if you are using brand new drugs on the market, you are the guinea pig and only god knows what the long term future holds for you. (or them)
http://www.drugwatch.com/news/2010/08/26...rative-colitis/
http://www.themedguru.com/20100825/newsf...t-86139830.html
http://www.redorbit.com/news/health/1320...side/index.html http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18613799

Thanks for posting this, Jet. Makes a good companion to the one I posted earlier.

Oh dear! If you keep adding new links, Jet, I may have to remove my original response. I already edited it when you added the second link because my first response no longer applied. Your latest link is making me rethink my current response!

it really can be a double edged sword.

If I feel I have to take a chemical medication i take it, but once on it I seek out the natural alternative, and I have always found one

The main difference is the speed at which these things work.

Natural remedies rarely work quickly, can take weeks or months and often require life changes. But if you do find one that works for you, often you can use that remedy for life, with no ill effects and some therapies even clear up certain problems perminantly. I have noticed that with atural remedies we are often encouraged to both treat the actual symptom and at the sametime nurture the original causes. A lot of folk are often happy enough to do the first thing but the later can mean major adjustments, and that is what folk often find difficult. Another problem is often the cost, but fortunately nowadays there are so many people doig this sort of thing you can fairly easily find folk that will show you how to grow your own or where they are on sale etc

Right now I am lucky because I have bee able to get off all the chemical stuff I was on, and I really do think all of it was getting in the way of my healing. But things do change over time so I never say never, but in the mean time I do keep learning about natural painkillers, antibacterials and so on

It can be real fun and as you learn about one thing you often end up pickig up ideas about sometihng else.

I really like all this learning about natural stuff, but for my hubby it is a bit of a bore. So I would say if you think it is a good idea keep seeking because you can find what you want, but if it is too much on top of everything else you need to do, boy do I undertand this, with chemical stuff, where you can try a few and alternate them if you can. I really do believe this stops a loss of effectiveness, avoids addiction, intolerance and so on

Love Joanne

i could sit here and add links all day but just for you Wendy ill stop at 3.

I'm sure you could! If you want to add more, go ahead. It would help me if they were in a new post within the thread so it would be obvious that my response was to the first ones and not necessarily the later ones!

sorry about that Wendy, ill be sure to post that way in the future. thanks for letting me know its causing issues, I wasnt aware.

No problem! The links were very interesting.

Yes and that 2nd link is upsetting to think about - pharma companies really should have to trial their drugs in markets where they will eventually be accessible. It seems horribly unethical to do otherwise. I can see trialling ones for the prevention of infectious disease, but again, only if they have the intent of making them available at an affordable price to the population being studied.

I suppose I am a guinea pig to some extent. I am a happy one though. Remicade is new-ish in the grand scheme of things, but the short-mid term stuff is fairly well-known now. To me, the unknown long term risks are not nearly as scary as the known risks that my AS progression presents to me. AS is the most pressing danger to my health.

It is appropriate to caution about risks of meds as they definitely come with risks attached. Thanks for the post Darryn.
mig