| Has a cure for rheumatoid arthritis finally been found? | | | | work for patients with advanced cases? Will there be |
| A quick look around the internet finds scores of | | | | side effects? |
| over-the-counter medications guaranteed to bring relief! | | | | While the prospect is exciting, RA sufferers have |
| Keep looking and you'll find more prescription | | | | heard it all before. There are so many rheumatoid |
| medicines, new medical procedures, announcements | | | | arthritis cures and treatments out there that it's easy to |
| of new surgical procedures and natural herb | | | | get cynical. Physicians state bluntly that there's no cure. |
| supplements than you can imagine. | | | | But they may also suggest ideas that have worked |
| All claim to effectively treat RA. Some use the term | | | | for others. |
| "miraculous." Among them are a | | | | One is to put up a high fence and sunbathe au natural |
| $50,000-per-innoculation under development by | | | | in your own back yard. Preposterous? No, rheumatoid |
| scientists at England's Newcastle University. A custom | | | | arthritis responds well to sunshine! When sunlight falls |
| vaccine will be individually engineered for each patient. | | | | on your bare skin, your body creates its own vitamin D, |
| Such a rheumatoid arthritis cure will have to halt what | | | | which works far better than any health food |
| RA does - turning the sufferer's immune system | | | | supplement or daily multivitamin. |
| against his or her own body, attacking the patient's | | | | Fifteen minutes in the sun three times weekly gives |
| joints. If the vaccine is approved, technicians will | | | | most patients a potent dose of vitamin D. Will more |
| harvest white blood cells from each patient. Cells will | | | | sunshine help? The best advice is to take it slowly - |
| be "reprogrammed" by therapy that includes a | | | | five minutes at a time for the first week, extending to |
| patented cocktail of Vitamin D, steroids and other | | | | 20 minutes until you have a nice "base tan." Then you |
| compounds. The altered cells will be injected into one | | | | may find yourself sunbathing for an hour or more at a |
| of the patient's arthritis-inflamed joints - with the | | | | time. Some rheumatoid arthritis patients say the |
| expectation that the altered white blood cells will | | | | treatment is addictive! Plus, it's free! |
| suppress the immune system's attacks on the | | | | Other rheumatoid arthritis treatments include regular |
| sufferer's own body. | | | | doses of omega-3 fatty acid, gamma-linolenic acid and |
| If it works, a historic rheumatoid arthritis cure will come | | | | Boswellia. Similar success is reported with glucosamine |
| in a single dose. The target date for use on humans is | | | | chondroitin, ginger, magnesium, copper supplements, |
| 2013. | | | | beta-carotene rich foods, vegetarian diets, curcumin, |
| But will such a rheumatoid arthritis treatment work? Or | | | | green tea extract, guggul, lyprinol, folic acid as well as |
| will it destroy patients' immune systems, making them | | | | large doses of vitamin B6, C, and E. |
| susceptible to infection? If it does work, will its | | | | Some sufferers say their condition eased when they |
| effectiveness wear off, requiring additional $50,000 | | | | quit smoking, cut back on coffee... and drank small |
| treatments? | | | | "doses" of alcohol! The bottom line? Until scientists |
| And who will this shot help? Only those who haven't | | | | announce a miracle cure, the rheumatoid arthritis |
| developed full-blown RA yet? Or just those with mild | | | | sufferer needs to keep reading, keep experimenting to |
| cases? Will the effect only be localized - requiring | | | | find what works - and avoid feelings of being |
| expensive vaccinations to every affected joint? Will it | | | | overwhelmed. There is hope! |