"Drugs — when taken as prescribed — kill more than 106,000 Americans each year and the death toll from overdosing on painkillers is now greater than both car accidents and death from illegal drug use.

As noted in a recent New York Times article, "drug overdoses are driving up the death rate of young white adults in the United States to levels not seen since the end of the AIDS epidemic more than two decades ago."

Between 1999 and 2014, the rate of drug overdose deaths for Caucasians between the ages of 25 and 34 rose by 500 percent. The overdose rate for 35 to 44-year olds tripled.

And while these rates include both illegal and prescription drugs, the latter FAR exceed the former. It's a sad fact that the cornerstone of modern medicine — drugs — is also a major killer of patients."

"The drugs commonly prescribed for Rheumatoid Arthritis are among the most dangerous on the market.
These include prednisone, TNF-alpha inhibitors (sold under brand names such as Humira, Enbrel, and Remicade. Side effects of these drugs include infection and an increased risk for cancer), and harsh anti-cancer drugs like methotrexate."

Not long ago another Rheumatoid Arthritis drug Vioxx was removed after 60,000 people died of heart attacks and strokes. Many of these drugs are based largely on pure fantasy, wishful thinking or outright fraud.

While the drug companies make billions, people are dying by the million. This report further emphasises the point.

Comment: I have a somewhat different take on the subject of Rheumatoid arthritis which would help very many patients to get off this deception. Please note this singer from The Eagles had Ulcerative Colitis AND Rheumatoid Arthritis.

What does this tell us?

In this case there was perhaps an intimate connection between gut dysfunction and the incidence of Rheumatoid arthritis as we have often noted. These two symptoms are never related by the pigeon-holing medical profession. The two disorders conventionally are treated as separate entities needing different specialists - a Rheumatologist and a Gastro-enterologist. Readers should not be surprised to learn that the biggest departments in any hospital are those dealing with these two symptoms. The wishy-washy treatments meted out to patients do not have a hope in hell of curing anyone. In fact the word "cure" is an anathema amongst medical nomenclature.

TNF-alpha inhibitors are some of the most expensive drugs costing around 20K per patient per year and hence the push from big pharma to call as many diseases "auto immune" as possible. The words "auto immune" and "cash cow" are synonymous! We might as well start saying that patients suffering from these "auto immune diseases" have "cash cow disease" which generates huge profits for big pharma and keeps the Rheumatologists and Gastro-enterologists very busy putting patients through numerous futile scans and tests and finally sending them home with sack fulls of useless and often very dangerous drugs as per Dr Mercola.

The presence of any of the following will predispose a patient to Rheumatoid arthritis:

• Gastric reflux disease.
• Constipation
• Diahrroea
• Crohns disease
• Ulcerative colitis
• diverticulitis

How does this cause Rheumatoid Arthritis?

Whenever there is a problem with the digestive organs the pumping action that we are supposed to get from the diaphragm is often poor or mostly absent. The abdominal organs have evolved reliant on the external diaphragmatic pump. If this diaphragmatic-pump was not present all the abdominal organs would have evolved with much more vascularity.

In the absence of a properly functioning diaphragm stagnation follows and all the various symptoms of IBS follow. The bacterial flora in the gut often contributes to various disease presentations. The 'leaky gut' phenomenon allows larger molecules to escape from the gut wall into the blood stream. These molecules go and lodge in areas of the least blood supply which are our joints. Our body does not like this foreign invasion and an inflammatory reaction follows giving rise to the condition called "Rheumatoid Arthritis". Since no change is made in improving the breathing mechanism the foreign molecular invasion is incessant and the condition becomes chronic leading to severe damage of the joints and digits.

Suppressing this reaction with steroids, which damage the femoral head of the hips, block the sagittal sinuses in the skull and can produce psychosis is abhorrent. Using immune ablation drugs, which kill the bodies ability to safeguard itself, is the most idiotic if not ruthless form of medical care.

What can you do to overcome these problems?

Very simply, the cause of all these conditions is a poor breathing mechanism. This is largely due to:

• Chest breathing;
• A poor jaw to skull relationship;
• A poorly developed lower jaw;
• An asymmetry of the Atlas vertebra;
• An asymmetry of the hips.

Almost all sufferers are chest breathers often with a much reduced capacity to breathe. Patients actually need to practice abdominal breathing. To attain good results patients should join Yoga classes and do abdominal breathing all the time. This would eliminate the problem in some 50% of the patients while others will get substantially better from their gastric disorders - a far better outcome than any medicine will ever provide.

I came across this extremely interesting article which further confirms that RA is not an Auto Immune disease. The inflammation is perhaps attributed to a dysfunctional Vagal stimulation.

The drugs used for Gastric reflux problems fall into a class of antacids called protein pump inhibitors (PPIs). And they have a terrible effect on the patients body.

