Are Your MS Drugs Making You Sicker?

Are Your MS Drugs Making You Sicker?
Toxic Tysabri

If you are like many with MS you’re probably taking a cocktail of MS medications like interferons, glatiramer acetateon and Tysabri.

Do they really help you?

Please know that none of these toxic medications address the underlying causes of the disease. Tysabri could actually kill you.

Why is Tysabri Back on the Market?

Tysabri first hit the market in November 2004 under an accelerated program the FDA reserves for drugs it believes will have “extraordinary benefits” to patients. It was touted as the “miracle” drug for MS because the results from the first year of clinical trials showed that MS patients who took Tysabri for one year had a 66% reduction in relapses compared to those who took a placebo.

But this wonder drug, which was slated to bring in $2 billion in annual sales within its first few years after release, turned out to have a very dark side.

Tysabri is a ‘monoclonal antibody’, meaning it is derived from a mouse antibody that has been genetically engineered to mirror a human antibody (antibodies are proteins that help your body fight infection).

It is given every four weeks by infusion directly into a vein, where the antibodies bind to immune system cells, inhibiting them from crossing over from the bloodstream to the brain.

Tysabri blocks this movement by attaching to alpha 4-integrin, a protein on the surface of immune T cells that normally enables them to pass through the blood-brain barrier.

However, if destructive immune system cells break free of the bloodstream, they can reach your brain, gastrointestinal tract and joints and cause severe damage.

Tysabri and Deadly Brain Infections

Is Your Brain On Fire?"

Sure enough, three months after Tysabri first hit the market it was pulled because one in 1,000 people who took it during clinical trials developed progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML), a rare brain infection that results in death or severe disablement.

Dr. Lawrence Steinman, a Stanford University professor and an MS specialist who has developed MS drugs himself, said he repeatedly warned the FDA of the potential for serious immune system and liver damage with Tysabri and drugs like it prior to approval.

Nonetheless, in June 2006 the FDA made yet another counterintuitive decision -- the type that make absolutely no logical sense, and for which the FDA is becoming increasingly known.

They voted that Tysabri be returned to the market.

Now, nearly four years later, the FDA has added a new label warning to Tysabri, warning health care professionals and patients that the risks of PML increase as more infusions are received.

You Have Been Warned!

Therefore, please resist taking such toxic drugs to treat MS. They cause conditions that are worse than those you started with.

Rather, get to the root causes of MS and adopt lifestyle changes that will help to nourish and heal your body from the inside out. You can achieve that by becoming a Member of Naked MS Here.