Beware Corticosteroid Drugs

This article first appeared on the "Dangerous Big Pharma Drugs" website, and has since been updated on my "Why Homeopathy? website. It shows how a former 'wonder drug', thought to have been a cure for arthritis, and still widely prescribed in a variety of forms, has become a major health hazard - courtesy of the Conventional Medical Establishment, the Big Pharma.

1. Corticosteroid Drugs, or glucocorticoids, are often just called ‘steroid’ drugs. They are produced to mimic  cortisol, a hormone naturally produced within the body by the adrenal gland.

2. Drug Aliases

The term Corticosteroid is a generic name for a whole series of synthetic hormones, which themselves have an even larger number of ‘trade’ names. This information is taken mainly from http://www.livestrong.com/article/27014-list-corticosteroid-medications/

    Betamethasone (Celestone): a corticosteroid used to treat inflammation and other symptoms of skin conditions... it is available in aerosol spray, lotion, ointment and cream forms. Possible side effects include acne, burning, itching, dry skin, cracked skin and changes in skin colour.

    Budesonide (Entocort EC): a corticosteroid used to treat asthma.... available in oral capsule, oral inhalation and nasal spray forms. It can also be used in a nebulizer. This drug can cause side affects that interfere with normal function of several body systems. The most common side effects are nausea, headache and respiratory infection.

    Cortisone (Cortone): used to treat inflammation and adrenal insufficiency. This drug can also be used to treat allergic conditions, ulcerative colitis, lupus, arthritis, breathing disorders and psoriasis. Side effects include insomnia, increased sweating, nausea, bloating, stomach pain, slow wound healing, acne, dry skin and changes in the location of fat in the body.

    Dexamethasone (Decadron): used to treat arthritis, asthma, severe allergies, inflammatory intestinal disorders and skin disorders..(and also)... when the adrenal glands do not function properly. Possible side effects include stomach irritation, headache, insomnia, dizziness, restlessness, anxiety, easy bruising, irregular menstrual periods, upset stomach, vomiting, depression, acne and increased hair growth.

    Hydrocortisone (Cortef): is available as a spray, liquid, lotion, gel, cream, ointment and medicated towelette that can be used on the skin. Suppositories, creams, enemas and ointments are available for use in treating anal itching. This drug can relieve skin irritations, rashes and itching. Possible side effects include acne, burning, changes in skin colour, dry skin, itching and cracked skin.

    Methylprednisolone (Medrol): is used to treat inflammation caused by conditions such as arthritis, ulcerative colitis, breathing disorders, psoriasis, allergic conditions and lupus. Its side effects can include sweating, spinning sensation, bloating, nausea, acne, stomach pain, slow wound healing, thinning skin, mood changes, bruising, changes in the location of body fat, headache, dizziness and insomnia.

    Prednisolone (Prelone): is used to treat endocrine disorders, collagen diseases, skin conditions, allergic conditions, respiratory conditions, blood disorders, gastrointestinal diseases and diseases of the eye. (It can cause) .... insomnia, increased appetite, nervousness and indigestion occurred in more than 10% of clinical trial subjects. Other side effects include increased hair growth, diabetes, joint pain, glaucoma, cataracts and nosebleed.

    Prednisone (Deltasone): is used to treat inflammation associated with asthma, ulcerative colitis, arthritis, psoriasis, lupus, skin conditions and allergic disorders. The side effects include weight gain, high blood pressure, bone thinning, mood changes, easy bruising, insomnia, stretch marks, acne, cataracts and glucose intolerance.

Corticosteroids can be introduced to the body in a variety of forms - orally; injected into a vein or muscle; applied locally to the skin; injected directly into inflamed joints

And Corticosteroid drugs are often contained within products to treat various eye conditions; inhalers to treat asthma or bronchial disease; nasal drops and sprays to treat various nasal problems; topical creams and ointments to treat various skin problems.

