RA and Addison’s Disease | Arthritis Information

Joined: 10 May 2005
Location: Australia
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 1

Posted: 10 May 2005 at 12:36am \| IP Logged
Sorry, I seem to have posted this to the wrong forum by mistake, so I'm having another go. I'm new to this

I have had Addison's Disease for 25 years and I have just been diagnosed with RA. My Rhuematologist has put me on Methotrexate (two tablets every second day for a total of six per week which don't cause me any problems) and the other day gave me a cortisone injection into my shoulder to help relieve the pain.

My question is this - Since Addison's Disease sufferers typicaly don't produce any (or very little) cortisone naturally, they have to take cortisone daily to make up the missing amount. Would it not seem, then, that increasing their daily dosage of cortisone might help their arthritis?

I have other health problems also - Type 1 Diabetes and hypothyroidism, but my main interest at this time is for some relief from my RA.

BTW If you are on MTX can you also take some other drugs for pain relief?

Looking forward to some answers from what appears to be a very knowledgeable forum membership

Isabelle

Isabelle,

I don't have any answers for you on anything except the MTX. Yes; you can take other pain medications along with it. I'm not sure if you are referring to a RX or OTC but I've taken both with no problems.

I hope you start to feel better soon. How's the shoulder? That's terrible pain!! I've had to deal with that off and on for years and found that the cortisone shot (Although VERY painful in the shoulder!!) helped me so much. I hope this has been your experience as well.

Take Care...and welcome to our group. I hope you'll continue to come back.

This is just a guess...but if you do take cortisone already for the Addison's....I'd guess that yes they may consider upping the dose for treating RA since many with RA are treated with pred anyway. It may depend on your normal dose that you take whether adding more would be beneficial. I'm just guessing here as I know nothing about Addison's.
Many people do take other meds with MTX. At one time I was on MTX, plaquenil, ultram, pred and a few others.

Hugs, wayney
Dear Isabelle,

I find it troubling to hear someone use generalizations
such as "Addison's Disease sufferers typicaly don't produce any (or very little) cortisone naturally, they have to take cortisone daily to make up the missing amount."

Here is my story. One day, out of the clear blue sky,I woke up with burning pains throughout my body. I felt highly inflamed. Ooohh, inflamatory problem. Less red meat, right? Cut back on saturated fat. Eat a balanced diet: fruits, vegetables, 60-80% complex carbohydrates and the like. Oh yes, and lots of olive oil, fish oil, the anit-inflammatory herb of the day, etc.

That was precisely what I had been doing until then!

Lucky for me, I happen to be a holistic practitioner with some ability to diagnose my own ailments. To cut to the conclusion: I was NOT EATING ENOUGH RED MEAT! At 4'11 and a size zero, my salad-heavy diet was resulting in a huge concentration of plant roughage floating around in a small blooodstream, leaching into tissues and sparking off symptoms of detox. What I needed was red meat: something protein-heavy for balance and contributive of horomones, acids and enzymes conducive to speady elimination. The faster my body could eliminate the plant roughage buildup, the sooner the detox process would be over.

I made myself a juicy steak and felt the rheumatoid-like symptoms melt away. And no "conventional practitioner" woulda'thunk it!
Wow, I really wish that after 21 years of feeling daily pain from RA that a nice juicy steak would be my cure. Oh wait, I eat plenty of red meat without overdoing it....hhhhhmmmmm no cure yet.

The triplets are cracking up!!

I think they're off to "Black Angus" for lunch,

do do do do I think we have just entered the twilight zone!

Who knew an internet support group for RA would be so much fun!!??!!

As much as some of these folks and their comments get on my nerves; you guys have to admit their good for some laughs!!

Too Funny!!

And it's good stress release for me, who has been so grumpy because of a fibro flare plus "women's issues"! Sorry to all the guys who read that!

Wayney-you had me cracking up-way to tell Ester (our crazy healer)Sherry

Geez,

Can anyone tell me the difference between Rheumatoid arthritis symptoms and "rheumatoid-like symptoms". Could it be the word "like"????

Please go away and crawl back in under the rock you came out from. We are not interested.

PS I have reported you - now go!!!

Esther

Since Isabelle has had Addisons Disease for 25yrs, I would bet that she knows a lot more about it than you do. And as for "plant roughage floating around in your bloodstream", what Anatomy & Physiology course did you study? Roughage from vegetable or any other matter can be found in your stomach, small intestine, large intestine, colon and then passes out of the system. Your statement gave me a mental picture of the remains of pieces of lettuce floating around in the bloodstream. Roughage is indigestible fiber. It is not found in the bloodstream, not even yours.

Barb

"And no "conventional practitioner" woulda'thunk it!"

That's because "conventional practitioners" actually have brains! RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS is more than an "inflammatory problem." Geesh! And if you have plant roughage in your blood stream, you're in serious need of medical attention, and will probably be dead soon. But then your body has probably already told you that, eh?

Cris

Waynie and Lovie

Thanks for your reply. I'm due to see both my endocrinologist and rheumatologist in the next couple of months and you've given me the incentive to bring it up with them.

Isabelle

I'm picturing little pieces of broccoli floating around in Esther's blood like the stuff that floats up when your garbage disposal clogs up. Now Esther--tell me, oh sage one--how does your heart react to those little pieces of broccoli when it goes through the heart for pumping through the rest of your body? Woman, have you ever heard of an embolism? That's when a blood clot breaks loose and travels to places it doesn't belong, like the heart or lungs, and KILLS YOU. Now, let's see...do you think the veggies in your blood might have a similar effect? Or are you going to talk to them and tell them to avoid the important organs?

Isabelle M - you mention that you have Type I diabetes. This could be the reason that the doc is hesitating with the prednisone. While pred is a miracle drug, it's also a nasty one in that it can cause diabetes and osteoporosis, among other things..the reason why we're all trying to some degree to wean off of prednisone. It's a love/hate relationship we have with prednisone.

Good luck to you.

Esther

I am NOT dealing in generalisations:

Fact: Addison's is a disease not a syndrome so its causes are well known and documented

Fact: Addison's is an auto-immune disease of the endocrine system resulting in the breakdown of the Adrenal gland, leaving the patient to produce no cortisone (or at best very little cortisone)

Fact: Addison's is treated by replacement doses of cortisone, one in the am and one in the pm to replicate the Adrenal gland's natural function.

Fact: Addison's patients do not suffer from the usual side efffects of cortisone treatment e.g. weight gain or "moon face" because they are only replacing the cortisone they would normally have

Fact: Addison's is considered to be a rare disease ( 1 in 100,000 people) so it his highly likely that neither you or your doctor have actually come across some-one who has it

Fact: I eat a normal healthy diet, typical of Diabetes patients which includes red meat.