It’s Time to Let Go of These RA Med Myths
There are a lot of stories going around about rheumatoid arthritis medication and not all of them are true. In my new column for HealthCentral, I sort fact from fiction about RA treatments:
“I’VE ALWAYS LOVED ancient myths, especially the slightly scary kind. There’s something so delicious about getting that jolt of adrenaline when you know the story is fiction and you have the ability to put the book down when it gets too intense. But when myths directly affect your life, it’s a lot less fun. When you live with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and are considering taking medication, you’ll find lots of myths, preconceptions, and misdirections, many of them scary and masquerading as facts. It can take a long time to find the nugget of truth that will lead you to a place where you can make decisions based on facts, not fear. In this column, I’ll save you some time (and anxiety) and pick apart three of the most stubborn myths about RA medications and what I’ve found to be true.
Myth #1: Biologics Cause Cancer
When I took my first TNF-blocker biologic in 2005, I was told that one of the potentially serious side effects was an increased risk of lymphoma, a type of cancer. I decided to take the medication anyway because a severe year-long RA flare had destroyed my life. The biologic was my only choice to live, instead of merely existing in a hell made of pain.”
Read my column on RA medication myths on HealthCentral.
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I am pretty much living proof that none of thsoe things are true. I love the one about cancer. I think this is about the origination of methotrexate. I hear folks often say that they will not use MTX because of the cancer treatment link.
For now I am off to take my cancer drug, to treat my non cancer 🙂
rick
I like how everything to you is a “myth”—especially the cancer connection. Love how the comment on here completely eschews & mocks any worry about the possibility of it & call all concerns about it as coming from simpletons and that’s it’s a “scare tactic”. Bravo. 👏🏼 👏🏼👏🏼 😐🙄Whoopee—good for you. Glad you’re not one of those who’s been affected by it like some people. Even though you’re poo-pooing the idea that there is a correlation, there are those who haven’t had the luxury of that.
Oh yeah…here’s some more “myths”, especially in the comment section of this article that beg to differ. The article is from 2006, so I’m sure that’ll be viewed as an especially ancient “myth”, but doesn’t make it any less devastating to the people in the comment section. I’m sure you’ll have a good laugh, tho.
https://scienceline.org/2006/10/health-zielinska-tnf/