doctor's appointment and research

[Guest guest]

Well, I had an interesting appointment with my rheumatologist last night. I

seem to be continuing to be stable after 2 years on Minocin. He found two

hand joints slightly swollen (not inflamed) and some swelling around my

elbows.

The conversation that followed was very interesting. My doctor did research

years ago with mice--mycoplasma and arthritis. The doctor he worked with

went on to actually find mycoplasma in the joints of people with RA!. That

part got me really excited! He believes there is a connection beteen

bacteria and arthritis and that Minocin can help in early disease. He feels

the study in the Netherlands was the best one in terms of its procedures.

Then we went on to discuss the fact that he doesn't know how effective

Minocin is in long term disease because it hasn't been studied. He does

research but there is no money available to study Minocin, I guess

especially long-term. The same thing applies to the other antibiotics we

use along with it.

And for those who suspect hormonal involvement, research has been done (I

believe he did some) and showed that estrogen promotes pain/inflammation and

the androgens, testosterone and progesterone, have the opposite effect.

My doctor is concerned with the parts of the AP that are not proven. He

believes very much in the principle of " Do no harm " and has trouble using

something that has not been proven according to his high standards. As I

left, he said that if all this fails (I am on Minocin, have had some

Clindamycin and am about to try Zithromax) then he wants me to consider the

TNF inhibitors. But the key is that he did not suggest stopping what I'm

doing. For him, as for me, time will tell.