According
to the Western medicine, there is no known cure for myasthenia gravis, or any autoimmune
disease, for that matter. That is not surprising, given the complexity of
autoimmunity and the approach of conventional medicine to disease treatment
with drugs. Western medicine uses pharmaceutical drugs to deal with the various
symptoms of different autoimmune diseases by suppressing the overactive immune
system. But an autoimmune disease involves not just the mind, but also many
different organs of the body—in fact, the whole body, or the personality of
the individual afflicted with myasthenia gravis.
Albert Einstein once said: "There are two ways to live: you can live
as if nothing is a miracle; you can live as if everything is a miracle."
Believing that you can cure your myasthenia gravis is living your life as if
everything is a miracle. Yes, self-healing of myasthenia gravis is a miracle of
life. Even Western doctors are taught in medical schools that illnesses are
self-limiting—that is to say, we can get better on our own. If that is the
case, then self-healing is not a myth, but a reality—and a miracle at that.
Steroid
therapy is the use of steroid medications, also known as corticosteroids, to treat
many types of autoimmune disease, including myasthenia gravis, lupus, and multiple
sclerosis, and other disorders, such as asthma. Steroid medications include
medications like prednisone and cortisone. Corticosteroids can be taken orally
or in other ways, such as by inhalation.
According
to Western medicine, steroid medications are medically necessary to treat many
conditions and diseases. But steroid medications have many major effects on the
metabolism of calcium and bone, which may lead to severe bone loss, osteoporosis,
and bone fractures. As a matter of fact, high dosage of steroid medications can
cause rapid bone loss, up to as much as 15 percent per year.
If
you are on steroids, you are more than twice as likely to have a fracture on the
spine or the ribs as compared to a person not taking steroids. In addition, there
are even different rates of bone loss among individuals on corticosteroids. Bone loss occurs most rapidly in the first six months after starting oral steroid medications. After 12 months of chronic steroid use, there is a slower rate of bone loss. Fracture risk generally increases as the daily doses of steroid medications increase, although not all patients who take
steroid medications experience 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
potential development of cataracts and glaucoma.
Prior
to the use of steroid medications, you should consider, especially if your
myasthenia gravis is related only to ocular muscles:
- Can steroids improve or eradicate your symptoms?
- Are there other safer forms of therapy to treat your myasthenia gravis?
- Does the severity of the symptoms warrant the risk of steroid adverse effects?
- Do steroids reduce the chance of a relapse?
It
stands to reason that the high risk of taking pharmaceutical drugs to treat only the symptoms without producing a cure may not warrant the continuation of the
medications over a long period.
The
bottom line: Set your goal to ultimately stop all medications.
It may take weeks, months, or even years, but that should be your ultimate goal in your health pursuit.
Stephen Lau
Copyright© 2018 by Stephen Lau
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