Subject: How do arthritis drugs work?

I've been having some good success with reduced inflammation recently having modified my diet further - taking an SCD type (gut healing) yogurt almost every day (to out compete the Klebsiella bacteria in my gut and prevent adhesion to my intestines)

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15928974

http://www.iasj.net/iasj?func=fulltext&aId=36085

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7748020

I've also been doing some reading on arthritis drugs and piecing together how they help people with pain and joint damage.

After reading about hydroxychloroquine (plaquenil) last week and noticing that it was an anti-malaria drug also used in Lyme disease - I was curious about how it does its stuff. It appears that hydroxy effectively disables bacteria from the inside.

Looking at sulphasalasine - I was then interested that it was also an antibiotic of sorts although its termed as a dmard - the sulpha part acts against Proteus bacteria - until they become resistant strains.

With Methodrexate - I was always thought it was an immuno suppressant but knew it was a Cancer drug - however one of the things it does is stop bacteria from multiplying (stops cell division in Cancer).

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19099724

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Subject: Re: How do arthritis drugs work?

I think this a really key point Linda - as the general view is that auto immune is our body attacking itself but as I understand it is attacking bits of us that look like the other things that it doesn't like. So rather than our immune systems being over active they are just confused by creating generic (not very clever) antibodies instead of antibodies that are just aimed at the 'baddies'. For me it explains the ups and downs of remission / flare - good days / bad days which depends on how many of the 'baddies' (bacteria and other reactive proteins) there are. In PsA - I believe it is the Strepococcus Mutans bacteria that has been implicated (which is also linked to OCD and Autism) for the underlying autoimmune trigger.

I've been in an almost symptom free remission state twice in the last 20 years - both times it was gastric issues (flu then food poisoning) that reignited my arthritis.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1860040/

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