3. Conventional Medical Purpose of Drug

The natural hormone, Cortisol, plays an important part in controlling salt and water balance in the body, as well as regulating carbohydrate, fat, and protein metabolism. When under stress the body stimulates the adrenal glands to produce more cortisol, allowing the body to cope not only with stress, but stress-induced infections, traumas, and emotional problems. 

Conventional medicine gives patients corticosteroid drugs when the body does not produce enough of these hormones in order to treat inflammatory conditions of the skin, the immune system, and other organs.

Corticosteroids are now widely used for a variety of inflammatory conditions, including:

        Rheumatoid arthritis

        Lupus

        Ankylosing spondylitis

        ‘Juvenile’ arthritis

        Inflammatory Bowel disease

        Dermatomyositis

        Polymyositis

        Mixed connective tissue disease

        Behcet’s disease

        Polymyalgia Rheumatica

        Sclerosis

        Giant cell arteritis

        Vasculitis

        Osteoarthritis

4. History of drug

Corticosteroid drugs were initially thought to be a ‘miracle’ drug when first discovered in 1948 at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. Arthritis patients were given daily injections, and the outcomes appeared to be so dramatic that it was thought that a ‘cure’ for arthritis had been found! 

Unfortunately, the more corticosteroid drugs were used, serious disease inducing effects (DIEs) emerged, and in a matter of a few years they were being referred to as ‘scare-oid drugs’. 

As usual, as the DIEs of the drug became more widely known, the use of corticosteroids became increasingly more restricted, and many patients, realising how dangerous they could be, began to decline the treatment.

5. How do they block the natural functioning of the body?

Corticosteroids act on the body’s immune system by blocking the production of substances that can trigger allergic and inflammatory actions in the body - such as prostaglandins. They also impede the functioning of white blood cells, whose task is to destroy foreign bodies, and help keep the immune system functioning properly. 

It is probably this interference with white blood cell function that produces the serious DIE of increasing our susceptibility, and ability to cope with all kinds of infection.

6. What are the Disease Inducing Effects (DIEs) that result?

With such a wide variety of corticosteroid drugs, given in such a wide variety of forms, the DIEs they cause vary to a considerable extent. NHS Choices have attempted to summarise these in their website. But, as they admit, 

               “Hormones are powerful chemicals that affect many different processes in the body, from the strength of your bones to your weight. As corticosteroids are hormones, they can have a wide range of side effects”.

Inhaled corticosteroids, taken over a long period, can cause oral thrush, a fungal infection that develops inside the mouth.

Corticosteroids injected into muscle or joints can cause pain at the site of the injection, and over a period, can weaken the joint, or the muscle. When injected into the bloodstream it can cause:

        Stomach irritation, such as indigestion

        Rapid heartbeat (tachycardia)

        Nausea

        Insomnia

        Mood changes, including irritability, depression and restlessness.

Oral corticosteroids, even if taken for a short time, can cause:

        Increased appetite that often leads to weight gain

        Acne

        Mood changes, such as becoming aggressive, irritable and short tempered; rapid mood swings, such as feeling very happy one minute and very sad and weepy the next

        Thinning skin which can bruise easily

        Muscle weakness

        Cushing’s Syndrome, a combination of fatty deposits that develop in the face (moon face), stretch marks across the body and acne

        Osteoporosis (the weakening of the bones, especially in older people, and an increased risk of bone fractures)

        The onset of diabetes, or worsening of existing diabetes

        High blood pressure

        Glaucoma and Cataracts

        Delayed wound healing

        Reduced growth in children

        Increased risk of infection

        Stomach ulcers

        Mental health problems, affecting 1 in 20 taking drugs such as Prednisolone, including:

                Feeling depressed and suicidal

                Feeling manic (very happy and full of energy and ideas)

                Anxiety

                Confusion

                Hallucinations 

                Strange and frightening thoughts

Oral corticosteroids also make you more vulnerable to vital infections such as chickenpox, shingles and measles, with NHS Choices adding that:

“You may become very ill if you develop these viral infections, even if you have been previously infected”.

