Nasty drug - & BCC handy hint

[Guest guest]

Quite often, there is a banner ad across the top of the mail for a drug called Humira. The side effects box comes and goes so quickly, it it hard to read all the information (of course). I have been meaning to check on it as it mentions skin diseases, not to use, purely out of interest as to the latest poisons used for auto-immune diseases!

 

Well, tonight this arrived in my Inbox and I won't need to look it up. Also, at the end is an interesting tidbit on basal cell carcinoma.

 

Dangers of using etanercept are increasing

Dear Reader, If this e-Alert were a police procedural show, in today's opening scene Etanercept (Enbrel in the US) would be brought into the homicide department for questioning. And some hard-as-nails veteran detective would say something like, "This guy's got a rap sheet a mile long." Etanercept? Ring a bell? For long-time e-Alert readers it probably rings half-a-dozen bells. Drawing the line Etanercept is in a class of drugs known as TNF-alpha blockers. These drugs (which include Remicade, Cimzia, and Humira) inhibit the body's natural immune response in order to treat immune system dysfunctions such as rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, and Crohn's disease. But the risk here is obvious: When you solve a problem by suppressing the immune system, you open the door to a wide variety of infections. Which brings us to Etanercept’s rap

sheet of potential adverse reactions:

 

Tuberculosis Bacterial sepsis Nervous system disorders Congestive heart failure Cancer

Year after year, one study after another has revealed exactly how dangerous this drug really is. And of course, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) long ago required a "black box" warning for Etanercept and other TNF-alpha blockers. Right. The dreaded black box. In Pharmaceutical World, the black box is considered a big deal. But what is it really? Get out a black-ink pen and draw a rectangle. How does that look? Pretty forbidding? No. Pretty lame. When you consider that many patients have died due to adverse reactions from these drugs, a thin black line is literally the very LEAST the FDA can do. Another warning…another drug…another warning Earlier this month, the FDA announced yet another new warning for Etanercept and other TNF-ab drugs. To the rap sheet we can now add a lethal fungal infection called histoplasmosis. I have to admit, I'm impressed by the way the FDA initially

acted on this one. Apparently someone at the agency followed up on a single case of the fungal infection and found evidence that TNF-ab drugs may have been linked to 45 deaths in patients who developed the infection. And can you guess where this is going? Yep: another black box warning. Now you might think that at some point the FDA would throw in the towel and say, "You know what? This stuff actually kills people. We better take it off the market." But in the US, three of the four TNF-ab drugs make more than $1 billion per year. And if you're raking in that kind of crazy money, your drug doesn't get pulled unless it's killing nearly everyone who takes it. So the FDA is going in another direction. According to the Associated Press (AP), the agency advises doctors to consider "aggressive use" of antifungal drugs in patients who develop flu-like symptoms associated with the infection. And what's wrong with THIS picture? One

FDA official told the AP that antifungal drugs also have dangerous side effects. He added that if a patient develops a fungal infection, doctors "should consider" stopping treatment with Etanercept and other TNF-ab drugs. Don't STOP treatment! Geez, don't do anything rash! But, you know, consider it. Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients might consider other directions as well. A study showed that four teaspoons of extra virgin olive oil taken daily for 12 weeks reduced pain and morning stiffness among RA patients. A supplement called Wobenzyme, which contains a blend of pancreatic enzymes that reduce RA symptoms by lowering abnormally high levels of antibodies (produced by an overactive immune system) that prompt RA inflammation. Talk to your doctor before treating rheumatoid arthritis with Wobenzyme or olive oil.

....and another thing If you have the most common form of cancer, you probably also have a safe and inexpensive treatment for it in your home right now. Basal cell cancer appears on the skin as a small lump or sore that doesn't heal properly. This type of cancer is annoying and unsightly, but rarely dangerous. Late last year, the Orthomolecular Medicine News Service (OMNS) in the US posted an article that explained how to use vitamin C to treat small spots of basal cell carcinoma by mixing a paste of powdered vitamin C with a small amount of water and then applying it directly to the spots. After three applications per day for two weeks, many of the spots scab over and drop off. So is this a revolutionary new breakthrough? Not quite. This information comes from research that was published in the Journal of Applied Nutrition more than 35 years ago.

Sources: "FDA Orders Stronger Warnings for 4 Arthritis Drugs" Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Associated Press, 9/5/08, ap.org "Topical Vitamin C Stops Basal Cell Carcinoma" Orthomolecular Medicine News Service, 11/9/07, weblink:orthomolecular.org