crazy idea to fix RA | Arthritis Information

 

So...in a weird moment of musing about RA, I thought of this cure while taking a leak at the urinal.

From what i understand RA is an autoimmune disease where the immune system is programmed to attack itself, thinking of itself as the enemy...thus producing the swelling.

Now...i am no scientist.  But wouldn't it make sense to simply reprogram the cells to stop attacking itself by just attacking something else?

So, how do we achieve this?  perhaps expose the RA sufferer to some other powerful (but not leathal) disease/illness.  So the cells will then reprogram themselves to attack this new disease/illness instead.  Hopefully once that disease is gotten rid of, then the cells will forget about attacking itself, and therefore no more RA?

out of curosity to test my theory....has anyone here gotten ill (ie. major cold/flu or something else major), while with RA?  During the period of other illness, did the swelling, inflmation, and other RA symptions lessen?

 

bro7539365.6525Some people think their RA symptoms lessen when they take antibiotics for an illness; some think their RA symptoms lessen because their immune system attacks the illness and not them; some people think they get worse when they take antibiotics; I know many people and doctors fear strep, because it causes bad flares.

So...as far as I can tell, everybody's different....

But my daughter did do very well after she had pneumonia and staph nearly back to back - AFTER, not during (staph gave her the worst flare she has ever had), so I attribute it to the additional antibiotics.

I had antibiotics post total knee replacement and flared.  So that I could do PT I had to up Pred. to get over the flare.  Was in Mexico last year and had an intestional bug that lasted for 3 weeks, was on antibiotics and didn't flare. 

Have had pneumonia and flared even though I was on antiobiotics, same with a sinus infection.

Each person, each flare, each response is different.  Lindy

Bro, one small correction,,,In RA the immune system does not attack itself, the immune system attacks the joints and connective tissue.  Probably doesn't change your theory at all.  Just thought you'd want to know.

 

Well, for me when I am on antibiotics I get worse, so I wonder if that would just make me worse all around????  Good theory...Keep thinking and helping your wonderful sister!

Being pregnant causes the RA to slow down or not exist, but a huge flair can happen after giving birth.  Not sure what that means, but it makes one want to be pregnant forever!  Perhaps it's a hormone thing?   If RA only attacks the joints and connective tissue, then why am i so sick. Tired and chills. It just feels like it is attacking me.Yeah, it does that too.  Fatigue, achiness.  My elbow has been sore for days, but it isn't flaring. 

And the flip side theory -

Your body is not attacking itself (or joints, tendons, etc.) it's attacking an intracellular infection.  Hence the tired, chills, fatigues, achiness.

:-)

Pip

I agree with pip on this. I haven't seen any evidence that shows the immune system is attacking itself, its just a theory. Probably your immune system it is attacking some sort of bacteria or nano bacteria that is thriving in you.

 

[QUOTE=Pip!]

And the flip side theory -

Your body is not attacking itself (or joints, tendons, etc.) it's attacking an intracellular infection.  Hence the tired, chills, fatigues, achiness.

:-)

Pip

[/QUOTE] I'm on the Pip and Higgy train...I think my immune system is functioning properly and it's trying to get at something hiding in the joint tissue. Us, too. AP dr. says he just doesn't believe your immune system is so stupid that it would attack you....

WOW!!!! This theory came to light while starring in a urinal?? lmao

I hope the docs working on this disease find a better place to do their research and thinking.

I'm not trying to be insulting, I just thought it was a funny post.

                                Don

I am just thinking outloud. I noticed that alot of people with both fibro and RA most had the RA dx first and the fibro dx later. Mine was the other way around, but my orthepiedic surgeon said i had systymic RA years ago but the reumotologist said fibro. I just wonder if Leviquin antibiotics kept me from getting sick for years. I can't take anything else and i have chronic ear and sinus trouble. But i am just thinking outloud. I had been tested for RA several times in the past it only just know showed up on the blood work. Also the leviquin makes me have insomnia so i wonder if it did something for the fatique.

i do my best thinking while in the bathroom. 

 

[QUOTE=DONN]

WOW!!!! This theory came to light while starring in a urinal?? lmao

I hope the docs working on this disease find a better place to do their research and thinking.

I'm not trying to be insulting, I just thought it was a funny post.

                                Don

[/QUOTE] Wow, Milly, how coincidental! Recently there was a medical conference about
AP and RA, and apparently "they" said the new discovery is that Levaquin
actually kills mycoplasma (while Minocin only inhibits it). So the very newest
protocol is 2 weeks if Levaquin involving the Daddy of the Herxes from Heck
and then you're done! No more drugs. Someone at the Road Back was trying
it but I don't know how it went.