When Corticosteroid drugs cause these kinds of serious DIEs it often necessitates other conventional medical treatments to deal with them, and patients can end up on a cocktail of drugs to treat their side effects.

Hay Fever. Why Homeopathy?

This blog was first published on the "Why Homeopathy? website.

Any allergy, including Hay Fever, is a reaction to a substance that your body should routinely be able to cope with, but for some reason is failing to do so. Hay Fever is a sign of imbalance in the immune system, making us vulnerable to ‘harmless’ substances, such as pollen, grass, dust, etc. Allergic reactions like this can significantly disrupt our lives, causing sneezing, stuffy and runny noses, watery eyes, itching, headaches, and even asthma.

CONVENTIONAL MEDICAL TREATMENT.

Conventional medicine treats hay fever mainly with drugs such as Antihistamines, Steroids, or use what they call ‘desensitisation’ treatments. As a last resort, laser surgery may be used to destroy the mucus-forming nasal tissue.

Antihistamine Drugs

The NHS Choices website says that Antihistamine drugs (such as cetirizine, fexofenadine, loratadine) treat hay fever by “blocking the action of the chemical histamine, which the body releases when it thinks it is under attack from an allergen”. This, they say, “prevents the symptoms of the allergic reaction from occurring”.

NHS Choices says that Antihistamines can be used either as a preventative, or as an ‘as-required’ treatment. They are “usually effective at treating itching, sneezing and watery eyes, but they may not help with clearing a blocked nose”.

NHS Choices mentions drowsiness as an adverse reaction, but state that ‘newer’ antihistaines should not do so, but that if they do, you should avoid driving or using tools or machinery.

Yet it is known that Antihistamine drugs cause far far more side effects than this, especially in children and older people. 

Some of the most common side-effects caused by Antihistamines include not just sleepiness, but headaches, dizziness, blurred vision, confusion, dry mouth, constipation, and difficulty passing urine. 

But Antihistamine drugs are also known to worsen conditions, which NHS Choices fail to mention, such as glaucoma, enlarged prostate gland, difficulty in passing urine, or bowel blockage, and amazingly, their safety during pregnancy has not been established. They are also know to increase the risk of liver or kidney disease.

And, as with most conventional drugs, once the effect of the drug has passed, hay fever symptoms usually return.

Steroid Drugs

Steroids (corticosteroids) for hay fever are available as sprays, creams and tablets. The NHS Choices website says that Corticosteroid drugs can reduce the inflammation that causes Hay Fever, and so prevent the symptoms from happening. They tell us that Corticosteroid drugs are more effective than antihistamine tablets at preventing and relieving nasal symptoms, including sneezing and congestion. They can also relieve itchy, watery eyes.

As usual, NHS choices mentions just a few side effects, including irritation and dryness of the nose, nose bleed, an unpleasant taste in your mouth, and itchy skin rash around the nose. They also say that the drugs are not recommended for more than 10 days - because of the “unpleasant side effects” such as weight gain, changes in mood, and acne.

Yet, in fact, Steroid drugs cause more problems than Antihistamine drugs. They are known to cause dangerous adverse reactions, such as high blood pressure, bleeding from the bowels or stomach, reduced healing, poor muscle growth, weight gain, and electrolyte imbalances. And long term use of Steroid drugs (not recommended, but remember that once the effect of the drug wears off Hay Fever return) increases the likelihood of diabetes, glaucoma, and eye damage. They have psychological effects too - they are known to cause not only mood swings, but personality changes, agitation, nervousness, tiredness, lack of energy, and depression. 

Immunotherapy or Desensitisation Treatments

This is what NHS Choices says about Immunotherapy:

“If you have persistent hay fever symptoms which are not relieved by the above treatments, your GP may refer you for immunotherapy treatment. This involves gradually introducing you to small amounts of the allergen (the substance that you are allergic to), such as pollen, and monitoring your allergic reaction”.

