking down faster than you are building up.

pure and simple, that's it.

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so we remove the metabolic enzymes from healthy fresh raw food by processing it.

the digestive enzymes are now gone.

in order to make this " inert garbage " taste better for retail consumption
the FDA allows a neuro toxin that punches holes in your brain and makes it look like swiss cheese to be added in.

we all know it as MSG or 35 other " covert under the table names " allowed by the fraud and decep. lads in order to disguise it to the consuming public masses.

so now we have enzyme devoid franken food with neuro toxic additives going into the body with zero enzymes.

the body is starving for real food with enzymes, cannot find any, so it starts to break down.

if you go to your heath care professional and he tells you he is going to " strengthen you immune system............"

you then say " wow, that's a damn good idea.........where do we start......? "

but if he says " you have xyz disease, hi blood pressure or high blood sugar, take this drug ....."
you then need to fire him and run for the exit door.

that is not health care.
every medication slows or stops the metabolic process.

metabolism is your body building up
every drug breaks you down faster than you build up, bar none.

if you supress the immune system with any drug , you are rolling backwards, not forwards.

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the " standard american diet " is 90% processed food that is enzyme deficient with no nutrients so you body cannot rebuild.

processed food should be labelled " not for human consumption........"

and it is not fit for your dogs either.

university of cal. irvine study:
children who eat 3 hot dogs a week have a 12 fold increase in lukemia and brain tumours.
a 1200% increase.

you read that right, look it up.

all hot dogs and fast food national chain burgers and chicken nuggets are made from hormone laden, genetically altered beast and fowl that is fed grains with a ton of antibiotics added in to keep them standing up just long enuf to get to the slaughter house.

not in my gut.

s

Actually I grow a lot of my own food and it is all natural. It hasn't cured me yet. I do believe in avoiding fried foods and processed foods.

It really is my understanding that autoimmune disease are the result of your immune system attacking your body. It reminds me of the family dog biting the kids. Well that dog may need a muzzle. I am not on any immune suppressants at this time. If I get worse, it may happen.

I am not only in this life for quantity of time. I want quality. If I can't do the things that I want to do, then I'll take whatever drugs help me, even if they only help for a short while.

As far as diet, I used to eat fried foods. I never ate vegetables. I ate bags of chips. I was too fat. I drank way too much liquor and beer. And I was perfectly healthy. This dang myesthenia gravis came on two years after I improved my lifestyle. Maybe I should go buy some beer and fried chicken.

http://www.youtube.com/user/ultrawel.../1/ZAhu6oa_2Ss

Mark Hyman, MD is what medical care should be in north america.

sadly, the pill pushers are still the status quo.

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Exactly, that is why patients with cancer are so healthy.

It's only the treatment with chemotherapy (which stops this process) that makes them sick.

Unfortunately, I have met a few patients who had this belief.
Fortunately, they came to their senses before it was too late.

I agree with that.

Not exactly, it is the result of dysregulation of the immune system.
Patients with untreated HIV have autoimmune diseases and a very suppressed immune system at the same time.

The aim of treatment is immunomodulation not immunosupression.
Better and more targeted treatments are being developed for many autoimmune diseases, leading to more effective and less toxic treatment approaches.

Nutritional supplements are also being used, but unfortunately only in small and few studies, because it is very hard to fund such studies.
This is a true problem, for which no solutions have yet been found. If you want to test the effect (and side-effects) of a certain agent you have to give it to numerous patients, fully document every minor change in their condition and then have a relatively independent regulatory authority supervise this process. Doing this costs enormous amounts of money. For a medication it will pay back once it is approved and on the market, but you can't do that with a nutritional substance as no one is going to pay 10 times more for something he/she can freely buy in the market.

Also, when you are testing a new medication, you can know for sure that your patients are not getting it from a different source as well. When testing nutritional supplements, your patients may differ in their usual exposure to this substance in their normal diet.

Even small and innovative drug companies, find it hard to fund this process and usually sell their products (that passed successfully the pre-clinical and early clinical phases to larger drug companies).

The incentive to find new treatments for rare diseases (for which there is going to be a relatively small market, even if the medication is approved) is very limited.

I do believe that because of the extremely high expanses of the regulatory process there is a large incentive to "push" approval of medications.
So, it is possible that some less safe agents will fall between the cracks.
That is why I am personally more cautious with "better" agents that replace older drugs. (see the example of vioxx).

Also, drug companies have an incentive to find new indications for their medications, as it makes the patent longer.

I am very suspicious of pharmaceutical company funded studies in which there is a significant gap between what is written in the results section and the discussion.
The results have to be accurate and always are, but in the discussion section you can write what ever you want. Many physicians will read the abstract and at the most the discussion. Most will not bother to look at the small details of the results. No one can blame the authors of the paper for trying to find reasons for why their original hypothesis was correct (even if the results do not seem to support it). You can only blame those who don't read the full paper thoroughly as they should.

For instance: The results of two studies on cellcept in MG clearly showed no difference from placebo. The discussion section explained why it is effective and why the study failed to show this (this may or may not be true, but it requires that they do a new study to prove those points). The results section showed that one patient in the study group died of infection and none died in the placebo group. As this was only one patient it could have been a coincidence.
But, I personally was not going to take a medication with a significant side-effect profile, that did not show any effect over placebo in two (relatively large) studies.

The problem is not with modern medicine, but with the way it is practiced by some physicians.
Many physicians properly read the medical literature, have a good and deep understanding of their field of practice. Such physicians will honestly discuss with their patients, what is known, what is controversial and what is yet unknown. Such physicians will be ready to respect other opinions (including those of their patients) and will always be ready to learn.

There are other physicians who trust what is written in pamphlets given to them by drug reps. know better than their patients what is good for them (even if it is based on flawed clinical trials), treat their patients according to convenient guidelines and protocols (without thinking if those do or do not fit their individual patient).

As a physician, I try as much as possible to belong to the first group. As a patient I try as much as possible to find physicians like that to take care of me. And every time I was tempted to ignore my instincts and follow the advice of someone who belonged to the second group, I paid a significant price.

I can easily understand how someone with no medical knowledge, experience or understanding can reach wrong and sad conclusions regarding modern medicine in general and the entire health care system after encountering such physicians.

I can easily understand how he/she would be ready to believe any quack who treats him with human understanding and compassion.
I can also understand how he/she will develop a very black and white picture of the medical profession.

My thoughts exactly!!!!!!!

In my case I used to eat healthily. And now, although I agree I shouldn´t, I eat all those foods described above. And yet after many months of eating that much garbage - for some strange reason I somehow am not able to metabolically provoke a serious myasthenic flare up!!!!!!

On top of that, a year ago I went into spontaneous remission of severe generalized myasthenia whilst actually using non-MG related acidic based synthetic poisons.

In the beginning I found some posts quite provocative but I ended up getting really useful information regarding the effects and value of medication and some other useful information.

Thanks for my time on this thread - though I ended up getting high blood pressure from reading it! - And that is not good for my health! So I´m leaving it.......