CORTICOSTEROID TREATMENTS

Sep 24, 2018
3 min read

Some of the injection pictures I was considering for this chapter were just too painful to even look at- yet that is the reality. Steroid shots are painful, time consuming and typically have several side effects.[1] Some of these complications can include;

Joint infection
Nerve damage
Thinning of skin and soft tissue around the injection site
Temporary flare of pain and inflammation in the joint
Tendon weakening or rupture
Thinning of nearby bone (osteoporosis)
Whitening or lightening of the skin around the injection site
Death of nearby bone (osteonecrosis)
Temporary increase in blood sugar

The adrenal glands are situated on top of the kidneys. They produce several of the most important chemicals that the body needs to remain healthy, including cortisone, hydrocortisone and prednisone. These hormones affect many diseases besides arthritis, including allergies and asthma.

When produced naturally, there are no side effects associated with them. When produced synthetically and introduced into the body, they can include all those listed side effects including a suppressed immune system; making you even more susceptible to diseases of all kinds.

Corticosteroids are known to cause; first and foremost suppressed adrenal glands function. As said before, this will make us feel better at the onset, but long term use will leave us worse off than we were before we started taking them. They give an immediate but temporary relief from pain, but in the end they place an even greater amount of stress on the overall body in addition to the already weakened adrenals. This path is the same as effectively whipping a dead horse.

This may be more than you want to know, but ACTH (Adreno-cortico-tropic hormone) is a hormone secreted by the pituitary gland within the brain. It is an important component of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA axis), believed to be the center of the neuro-endocrine system.

Hormones that come from these glands control reactions to stress and regulate many body processes, besides those related to arthritis.[ii]

ACTH is a very powerful hormone that has been researched for decades, all over the world, and rarely more completely than by the Children's Hospital, Helsinki, and the Aurora Hospital, also in Helsinki, Finland. This report by the National Institutes of Health, Washington, DC shows that;

“162 children with infantile spasms were treated with ACTH at the Children's Hospital[iii], Helsinki, and at the Aurora Hospital, Helsinki... In a large proportion (37%) of the children with treatment caused pronounced side effects, and the mortality was 4.9%. The most common complications were infections: septic infections, pneumonias, and urinary and gastrointestinal infections. Other side effects were arterial hypertension[iv], osteoporosis[v], hypokalemic alkalosis[vi], and other marked electrolyte disturbances[vii]. In children necropsy showed fresh intracerebral hemorrhages. Four children developed oliguria and hyperkalemia during and after withdrawal of ACTH. One of them had tubular necrosis confirmed by renal biopsy. Infections were significantly more common with large doses (120 units) of ACTH than with small ones (40 units). It is concluded that side effects, even severe ones, are more common during treatment than had been assumed. Careful watch is important before and after treatment. The benefit of very high dosages should also be reconsidered.”[viii]

While hormone therapy is a welcome short-term relief for constant pain and discomfort, clearly it can cause far more damage than good when taken synthetically over an extended period of time. After Reading RHEUMATISM POLY-ARTHRITIS AND OTHER JOINT DISEASES, you will come to understand the alternatives to dealing with your arthritis, in ways that will have a better result, without all the effects.

We aren't getting any younger, but that doesn't automatically mean we have to feel like we are getting older, too.