Sobering Limmericks

This was linked on the RAW facebook page. It's a pretty good story of two e-patients and the importance of critical thinking when it comes to one's health.

Copper Bracelets and Rheumatoid Arthritis

First of all, these bracelets just never made logical sense to me. I haven't been able to wear a watch since my mickey mouse watch with soft leather started hurting my wrist when I was about 16. And people want me to put a heavy metal bracelet on my wrist? NO THANKS!

Nonetheless, as I've said here before, we are in pain, and we are desperate for relief, so I can see why some people might try them to see if they work. Any miracle will do, right?

The good news is that when I did a search for copper bracelets and rheumatoid arthritis, most of the links I found said that it was a myth, that the bracelets do NOT cure RA.

The bad news is that there are still a lot of people who assert that they help with the pain, and even remove all symptoms of RA. I still see RA patients asking about them. One of the sites says that a study said that they help, and they cite a study done in 1976. But for some reason, no one has been able to duplicate this study. This site also tries to say that the meds that actually have been proven to help with RA and dangerous and unneeded. Some sites even claim that using copper bracelets result in the patient being SYMPTOM FREE for long periods of time. Of course, those sites sell very expensive versions of the bracelets, no surprise.

So, besides the lack of a Nobel Prize being awarded to anyone for curing RA and the fact that I've never heard of a real medical doctor prescribing copper bracelets for RA pain, what evidence is there that these things don't work?

There's the 1976 study, and then there's a more recent study that was done in the UK. However, the one done in the UK only used a few subjects and was focused on folks with OA, which is a totally different animal than RA. And, well, if you read the one from the 70s, you'll see that it was a "psychological" study which is very vague and seemed to mainly focus on whether or not the body actually absorbed the copper, by weighing the bracelets after they'd been sweated upon. The best article I've found about this 70s study is this one.

The bottom line is that there have been no studies which have actually proven that copper ingested or absorbed in any way has curative properties, or even that it actually relieves pain.

Besides the green stains, though, there are no side effects of wearing these bracelets, and some of them are very stylish! However, if one is a believer in copper for relieving pain, she can get a free bracelet by stripping electrical wires and wearing those on any part of her body, by taking multi-vitamins with copper in them, by carrying around a pocketful of pre-1982 pennies. Or she could maybe even get some in her diet by eating oysters and other shellfish (YUM!), whole grains, beans, nuts, potatoes, and organ meats (kidneys, liver), dark leafy greens, dried fruits such as prunes, cocoa, black pepper, and yeast.

However, there is some harm in wearing the bracelets, if someone believes it is a cure for RA:

* False hope which could prevent someone from getting proper medical treatment, which could lead to a lot of damage that could affect someone for the rest of his or her life.


* Spending money which could be better used toward real medicines for the disease, or for research, or you know, just take yourself to a nice dinner, in which you'll get all the copper you'll need.

* Magical thinking, which is similar to false hope, but which places the blame of the "cure" not working on the patient.

WE finally have our own non-profit organization!

Kelly announced today that she has created a non-profit organization called the Rheumatoid Patient Foundation. This is important, because, until now, we didn't have one.

Take a look at the article I linked to learn more.

There is no cure for Rheumatoid Arthritis.

That's a period at the end of that sentence. As of this moment, there is no cure for RA. If any product or "method" claims to cure Rheumatoid Arthritis, don't buy it. Or at least don't buy it from the person or company making that claim.

There are some things that may help with symptoms.

My god, a good massage helps me so much it makes me speechless. For a few hours, sometimes a day, maybe two. Then it's back.

Omega-3 fatty fish food stuff (not just fish, look: This is the most comprehensive one I've seen, but google for more info can reduce inflammation a bit in some patients.

I hear acupuncture can help, though I've never tried it because of the simple fact that it actually opens the skin, which, well, if I'm on MTX or something like that, no way. I'll do some research on that pretty soon.

Yoga helps some patients; stretching can be good to keep muscle tone if your joints can handle the exercise.

Heat is absolutely my friend. It relieves 18% of my pain (that's a joke, for those who haven't already laughed).

But the bottom line is there is no cure. Anyone who's trying to sell you a cure is trying to sell you a lie. I hope that there's a cure tomorrow, but today, there's not.

I know we're all desperate for relief. Seek relief! Seek knowledge about this disease! Be customers, rather than "privileged to be the patient!" Read about the latest medicines! But don't buy a jug of juice because it claims to cure RA. Buy it if it relieves your symptoms, of course, but, don't worry, we will ALL know the day a cure for Rheumatoid Arthritis is announced.

This should have been my first post. Oh well. :)

My email address

It's funny, because when I made this email address, I was thinking of how a friend in college used the word "traddle." It was his own word, as far as I could tell, and it meant one of two things: either really jamming, musically, or getting wasted. It was his pronunciation of the word "travel." "NOW we're traddling!" he'd say.

