why has science struggled to substitue steroids?

earthspirit

steroids been around a long time.
the risks known for a long time.
nsaids beeen around a long time.
risks known for a long time.


the benefits of both are wonderful and having had the joys of a 5 day & 2 day course of steroids after years of every other pain killer under the sun, i wonder why why why there is nothing in between.

why isnt there something that acts like the natural corticosteroids in your body? if there was something that could help the brain deal with the pain and not cause further damage to the body, think how many millions of people worldwide would have more enriched lives.

its hard to believe that science is so far behind with some things.

now and again i take enzyme Q10 which i think works on the principle of putting more oxygen into your bloodstream. its a lovely natural pain killer and gives you a bit of zip in your step and does not seem to have any bad effects.

hardly any doctors know very much about it and its action is not well documented on medical sites etc.

due to the fact that i cant find much out and nobody seems to know much either, i dont take it every day. maybe couple times a week every few weeks or so. i feel that perhaps there could be a detrimental effect on your body or interfere with other meds or your blood so go slowly with it.

there arent many pains that scream "DO NOT MOVE" at us, so for those that dont, movement could be the better option.

hope you understand this rambling thought......

stickywicket

I don't think it's quite as simple as that, earthspirit. Steroids are an artificial hormone, aren't they? Just not quite identical. I'm struggling to think of any med that's actually a perfect imitation of something naturally present in the body. Even man-made insulin has its problems. We live in an imperfect world but at least, for us with arthritis, we live in the 21st century. I wouldn't have given much for my life a couple of hundred years ago.

dreamdaisy

Oddly enough science doesn't have all the answers. The havoc that the human body can wreak upon itself is a mystery that to date no drug, insoles, massage, essential oils, homeopathy, CBT, feng shui or drinking dew has solved. I'm with Sticky on this, I am thankful that I live in an age where the nasty neds are there to help (as much as they can) plus the ops and all the gadgets and gizmos on which I rely (my computer being one of them). Even a hundred years ago my life would have been hell and no-one would have known! :shock: Eeeeeek! Earthspirit, it is what it is and it will do what it will do. Luckily for us we're human beings and can overcome things if we try. I'd hate to be an arthritic spider - imagine living with all those hurty legs. DD

earthspirit

well DD i think being a creature unlike a spider, something more like our lovable pets such as cats dogs and horses, must suffer far more than we do with arthur.
they cant communicate their pain very well and who knows, what in their tiny minds they are thinking and how they seem to manage to still exist as friendly lovable pets.

we dont really know what people did way back in time to help diseases such as these.....maybe some of it worked better than we have nowadays.

no wonder people smoked opium pipes and took laudunum eh?

dreamdaisy

We don't communicate our pain very well - it's very easy to get grumpy with friends or our nearest and dearest, who are the least deserving of our venting the frustration and tiredness that this disease can bring. My thinking about what was done in the past is based on what was done about my childhood asthma - nothing. There were no meds for the asthma apart from Actified Co cough mixture - :shock: - even now I can throw up at the memory of its taste. The meds for an auto-immune arthritis are relatively new and whole malarkey is still shrouded in mystery. OA is far more straightforward to diagnose and 'treat' - I know where I am with my OA but the other? It's shut in its box at the moment, it briefly escaped the week before last but I'm now back in control. Yeah, right. DD

stickywicket

earthspirit wrote:

we dont really know what people did way back in time to help diseases such as these.....maybe some of it worked better than we have nowadays.

I'm pretty sure I know what would have happened to me a few centuries back. I'd have been a witch by profession. I have the correct body, I'd be useless at most other jobs and I'm not averse to cats.

If people were afraid of me or made fun of me because of the shape of my body I'd probably have cursed them and, if something bad had then happened to them, they would have assumed I had evil powers and, living in that age, I might have assumed it too. So I'd have had a pretty horrible life until my very horrible death.

Thanks God for pharmaceuticals and the NHS I say!

dreamdaisy

Oh Sticky! ' . . . . and I'm not averse to cats.' Perhaps it's time to start creating various potions (mostly involving Tempranillo) after all, we couldn't do any worse than the drugs manufacturers, could we? DD