ULCERATIVE COLITIS : REMISSION v. CURE

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Ok, so I was diagnosed with an IBD, an inflammatory bowel disease called Ulcerative Colitis, and modern medicine doesn't know the etiology, the cause, or the pathology of the disease. It's a mystery disease. Modern medicine will tell you even today, they don't know how all these people are getting sick. Patients may have a genetic predisposition, or allergies or, who knows? Food? No, maybe, maybe not, we don't know (and we don't care). Eat whatever you want, don't eat certain things, we don't know, it's all a mystery. Maybe go easy on the dairy and red meat. Here's your prescription.

For all us sufferers, modern medicine has figured out how to suppress a patient's immune system responses so a patient can choose, with their doctor's consult and advice, to no longer feel the symptoms, the pain. If the treatment works, and a patient's symptoms subside, a patient can go into what's referred to as 'remission', the term modern medicine uses to describe their idea of disease management.

A patient should know, going into medical treatment, it's the best modern medicine has to offer. And remission usually lasts As long as a patient stays on the prescribed medicine of choice, of course. Modern medicine will also warn each patient to stay on the medication or the side-effects could be even more dire.

Never-ending treatment, symptoms, remission, symptoms, remission, symptoms and remission. The beautiful, colorful, kaleidoscopic goal of modern medicine. The message is, for inflammatory bowel disease, you need medicine for life. If you believe otherwise and want to discontinue treatment, you will be warned by your doctor not to discontinue treatment, that a decision to discontinue treatment at any point is a bad idea. A difficult position for a patient to find themselves in, to be sure.

I'm just a messenger here. Probably a bad one. Remember to do your own research.

THAT IBD REMAINS A MYSTERY, WORKS IN FAVOR OF THE POWERS THAT BE

HOW a patient gets IBD, HAS to be a mystery because the mystery works in favor of the powers that be, in my opinion.

IBD has a diagnosis, has behaviors and biomarkers that medical diagnosticians and gastroenterologists can identify.

The mystery, however, HAS to be part of the story. Modern medicine depends on the mystery. It absolves everyone of responsibility if things don't work out, if treatments don't work out. Remember, doctors are practicing medicine. In some cases, they're practicing on you.

Mystery diseases also make it easier for researchers to appear to work hard to figure out a cure. And it appears they are working hard, of course, and with your donations, they'll be that much closer to the cure. It would be horrible if they were looking in the wrong places. Almost criminal, given the number of fatal side effects documented each year as the result of immune suppressant treatment.

Suppressing your immune system for any duration of time can lead to Superbug infections resistant to all current antibiotics, to surgery, cancer and death. Notice how many people in the obituaries are dying of 'pneumonia?' Superbug infections resulting from immune suppressant treatment, often for years. Just an uneducated guess, of course.

But, after all this time, they have to be looking in the right places for a cure. Right? Right?? Modern medicine wants cures, don't they?

So far, though, modern medicine has only developed treatments that will stop the pain and disease from feeling symptomatic. Remission of disease is the primary goal, not cure. Thinking about it, how could they cure a disease they claim not to know the cause of? Of course they can only come up with a treatment. A cure would require knowing the etiology and pathology of the disease first or at least discovering it along the way to a cure. If the cause is 'forever unknown', then shooting bullets in the dark is all I can expect. If modern medicine doesn't know the cause, we have to trust they're doing the best they can by guessing the answer over and over. How many immune suppressant therapies are there? Let me count the ways.

Why? Why don't we know what causes it? Are we looking hard enough? Is the current culture of overprescription and drug invention stacking the deck against what used to be the 'Healing Arts?' Does a student doctor end up with such debt that they're forced into alliances that preclude long-term treatment? Is treatment all about making money? Why is it that modern medicine can only create substances that suppress the immune system? Why aren't they looking into immune system boosters? Why aren't they figuring out how to harness a body's natural healing power and improve that?

Questions, questions, questions. I've got more silly observations.

Someone else might say, 'Graham, you're so silly. Don't you understand, this is all part of the 'Upside Down World' we now live in?'

Since 1996, when big pharma was given the green light to market their products directly to consumers, some of us have become obsessed with self-diagnosis. Commercials provide images and words in such an interesting way that you're encouraged to discount the side effects and ask your doctor about such and such a drug.

It's become more important to find medication for what ails you. Modern medicine discounts nutrition (who really likes eating broccoli anyway) and leaves consumers with the impression that you need to live your life the way you want. Medicines, the 'magic pill,' will be there to catch your fall. High cholesterol, high blood pressure, high blood sugar, heartburn, gerd, IBS, IBD, no worries. We gotta pill or treatment or surgery for that.