So you are off Levaquin now? I wonder what would happen if you started
taking it again.Yes i am thinking I will start back in a day or two as i am on a high dose pred at the moment. I wonder if I was just accidently taking it for RA. I think I started using it about when I started getting bad fibro. I just had become allergic to everything else. Antibiotic wise that is. So maybe this has been helping me for six years or better. I didn't take it everyday but i did take it often. At least once every three months sometimes more often i have a horrible ear, the docs all want me to get a tube but the ear doc is stubborn very stubborn. I have constant pressure on my ear. And it gets infected very easily.I've been on Levaquin several times, sometimes for as long as a month at a time.  Each time I took it, it had no impact (positive or negative) on RA symptoms, at least for me. Normally they only gave it to me as a 10 day or 7 day dose i wonder what the dose is supposed to be? Thats scary i may have been 4 days away from being better.Well, I don't really know too much about it (except that it can take several
courses of it and the herx is really bad). If I have time to find out more I will
report back!Well I always get a fibro attack everytime i get an infection. But stress and infection and injuries bring on my fibro. So my theory that the Leviquin got rid of my fibro was it was killing the germ that brought on the fibro attack. Just don't have all the answers. Anyway i guess i sort of do AP thearapy for my fibro. And it does seem to make the fibro attacks clear up faster. A few months ago i was dizzy and fatiqued and had fibro and cramping I had a bladder infection anyway I didn't go to the doctor right away because i didn't know what to tell him. I'm dizzy just wouldn't have got me very far scince my ear didn't hurt. The Leviquin i do think heped with thr fatique and it of course got rid of the bladder infection and the fibro went away. I just find it hard to believe that i just got RA just now and didn't maybe have it going on a little while before getting my dx. Because the fatique has been a bit of a problem before this flare. You just get so many strange things when you have fibro. I had been researching my symptoms for several months thinking something new was going on. Thats just where my thinking came from. And fibro i just get joint and muscle pain and stiffness all the time. My new symptoms are fatique, noduale swelling and dry eyes and mouth and throat headache and eye pain. The pain and stiffness i have had a long time very, very bad. And of course my blood confirms RA now and it did not in the past. Who knows. I am allergic to everything else so i will be on Leviquin regardless. I will let you know how my study goes. Doesn't hurt to keep a little hope.

I feel when I get sick, or starting to get sick my joints feel worse. I can almost always tell when I am going to get a sinus infection. (I get a lot of them! good thing I am starting enbrel tomorrow)

 I just had one and the day after I started the antibiotics, I felt GREAT. I woke up with no stiffness and went all day feeling wonderful. BUT after that day it all came back. Just thought that was weird. I stopped the antibiotics yesterday and still feel the same.

There has to be some connection.

My first post to what looks like a family of RA sufferers like myself.  Glad I found this place.

I found this thread interesting as I currently have some sort of sinus infection/upper resp crap going on.  I'm on no meds at this time and have noticed some relief in my RA symptoms.

I have always noticed that the day before I show signs of a cold or sinus infection I have a good RA day. Because of this good days scare the hell out of me now.

 

 

< =text/>_popupControl(); Don't most men do their best thinking in the bathroom (this is the theory according to my husband and not me when I read to him bro thought of this in the potty). 

I think BOTH theories of immune system and infection go hand in hand.  They BOTH have credence and a place in trying to figure out how this crud happens and how to treat it.  If you have an infection your immune system is working overtime to try and kill it.  Hence...the overactive immune system.  One strong theory of thinking out there now with RA is that it is an infection that the immune system was triggered to fight off but for some reason the immune system couldn't do it and went haywire and the infection went into the bones...joints...etc. 

I really just feel there is NO black and white...one or the other when it comes to RA.  I really feel it is a mix of a couple of things (let's not forget the gene theory like I have going on) and we can't concentrate our research on one or the other.  There has to be some combined research going on somewhere with all of this. 

My RA has always calmed down when I get sick, but I have to get really sick, like the flu. I have a friend who's mother had severe RA and she said the same thing happened to her, she only got any relief when she was sick. But then you're damned if you do and damned if you don't, who wants to have the flu, so your RA is better.Ninilchicken39369.5831018519Yes i have swollen tonsils. Feel better, less fatique and not so much temp fluctuating. But i am also on my 5th day of high dose Pred, so strange. But my stiffness gets worse for sure. I still do have more energy than along time. I was sick yesterday, and i was more swollen last night. My neck has a tendon stiff all the way up to the back of my head. Had noticed tenderness in places as the meds wore off and time to take another dose. So i should be misserable, but i am not. I only feel less sick, i am truely not.I also have a problem with taking other meds while on pred. It tends to make me allergic to things i could take in the past. Starts new allergies. So if i have to take an antibiotic I would fist like finish my tappered dose of pred. So if i have to risk loosing one of my meds, i will try the keflex first. As the Leviquin is something that i can't loose.I do wish i had known of this Leviquin study a couple of weeks ago. I have tereble arthritis on my mri around my spine at the top of my back, I have had some swelling in the past in my hand, that was explained as carpul tunnel. So it was confusing to me and my doctor as specialist told me in the past i did not have RA. That i had fibro. Maybe I had both. And i have had times when my joints just made me cry and scream and was told no pred take a muscle relaxer. It is just fibro. Had i not changed docs two years ago no one else would have tested me a fifth time for RA. An eroom doc told me a few weeks back it was just old age. I am 44. My doc did the test but said it is probably Osteo. How many times have i complained of fatique and had them run a cbc to see if i am anemic and check my thyriod as that runs in the family. This is why i think the Leviquin was helping me as no one else was. On mri i have lots of arthritis just my swelling is in places not easily seen. So i have to reprogram my thinking i am sick not crazy. Well it has made me a little crazy. I do not have the answer but i am looking along with the rest of you.
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