They boost the chances of heart disease, dementia, kidney dysfunction and bone fractures. They impair the body’s ability to absorb vitamin B12, which can lead to deficiency.

They also contribute to an imbalance of healthy gut microbiota that can lead to an antibiotic resistant diarrhoeal infection called c. difficile.

The treatment is SIMPLY to always belly breathe - not poison the system further.

To get much better outcomes and if your condition is very serious, you need an evaluation of your jaw and body asymmetries and the appropriate treatment to restore proper breathing function.

Comment received from a very senior hospital nurse:

Now that I understand the anatomy and physiology behind your findings and the impact it has on the body I recall many patients who I nursed over my many years within the NHS who exhibited such symptoms.

I worked with many rheumatology patients with severe rheumatoid arthritis who often complained of gastrointestinal problems such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), Ulcerative Colitis or other such diagnosis/symptoms.

There was never any understanding of the link between the two, in fact I recall being told the gastrointestinal issues were likely linked to side effects of arthritis medication.

I hope individuals diagnosed with these conditions get the opportunity to receive your treatment and I will continue to try to influence the NHS to recognise this.

Mari Gay

Comment: Perverting medical knowledge and ending up punishing patients is rife. Altruism in medicine disappeared a long time ago. The stranglehold of medicine by big pharma warrants renaming many types of doctors as the real snake oil salesmen or pharmaceutical agents. Here is a recent input by a senior authority:

Update:

Queen Elizabeth II’s former Doctor, Sir Richard Thompson, is fed up with Big Pharma’s for profit machine, and he’s calling them out on it. Thompson, former-president of the Royal College of Physicians, was the Queen’s doctor for over 20 years. He is now a part of a group of Doctors who are calling out Big Pharma for their egregious injustices and criminal acts. According to the Daily Mail (UK), the Doctor slammed pharmaceutical companies for making for profit drugs with ‘little-proven benefits.’

Sir Richard said: ‘The time has come for a full and open public enquiry into the way evidence of the efficacy of drugs is obtained and revealed.

‘There is real danger that some current drug treatments are much less effective than had previously been thought.’

He said the campaign highlights the ‘often weak and sometimes murky basis on which the efficacy and use of drugs, particularly in the elderly, are judged’.

You can also read the impact of bad orthodontics on gut health here:

http://dramir.com/blog/categories/117-Orthodontics

To find out how your TMJ dysfunction and other body asymmetries could be causing your gut dysfunction and Rheumatoid Arthritis please:

• Call us for an appointment. +44 (0)208 780 3433
• Email us: amir@dramir.com
• Register to complete our unique online 8 page comprehensive Questionnaire (Cost £29.00 redeemable from the consultation fee of £120.00).
  Please complete the online questionnaire before your appointment date.

According to this news story "doctors in Sheffield say patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) are showing "remarkable" improvements after receiving a treatment usually associated with cancer.

Steven Storey was diagnosed with MS in 2013 and within a year went from being an able-bodied athlete to needing a wheelchair and losing sensation in much of his body.

He said: "I went from running marathons to needing 24-hour acute care. At one point I couldn't even hold a spoon and feed myself."

Within a few days of the transplant he was able to move his toes, and after four months could stand unaided.

He still needs to use a wheelchair but can manage short distances without any support.

Steven, who is continuing to undergo physiotherapy said: "I can swim and cycle and hopefully walking is the next big step".

Comment: What was intriguing was that Steven's symptoms started all of a sudden unlikely to be categorised into MS. We were also not shown any pre-treatment brain lesions. The other RRMS patient had pre and post op MRI scans showing that the lesions were no longer present but these lesions are well known to come and go. The third patient in the programme did not show much change nor were we shown any pre or post op brain lesions.

I think I was left with more questions than answers until I received Joan's postings. All credit to Joan as I fully quote her below:
Posted: 21 Jan 2016 01:02 PM PST

"Whenever there is a news story on autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplants (HSCT), I hear about it. Perhaps this also happens to you, MS patients and caregivers? Well-meaning friends, family, and acquaintances forward you links to glowing miracle cure stories. And I reply with sincere thanks--and also inform them that Jeff's doing really well, with no MS disability, inflammation, new lesions or disease progression, now 9 years past his diagnosis with MS. So, HSCT is really not for him. Believe me--I know how fortunate we are to be able to report that!

For those who have had MS awhile now, these repeated stories on HSCT are heartening, but at the same time discouraging. Because HSCT is certainly not for everyone, and many can't even consider this treatment. It is good to know that some people are getting relief from MS and recovering their abilities, even if only temporarily. It's also very important to understand that these stories are anecdotal. They are heart warming, for sure, I'm not trying to be a downer. But there is a dark side to this "cure narrative" I'd like to explore: the premise that a "faulty immune system" in MS which needs to be ablated and completely removed is keeping us from understanding true disease progression.

