Should cause of RA flare or disease affect the choice of first line medication or remedy?

Hi, All.

Wishing you a very healthy, relaxing and Happy Thanksgiving weekend!

Our recent paper, Each type of cause of Rheumatoid Arthritis or RA flare differentially affects the response to therapy is now online at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22051110 .

Here’s a brief summary of the paper:

According to the scientific literature, causes of Rheumatoid Arthritis can be bone fractures, food sensitivities or allergies, infections, exposure to silicon, and / or exposure to environmental toxins in various people. More than 36 possible triggers of RA have been described. These described causes only account for 46% of the RA cases. Since any one or more potential causes can trigger RA, the RA in each patient can appear different than most other cases seen by a physician.

My brother-in-law Charles Kimber, Ph.D. is a math educator and provided the appropriate formula to figure out the complexity: Assuming 36 different causes, the number of distinct cases of RA would be (2 to the 36th power) minus one since no causes would not trigger RA. 2 to the 36th power is more than 68 billion combinations of potential causes that can trigger RA or an RA flare. Each type of cause triggers a different type of immune response because it activates different types of cells.

Importantly, should the cause of the RA flare or RA disease affect the choice of the optimal medication?

Some medications slow or block the healing of bone fractures while other medications should not be used in patients with infections. Currently, physicians prescribe medications on a trial and error basis or a trial and learn basis.

We propose that the cause of the RA flare or the initial onset of RA can affect the response to therapy.

Instead of the classical trial and error method for choosing therapy, we propose that the type of cause should affect the choice of medication in order to increase its likelihood of working.

For example, I recently heard from Joe (not his real name) who had changed medications in Dec and began having a RA flare. Originally he had assumed it was due to additional stress at that time. After reading our web page on chronic dehydration, he realized that his physician had added a diuretic (removes water) in Dec. He asked the physician to substitute a different medication for the diuretic. After he began the medication without the diuretic, his RA flare gradually stopped. Coincidence? Maybe, but his follow up note suggests otherwise.

Several months later, he ran out of the new medication and had to go back to the pills containing the diuretic for 1 week. RA flare occurred. As soon as his prescription without the diuretic was refilled, the RA flare subsided. “The one that caused the problem was a Diovan-Hct 160/12.5mg. Using just the Diovan without Hct [hydrochlorothiazide] made a world of difference.” The correlations suggest that changes in his body’s water content (dehydration) affected his joints.

Other factors can also affect your body's ability to resist a flare or disease. Nutritional status, high ability to detoxify any substances, current toxic burden, current set of activated genes (called epigenetic profile), and exercise probably also affect your disease activity.

Regardless, eating a diet rich in omega 3 oils can help boost the prostacyclins, which help turn off inflammation. Pasture-raised beef, or buffalo, or my favorite, Wild Alaskan Sockeye Salmon from Vital Choice. tastes delicious and provide much omega-3 oils.

Vital choice has many Wild Alaskan Seafood Choices. In addition to their exquisite taste, they are sustainably harvested, have very low or undetectable heavy metals, and contain high omega-3 fatty acid content.

Here’s to your healing!

Sincerely,

Kathy

Kathy Molnar-Kimber, Ph.D. Rheumatoid-Arthritis-Decisions.com

P.S. Vital Choice offers free shipping on orders over $99.

References

Molnar-Kimber, K.L. and Kimber, C.T. (2011) Each Type of Cause that Initiates Rheumatoid Arthritis or RA Flares Differentially Affects Response to Therapy. Medical Hypotheses, in press, ( doi:10.1016/j.mehy.2011.10.006 ).

and its cited 98 references.