Steroid therapy is the use of steroid medicines, also identified as corticosteroids, to treat several sorts of autoimmune illness, which includes myasthenia gravis, lupus, and multiple sclerosis, and other disorders, such as asthma. Steroid medications contain medications like prednisone and cortisone. Corticosteroids can be prescribed to be taken orally or in other approaches, such as by inhalation.
According to Western medicine, steroid medications are medically needed to treat several situations and ailments. It is essential not only to adhere to the recommendations of your health-related qualified with regards to steroid use, if you have decided steroid therapy is ideal for you, but also to discover other health-related possibilities if you have second thoughts about steroid drugs.
Is steroid therapy appropriate for you?
Steroid medications have big effects on the metabolism of calcium and bone. Steroid therapy can result in serious bone loss, osteoporosis, and broken bones. High dosage of steroid medications can lead to speedy bone loss, up to as a lot as 15 % per year. If you are on steroids, you are much more than twice as probably to have a spine fracture as compared to a person not taking steroids. Fracture risk increases as the daily doses of steroid medications increases. The significant influence of steroid medication on bone is fractures (broken bones) that occur most generally in the spine and ribs. There are various rates of bone loss amongst folks on corticosteroids. Bone loss occurs most swiftly in the initial six months following starting oral steroid drugs. Soon after 12 months of chronic steroid use, there is a slower loss of bone. On the other hand, it should be described that not all individuals who take steroid medications knowledge bone loss.
Other adverse side effects of steroid medications are elevation of blood pressure, weight gain, decreased resistance to infection, indigestion, thinning of skin, and prospective development of cataracts and glaucoma.
Let me relate my own encounter with steroid therapy.
I was diagnosed with myasthenia gravis quite a few years ago. Myasthenia gravis is a chronic autoimmune neuromuscular disease characterized by varying degrees of weakness of the skeletal (voluntary) muscles of the body. The hallmark of the illness is muscle weakness, which increases throughout periods of activity and anxiety, but improves immediately after periods of rest and calm. Certain muscle tissues, such as those that handle eyes and eyelid movements, facial expression, talking, chewing and swallowing are typically involved in this disorder. In addition, the muscle tissues that control breathing, neck, and limb movements might also be affected.
Due to myasthenia gravis, I had developed ocular symptoms, such as ptosis (drooping of eyelids) and diplopia (double vision), and weak neck and limb muscles. Luckily, I did not have weakness of the pharynx muscles, which could lead to difficulty in chewing and swallowing, as properly as slurred speech in many cases of myasthenia gravis.
I was prescribed steroid medicines and had been on a steroid therapy for 3 years. In addition, I was also offered drugs to deal with bone loss and other side adverse effects connected with the use of steroids.
In my case, there was some improvement, but not considerable sufficient to make me choose to continue the steroid therapy following 3 years of therapy. I had to balance the dangers of steroids and the symptoms of myasthenia gravis.
My rude awakening came when I realized that my immune method, which was the result in of the disease in the 1st place, is not only an integrated network of cells that would protect me in instances of an infection, but also a system with lots of regulatory mechanisms that, if uncontrolled, would turn out to be my enemy alternatively of my friend. Much more importantly, these steroids may perhaps control the symptoms of myasthenia gravis, but they may perhaps also impair my immune method with lasting effects on my general well being and wellness further down the road.
I recognized that the human physique has a all-natural mechanism for self-healing, if offered the proper environment. Accordingly, yoursite.com took matters into my hands, and created a drastic decision to cease my steroid therapy without consulting my physician (Warning: I do not ask any person to do the exact same.) I stopped the medication very gradually and steadily. Meanwhile, I did all the things to enhance my immune technique by way of a thorough detoxification plan, and a modify of diet. I did not get weight, my blood stress became regular and, most important of all, my myasthenia gravis situations did not deteriorate. Up to this day, I still have some double vision, which I have discovered to cope with (I can nevertheless drive), but my other symptoms have disappeared. I have been off steroid therapy for additional than one decade already.
Hippocrates, the father of medicine, after mentioned: “No man is a much better physician than himself, who knows his own constitution.” No one can determine for you what is very best for your well being. A physician can only give tips, but you are the a single who tends to make the choice on regardless of whether steroid therapy is correct for you. Listen to your body.