I don't even think they should look for a cure. Somebody who spent years of R&D might make a profit. Sorry...just hate when people bash the medical community. There are a lot of good people who spend years and years of schooling and years and years of hard work to help find cures for many diseases. There is not a secret plan NOT to find cures so companies can make a profit. I find it an obscene notion.

I sure do hope they are working on a cure.I know drug companies like to make money.It they are not working on a cure,then i guess all the money raised throughout the years for cancer,diabetes,etc,etc,is for nothing,so why raise all this money if there will never be a cure..just treatment..guess we will never know.

i'm reading the book, "the end of illness" and i agree with the oncologist who wrote it, when he talks about how we "cure" infectious disease, but chronic illness, is really more of an imbalance in our bodies. i don't think its so much a matter of "curing" as in shifting that balance back from the unhealthy state to the healthy state, be it cancer, diabetes, or autoimmune disease.

Rippon, I don't think this is the place to get in to a huge discussion on spiritual beliefs but I needed to explain just a little of my posts.

I don't think God wants me to be in pain and I do think His plan includes doctors, medicines and relief as well as Hope. I think I have this huge plethora of diagnoses just because I am human and live on this earth where sin and sickness abound. I do believe that He heals people and I don't question as to why I am not one of them except that I think He has plans to use my disease in some way. We go through some of this just so we can be understanding and be supportive to others who are doing the same.

I just didn't want to sound flippant with the "it's God's plan" statements. I am sure I did not explain my thoughts very well but there is no way to do it in print like there is when we are sitting face to face.

I don't mean to ever offend or stir up controversy.

I hope you have a great weekend and I also hope and pray that there WILL be a cure for these autoimmune diseases as well as so many other diseases that affect our friends and families.


Blessings,
Possi

Agree. The cure will be through genetics. So I guess while the universities research that "cure" angle the drug companies should just sit tight and not develop better short term treatments and just let people deal with it until genetic science develops far enough to really cure it. I call BS on that one. I do agree that there is little money in long term research, which is why the drug companies don't do it and tax dollars pay for that. But there is great valus in the bridge treatments now being developed to get us to the "cure" point.

I believe the genetic research is about 8 - 10 years out to "cure AS". In the meantime I am thankful there is research into better treatments to keep more people pain free until that genetic info is truly uncovered. The expense of the stuff can be laid at Government policy and the fact that capitalism in healthcare is a failed experiment in the US. Greed and people's heath is not a good combination. People should quit bitching about BIG pharma profits and [*bleep*] about Big pHarm lobbyists in Washington and politicians who support this current US healthcare mess. We reward company profits over Patient care in the US right now with current government policy. THAT is the problem

Government funded genetic research in the Universities will cure this and then Pharma will develop the application of the treatment to turn off these damm genes. Unless of course the far right slashes basic research so far in the next round of cuts that the basic genetic research greatly slows down. Which I greatly fear with idiots like Santorum running.

I remain optimistic the cure is only about 10 years out at the pace the genetic research is advancing. Maybe less

Possi, no offence taken. If you believe in organised religion that's your right. I am just concerned how some religious people have hampered stem cell research which shows that the church is hampering the state.

For the others on the board I agree that a cure will be found in due course - maybe we are 10-20 years out but there is some possibility which gives us all hope - the theists and those that follow science based reason.

I am not American but I agree that Santorum is a mug as is Gingrich. It looks like Romney will get in anyway.

Hang in there y'all.

Rippin

Okay, here's the deal ya'll. If we all, and not just us AS kickers but everyone with a disease is cured, who would die? This world would be so over crowded that we would all be starving or out of water or whatever.

Sometimes the body is cured of some diseases just on it's own. I had horrible asthma as a child. I lived at the hospital so much that I had teachers bringing my schoolwork up to me. I also had horrible allergies through childhood and young adulthood and I moved all over the states, now gone for a very long time. I had ulcerative colitis so bad that I couldn't work for 4 years at the age of 28 and now at 54, still gone! Pretty miraculous to me but it happened to me so I am quite joyful about those. Has anyone looked up to see how many diseases there are in this world? It is unbelievable. Anyway that's my last 2 cent's. I'm just so thankful after 25 years of having AS that I am on some darn good medicines that alleviate most of the pain that I was in!

the 6 million children who starve to death each year
1 billion people already suffer from chronic hunger and malnutrition. over 1 billion do not have access to safe drinking water. 80% of the world's population currently live in areas with threats to water security. the future is already happening.

I think the biggest hope we presently have for a cure is in prevention for our children. From the beginning, make the conscious decisions to feed you child's immune system and educate them on how food affects their health. Get them moving. Raise intelligent, proactive, logically thinking generations.

Sadly I think we have a long way to go in that.

I agree with Drizz and Jeff. I believe the advances in genetic research are galloping forward... and that we may very well see a cure for AS discovered within our lifetimes.

You can't stop the scientists! They're like inventors and explorers - they are excited to seek out the unknown, excitedly researching, and finally turning their attention to AS!

When asked this question, one of my doctors (a rheumatologist and scientist) also felt that a cure would be found within our lifetime. His response surprised me, doctors almost never say that.

I admit that before remicade came along, I would have found it impossible to believe this. Remicade's effectiveness seriously surprised me. Whether or not we'll be able to afford the cure is another matter. I'm not quite so confident about that one, but whoever develops it forward better price it at a point that someone can actually afford to buy it.