There's a belief that medicine production is simply human beings providing what nature accidentally left out. Our modern medical miracles take away the pain. All someone has to do is take their medication. Medication is as good or better than food and you should ask your doctor about each. Because it's medication. And everyone should look forward to being on at least one medication as they grow older. Drug commercials children see today (Hey parents, how about all those ED commercials during televised sports? Those are fun to explain!) are designed for that long-term side-effect: creating the mindset for being open to becoming lifelong prescription drug takers. There is also the perpetuation of the myth that there's a 'magic pill' for everything that ails you. We are a pill-popping, magic pill seeking culture, one that seeks to perpetuate itself. There could be millions of reasons to keep us where we are, in treatment. Maybe even billions of reasons.

With 6 billion people on the planet, that's a lot of diagnosing to do. Everybody's got something, right? If we can diagnose it, we can try to treat it. And if we can treat it, the inventors get treated.

Besides, you can buy healthful food at the market. Modern medicine can't make a living handing out marketing lists. Modern medicine will gladly tell you what medication exists for your ailment, to be sure. Since modern medicine gives only lip service to nutrition, you're on your own when it comes to feeding your face. The latest and greatest drug invention and treatment for whatever, that's what gets their motor runnin'. It's better if the patient sees it that way, too. Then if/when the treatment fails, there's something wrong with you, the patient/your body, not the doctor or the treatment.

The law appears to be: Modern medicine is not responsible for failed or failing treatments. They are doing the best they can. You can't expect miracles.


Jessa Note to mah friendly readahs: I'm jes' speculatin' heyah, mahnd ya. Gots no credentials fer any o' this, y'know. Thank gudness my nonsense probly hazza scientis' that can be refutin' it all. Always consult yoah doctah befoah yah do anything stoopid. And don't be afraid to ask questions. Ahl's I know is, Butt Detective Colonblow's got questions. Lots o' questions. You might make a list yo'sef.


So, methinks, if modern medicine with all its $billion$ in research and development can only come up with immune suppressants and a variety of antibiotics to treat IBD, then suppressing and hiding the symptoms is most of what modern medicine has to offer. After all, the reasoning goes, if you don't feel it, then it's not there. And when symptoms don't appear after treatment, a patient is said to be 'in remission.' And that's the next best thing to being cured. Right?

I'm not privy to the latest figures mind you and cannot be sure of course, but I don't believe antibiotic or immune suppressant treatments have "cured" one person. Not one person. As a matter of fact, I believe if someone had been cured, it would be front page news. So, I've believe modern medicine can only claim victory in the category of 'remission'. But not 'cure.' For patients under care, remission has to be the agreed upon and hoped for goal. And remission means that once the treatment is discontinued, remission could end, too, and symptoms could return.

It's a Ferris wheel merry-go-round for sure. Where it stops, I certainly don't know. I can see it spinning, though.

And, if I say I've managed my IBD diagnosis of Ulcerative Colitis without medication, does that mean I've 'cured' one more person than all of modern medicine? Until I'm convinced otherwise, I could certainly be seen as a possible test case for naturopathic management of an IBD diagnosis. It's certainly a bold claim from a nobody on the internet. It might be best to ignore me. You can bet modern medicine is.

Certainly, however, I'm not 'in remission' in a clinical sense. I haven't seen a proctologist for treatment of my diagnosis since early 1982. (I would never advise that to anyone, of course.) I haven't been taking any medication since 1982 and the symptoms of my diagnosis have been totally gone without a single flare-up since 2001.

In summary, modern medicine talks about an IBD patient under successful treatment as being 'in remission'. From modern medicine's point of view, remission of symptoms has to be good enough for both doctor and patient. It's not a cure, but it offers the next best thing: Not feeling your symptoms. Which are there, hiding, most likely only until your medical treatment's effectiveness comes to the end of its efficacy.

I have to believe that doctors really wish to do no harm to their patients, that managing IBD and pain are two of the most difficult challenges modern medicine has. But medical treatment options abound and there's a lot of money to be made by big pharma and the doctors beholden to them and their treatment incentives. Stock holders are betting on it.

Since there's simply no medical livelihood in giving a patient a marketing list as a prescription, it would be silly to look there. I mean, if you're a doctor, that's probably the FIRST place to look. They MUST have already looked there, right? Silly for me, then, to do that for myself. What could I possibly find there that would be relevant to MY situation?