HAVE YOU ALL HEARD OF THESE TREATMENTS?? What do you think?

angela

hi gang! i do hope that all is well with everyone! i've got a few questions for you all.

have any of you heard of QUINTON HYPERTONIC? is anyone using it or it's supplement, and if so, how does it work for you? do you know how it to work? also, what do you all think of hi dose minerals (magnesium, selenium, zinc, msm...), amino acids, vitamin b complx?

i already taking coq10, omego 3 oil, flax seed oil, calcium w/ magnesum and vit d along w/ general multi vitamin. i also juice, but not like i should, lke using more veggies Laughing

... i'm tryin, i'm tryin!!!

can you think of or recomend anything else (supplements or juice combinations) i should be aware of? just stoped eating grapefruit which i love, but read that it causes inflammation. Crying or Very sad

thanks gang of mine! be well Wink

i have lupu since 2004 w/ heart, lung, now brain involvement, with vasculitis and MCTD. my current meds are prednisone 16mg; plaquenil 400mg; mobic 15m; kadian 120mg; neurontin, cytoxan, and rituxan, norco, and morphine IR. all is daily except chemo drugs... Rolling Eyes

MARYCAIN · King of the Jungle Joined: 03 Aug 2006 Posts: 1576

Angela, Quinton Hypertonic has been around for a while - it's a reputable supplement, but it's NOT recommended for anyone with kidney problems, cardiovascular disease or high blood pressure, which includes a lot of lupus patients. So check with your doctor beforehand on it if you have a tendency toward any of those problems. It could also potentially interact with some of your meds, especially prednisone.

I take a multi-vitamin, mineral supplement with some extra b-complex , but I don't think high-dose anything is neccessarily a good idea, especially when it comes to things like calcium, potassium and magnesium, where too much can be just as dangerous as too little. I'm also using some targeted amino-acid supplements - D-LPA for pain, and branched-chain amino acids and NADH to improve my energy levels. Because I don't eat meat, I have a harder time getting everything I need from plant sources, so I have to supplement on some things.

I take wobeyzyme-N (digestive enzymes) to help with inflammation, and also try to eat fresh pineapples or papaya as often as I can because they contain natural enzymes which also help inflammation. Ginger, curry, tumeric and oregano are all "healing" spices you can incorporate into your food for their health benefits.

There are many good alternative and complementary therapies out there, but there are just as many scams, quacks and outright fraud. So do your research carefully and check with your doctor - with all the meds you are on, drug interactions are always a real concern. You can check the Herbal PDR for some products but not for everything.

angela · Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 2:16 pm Post subject:

thanks marycain! have you, or anyone else out there, ever heard of DHEA? if so, what do you think? thanks again marycain, and hope your doing well Smile

MARYCAIN · King of the Jungle Joined: 03 Aug 2006 Posts: 1576

DHEA is a mild androgenic hormone that everyone produces naturally when they are younger, as people age, their production of DHEA decreases. The theory behind DHEA for lupus is that, as an androgen, it would balance out the estrogren that seems to trigger flares in some women with lupus. There are a few rheumatologists who routinely prescribe it for their patients because it seems to prevent loss of bone density, especially for patients on prednisone. As far as helping the lupus, it seems to have the best effect for women whose lupus is clearly estrogen-driven - for example, women who have really bad pre-menstrual flares. But individual responses seem to vary a lot, so the only way to really know if it will help is to try it. The best way to do that is with a doctor's prescription for pharmacy-grade DHEA - the products available in health food stores are not necessarily pure or potent. And it can get expensive to buy it in a health food store because it usually comes in 25 to 50 mg doses, but it may take up to 200 mgs of the non-pharmacy grade to see any effect. And at the dose you can start to see side effects - menstrual irregularities, facial hair growth, etc. Even if you can't get a prescription, you should check with your doctor before trying it, and maybe get your DHEA levels checked before you try supplements, just to be safe.

angela · Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 7:31 pm Post subject:

thanks marycain!