This treatment is, of course, based on Homeopathy, which works on the basis of ‘Like curing Like’. So Desensitisation treatments are an example of conventional medicine unwittingly making use of homeopathic principles! Even so, NHS Choices says that their treatment can take months, or even years to work, and can be dangerous. But Homeopathy, by using much smaller amounts of allergen, and in potency, can produce faster, safer and better results!

Laser Surgery

NHS Choices says that “Laser surgery is used to vaporise the mucus membranes of the nose to inhibit the symptoms of hay fever. Care has to be taken to prevent burning of the nasal tissue. Success is variable and re-vaporisation is often needed as symptoms will often return over time.

HOMEOPATHIC TREATMENT

Many people have discovered Homeopathy when conventional treatments for Hay Fever fails. Homeopathy seeks to stimulate our body’s natural self-healing processes by matching the specific symptoms of the individual patient with a known symptom picture of a variety of remedy.

Many remedies are required as Homeopathy recognises that Hay-Fever is not one, single condition. Some sufferers suffer most in Spring, others in Summer. Some sneeze regularly and violently, others do not sneeze at all. Some have runny nose, or itchy eyes. Some sufferers are worse indoors, some outdoors. And so on.

There are many remedies known to treat Hay Fever successfully, the task being to match the individual patient with a ‘similar’ remedy. Here are just a few of the most frequently used remedies for acute attacks, with simple descriptions, taken from this excellent ‘Homeopathy Plus’ website.

The article explains some sensible self-help measures that can reduce the frequency and intensity of Hay Fever symptoms, such as drinking plenty of water, knowing and avoiding what you are allergic too, and using food as medicine. But it also gives some common remedies, with simple remedy pictures for each one.

Arsenicum

This is one of the best remedies for hay fever.  Burning or itching in the nose, eyes or throat being a strong indication.  The discharges from both eyes and nose will be burning (but check to make sure that Allium cepa or Euphrasia are not better indicated – Euphrasia has the opposite symptoms). An improvement of the symptoms in the open air, although sensitive to light, is usually an indication for this remedy.

Euphrasia

A classic remedy for hay fever where, again, there is lots of sneezing with streaming eyes and nose.  If the water from the eyes burns the cheeks and the discharge from the nose is not too bad, this remedy is needed.  (Allium cepa has the opposite symptoms). The remedy is indicated if the symptoms improve in the open air – obviously away from pollen.  Sensitivity to light may be apparent in both Euphrasia and Allium cepa.

Nat Mur

Initially, there is a streaming, bland discharge from both the eyes and nose with lots of sneezing.  Later, there is nasal discharge that is thick and clear like the white of an egg with loss of taste and smell.  This is not one of the main remedies for hay fever but it can bring great relief to the type who gets easily burned, feel generally miserable, uncomfortable, blotchy and irritated in the sun.

Nux vom

This is one of the best remedies for when there is lots of sneezing, streaming from the eyes and nose, and an irritable, nasty mood.  (If they are sweet tempered, it is unlikely to help.) The symptoms are worse in dry air and relieved when the atmosphere is damp.

Pulsatilla

The main indications for this remedy are a weepy, needy, state of mind, together with discharges that are thick, bland (not acrid) and green or yellow.  Pulsatilla frequently has one side of the nose blocked or congested.

Sulphur

Watery, burning nasal discharge, or a blocked nose, when outside. Frequent sneezing. Blocking of nose on alternate sides. Burning pain in eyes. Symptoms worsened by warmth and becoming warm in bed. Better for being in open air. May be lazy, opinionated, and desire sweets, alcohol, and spicy food.

And it also describes other helpful, but less commonly indicated remedies such as:

Ambrosia artemisaefolia

Intolerable itching and watering from eyes. Burning of eyes. Sneezing and watery nasal discharge. Nose and head feel stuffy. Nose bleeds.

