YES! Tnf inhibitors, remicade, and enbrel, are, and can be very dangerous, but may not be harmful to you as an individual. I say this,meaning, if u listen to what the FDA says, which u can find urself, by typing in something like enbrel risks FDA, in a search, tnf inhibitors can cause serious illness, or death, in some peep...Meaning, if u ask ur doc, pharmacist, or call the big helpline, for either drug, they will tell u that the risks are minimal, and not mention anything of death. This is because the % of peep who have serious effects, or die, is a really low %. Now,for these few folks who did die, or have serious side effects, it doesnt matter how low the % is, since they are now in worse shape than b4 they took the "medicine",if u can call it that.
There are natural cox-2's, herbal I mean, and other anti-inflammatory herbal alternatives. I have listed much of this info in my post about Enbrel risks, so please check it out.
As far as I can understand to this point, the best remedy is to take a pain medicine, for a short time, to work thru the pain that comes from trying to get your body stronger, more able to stretch, and move with less pain in the long run, then rely on herbal treatments long-term.
At this time, I can't see how anyone with AS can ever not be in some pain, but the trick is to minimize it to make it more manageable. I am really saddened by closed-minded peep who can't attempt to make their own decisions instead of taking what the doc tells them as the truth set in stone. A main factor also, in most peep's health, not just AS is nutrition, which western med doc's arent taught much in school. This is a major factor that could contribute to feeling awful, and can begin to be changed by taking a real multi-vitamin, not trash like Centrum. Hope this helps, gl.