I'm not sure why I was thinking of him when I signed up for the email address of letstraddle at gmail, but I was, so there you have it. (feel free to write me any time!)

The funny thing is that when I googled it, I found this definition on the Urban Dictionary:

"Blather about one's company's products, most often having a derogatory connotation and used at or in the context of discussions about industry trade shows.

The lame sales drone peppered me with meaningless traddle about their stupid Acme 9000 Ionizing Pillowcase Cleaner."

I had to laugh.

MSM - A Cure for Rheumatoid Arthritis?

I was reading an article that was posted on RAW's facebook page that particularly pissed me off this morning: Celebrities Inspire Natural Solutions for Rheumatoid Arthritis

Notice the topic of the article. "Celebrities Inspire Natural Solutions for Rheumatoid Arthritis." Now, notice the picture on the front of the article. That's Aida Turturro, who, as far as I can tell, has never, ever said that natural solutions are the answer to RA. She doesn't even mention alternative methods anywhere I can find on the net. She is an RA activist who recommends seeing a doctor, taking your meds, watching your diet and, if you can, exercising (though she does acknowledge that many people with RA are not able to exercise regularly).

I can also find no information about Kathleen Turner ever having used natural "medicines." Maybe she has. Maybe Turturro has too. I know that I sure have. When you are in the amount of pain we experience, we become desperate for relief.

That's where the problem is. Articles like this one, and companies that sell natural "remedies" know about this desperation, and are willing to take our money, whether or not those "remedies" help.

So, all we're left with is James Colburn claiming he'd been "cured" by MSM. I went on a google hunt for it. It's also called Methylsulfonylmethane, methyl sulfone, crystaline DMSO and dimethylsulfone (DMSO2). All of the studies I was able to find, which weren't many, mind you, were small, inconclusive, and/or a long time ago. You'd think that if it were a cure for RA, someone would be pretty famous for it by now, right? Right.

Enter Quackwatch, a very good site which details all sorts of quackery. Here is their article about MSM. Please read this at your leisure. I just wanted to quote two parts of it for this post:

"Herschler's patent documents claim that "the average diet is deficient in methylsulfonylmethane because it is readily lost during conventional food processing, such as frying, dehydrating, dilution with synthetic fillers and other poorly nutritional additives, cooking, radiation or pasteurizing, and long-term storage" [4]. This statement is absurd, because the amount of sulfur in protein foods is not affected by processing. Since Americans tend to consume more protein than they need, "sulfur deficiency" is very unlikely and would not occur without obvious evidence of severe malnutrition. If it could occur, the remedy would be to eat adequate protein, not to supplement with MSM."

"No published research studies link MSM to any of the health claims made by its marketers. Sulfur needed in human metabolism comes from dietary protein. MSM supplements probably make little or no contribution to the body's sulfur requirements. Thus there is no good reason to use MSM supplements."

That's pretty much the same thing I've found all over the internet. Karl Loren would like for everyone to believe that James Coburn was cured by his "medicine," nevermind that he has been warned several times by the FDA that his claims of the therapeutic properties of his products defined them as drugs, which of course were not approved by the FDA.

So what's wrong with this magical "cure?"

* False hope which could prevent someone from getting proper medical treatment, which could lead to a lot of damage that could affect someone for the rest of his or her life.

* Spending money which could be better used toward real medicines for the disease, or for research, or you know, just take yourself to a nice dinner, in which you'll get all the MSM you'll need.

* The annoyance of taking 10-40 capsules a day (yes!).

* Magical thinking, which is similar to false hope, but which places the blame of the "cure" not working on the patient.


hat tip to who is karl loren?

You can pray for me if you want.

I don't believe in prayer. I should qualify that. I don't believe prayer works. Wait, that's not true either.

I don't believe that there's a guy "up there" somewhere with whom we can have conversations, and who has control over everything that happens and thus grants us wishes like fairies. I don't believe that you can ask your higher power for a special favor for me and he'll grant it or not. That also means I can't imagine an omnipotent being "looking down" and saying, "No. I won't answer your prayer; that child will die." It's a good thing! :) And I know that some people will say that "No" is an answer, but, no, it isn't. The favor is asked and denied, so what was ever the point? But I promised myself I wouldn't digress, so I won't.

It's always seemed silly to me, praying. I remember as a child wondering who he would hear first. It was kind of like a sale at Christmas; who can grab the shirt and make it to the checkout counter first?

That said, that's pretty linear thinking on my part. I believe positive thinking is a positive thing. I don't think it's a cure for anything, but I think it helps. Our bodies and the world are betraying us, so what's wrong with a little positive thought, whether it's for ourselves or for someone else?

So I'm not one of those atheists who will get up in arms if you say you'll pray for me. I'll appreciate you for thinking of me in a positive light.