Arum triphyllum

Irritation or itching in the nose leading to boring, picking, rubbing. May pick at lips and face. Throat, mouth, tongue, and palate may burn, making it difficult to eat or drink despite having a thirst. People who need Arum-t may experience concurrent hoarseness and peeling or chapping of the lips.

Histaminum

Consider this remedy when either no other remedy seems accurate or if other remedies have been tried and haven’t worked.

Kali bich

Consider this remedy when thick, stringy, green or yellowish mucus from the nose or throat is present. There may also be a post-nasal or pain at the root of the nose relieved by hard pressure.

Sabadilla officinarum

Hay fever with frequent, spasmodic sneezing that exhausts the person. Sneezing from tickling inside the nose, and sneezing that causes the eyes to water. Profuse, watery nasal discharge and red and burning eyelid margins. Symptoms worse in the open air, better in a warm room. Dry mouth but little thirst.

Solidago

Burning, stinging eyes. Paroxysms of sneezing with mucus discharge from nose.One of the main remedies for people allergic to house dust mite.

Wyethia helenoides

Tremendous itching of the upper palate of the mouth causing the person to make “clucking” noises in effort to provide some relief. Itching of the nose and throat, along with a constant desire to swallow saliva to relieve the dryness may also be present.

RANDOMISED CONTROLLED TESTS

The information in this section is taken largely from this website, which states that “the homeopathic treatment of allergic rhinitis has been well documented in scientific research”.

http://homeopathyusa.org/guide-to-research/eb/allergic-rhinitis.html

A study by Taylor et al, published in the British Medical Journal in 2000, showed a statistically significant improvement in objectively measured nasal air flow for patients treated with homeopathy compared to placebo. The study was carried out by doctors at the Glasgow Homeopathic Hospital who used homeopathy in 50 patients suffering from nasal allergies by giving them either a homeopathic preparation or a placebo. The study concluded that those given the homeopathic treatment were10 times more likely to be cured than those given a dummy pill. It was the fourth trial carried out by this hospital on homeopathy for allergies and all had produced similar results.

Taylor, M. A., Reilly, D., et al: Randomised controlled trial of homoeopathy versus placebo in perennial allergic rhinitis with overview of four trial series. BMJ, 321: 471-476, 2000.

The four studies completed by Taylor and colleagues all looked at the effectiveness of homeopathy for allergic rhinitis treatment (Hay Fever).  A meta-analysis review of these and other studies by Jonas et al. for the Annals of Internal Medicine reported that these studies were high-quality, double-blind, placebo controlled trials significantly better than placebo on both subjective (reported) and objective (measurable) outcomes.

Jonas, W.B. et al: A Critical Overview of Homeopathy, Annals of Internal Medicine, 138:5,  393-400, 2003.

Studies testing individual homeopathic remedies for allergic rhinitis include Wiesenauer’s randomized controlled trials of Galphimia for pollinosis which were reported to show significantly more effectiveness of Galphimia than placebo when reviewed in a meta-analysis by Linde in 2001.

Wiesenauer M, Lüdtke R: A meta-analysis of the homeopathic treatment of pollinosis with Galphimia glauca,Forsch Komplementärmed, 3:230-236, 1996.

Linde, K. et al, Systematic reviews of complementary therapies – an annotated bibliography. Part 3: Homeopathy, BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine, 1:4, 2001.

Similarly, Nobel published a placebo controlled randomized trial of Zicam in 2000 that showed a statistically significant better result for the homeopathic treatment when compared to placebo.

Sion Nobel: Daily Application Of The Homeopathic Remedy Zicam Allergy Relief Significantly Improves The Quality Of Life And Impairment In Patients With Seasonal Allergic Rhinitis: The Internet Journal of Family Practice. 1:1,2000.

So, as this article rightly concludes:

“The effect of homeopathic treatment has been demonstrated through repeated controlled trials. While homeopathic remedies were used in all of these trials, in some cases “isopathic” types of homeopathy (medicines made from the allergens) were used”.