The general public, press, and politicians get a false sense of progress when they read these news stories. They think, "well, at least we've got multiple sclerosis cured"....when nothing could be farther from the truth. And new and recently diagnosed MS patients, who have yet to have gone through a decade of these kinds of stories, may mistakenly believe this is a cure.

HSCT was developed for pediatric cancer, and has been a blessing for the children and their families who have seem mortality rates decrease and life expectancy increase. In this instance, carpet bombing the body and killing off cancer cells and then rebuilding the immune system with harvested and purified stem cells has saved lives. http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/989518-overview

In MS, HSCT use was first promoted by Dr. Richard Burt in the 1990s and has been used to treat thousands with MS. However, there have been no randomized, double-blind placebo controlled trials, so even after all this time, results are still not considered "gold standard." In fact, some of the results may be placebo. The stronger or more invasive the proposed treatment, the more powerful the placebo effect. https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/sideways-view/201502/the-placebo-effect

Here are the facts:

1. HSCT is only appropriate for those with highly inflammatory relapsing remitting MS, who have not responded to other drug therapies, and who have new lesions and relapses within the past year. Trial participants cannot have had MS for longer than 10 years. This is a very specific group of people with MS.

2. HSCT uses chemotherapy to wipe out the existing immune system. Many researchers urge caution regarding this approach, because chemotherapy--on its own-- is known to have many deadly side effects, causing up to 5% mortality in some trials. Chemotherapy also causes demyelination and brain atrophy. I've written extensively on the long term neurological effects of chemotherapy here: http://ccsviinms.blogspot.com/2014/03/chemotherapy-causes-brain-atrophy.html

3. Long-term success rates show that MS disability is not halted. HSCT is not a cure. It may be a very helpful treatment for some with highly inflammatory MS, however the disease continues to progress in most patients. And autoreactive T cells to myelin targets return.

Our data parallel results from some of the clinical phase I/II studies showing continued clinical disease progression in multiple sclerosis patients with high expanded disability system scores despite autologous stem cell transplantation.http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17293360

Demyelinating and inflammatory activities of MS persisted after allo-HSCT in all of the patients with MS. Active and chronic active MS lesions exhibited significantly higher numbers of CD3+ T cells and CD8+ cytotoxic T cells and significantly higher scores of CD68+ microglia/macrophages than did chronic inactive lesions or normal-appearing white matter.http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20558390

Re-emergence as well as in vivo expansion of autoreactive T cells to multiple myelin targets was evident in all patients studied. The reconstituted myelin-specific T cells exhibited the same Th1 and Th2 responses as preablation myelin-reactive T cells. In contrast, the post-therapy T-cell repertoire exhibited a significantly diminished capacity for Th17 responses. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23463494

And now, the big question. Why do autoreactive T cells return even after they've been blasted to kingdom come and replaced with a new immune system? Why does MS continue to progress?
Could it be that the underlying cause of the activation of these t cells is not a faulty immune system---but rather a continuing process of neurodegeneration?

The kind of neurodegenerative process we see happening in the gray matter structures of the MS brain? The type of neurodegeneration that shows continued atrophy of the thalamus in all people with MS---from CIS to PPMS? http://ccsviinms.blogspot.com/2016/01/thalamic-atrophy-and-ms-progression.html

There is a huge difference between finding MS treatments which give patients relief from their symptoms and reduction in disability-----and understanding the underlying disease mechanism which allows for continued MS progression. Temporarily tamping down inflammation is not the same as halting MS disease progression.

Keep getting the correct info out there. Push for researchers and policy makers to examine the underlying cause of MS disease progression.
That's the only way forward,

Joan

This is about the use of bone marrow stem cells to replace the immune system and is the most extreme form of "induction therapy" aimed at rebooting the immune system. This study has been reported by us and it is clear that the majority of people are not leaping out of their wheel chairs. This is just the type of poor reporting that the media specialise in ...media hype
http://multiple-sclerosis-research.blogspot.com/2015/03/miracle-stem-cells.html"

Some more wisdom from Joan:

"Meanwhile, Dr. Coles is busy trying to create an antidote to stop the new autoimmune diseases his drug has caused. That's right...Lemtrada actually causes autoimmune disease!
The principal adverse effect of alemtuzumab (Lemtrada) is autoimmunity, which arises when reconstitution of the immune repertoire after alemtuzumab occurs by homeostatic expansion of residual lymphocytes. Therefore we are now testing the ability of keratinocyte growth factor to promote thymic lymphopoiesis and so prevent autoimmunity after alemtuzumab, in a MRC-funded clinical trial.
http://www.neuroscience.cam.ac.uk/directory/profile.php?Alcool>

Even worse, the MS disease process does not stop with Dr. Cole's Lemtrada. Cerebral atrophy and disability continue, even without any new lesions.

Update: