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Bone Damage with Interferon and memory loss
I was reading and noticed a question that a Marsha had regarding bone damage... I finished my treatment 5 months ago and found that I have a hard time remembering things, my bones also hurt, I have a hard time sleeping I'm in so much pain, I 'm up to 4 tylenoel a night and some times that doesn't even help. Iwas recently diagnosed with pantar facitisis (sp?) and have a hard time walking. Is all of this damage to my bones and body coming from long term use of Interferon and rabavin (sp?) If people are starting to complain about their bones and bodies hurting, don't you think there should be some kind of study going on somewhere.
Your comment is flat out wrong - normal doses can lead to bad effects. It's not just double doses etc, and frankly I am surprised you would write that.
Before OH gets on here telling me to be positive, I write for those who are young or old and value quality over quantity and are trying to decide whether to treat: "Think long and hard."
A small number of people on these boards seem to be ardent and continuing advocates of jumping in on interefron, and they seem to minimize the potential side effects, temporary and permanent.
Before OH gets on here telling me to be positive, I write for those who are young or old and value quality over quantity and are trying to decide whether to treat: "Think long and hard."
A small number of people on these boards seem to be ardent and continuing advocates of jumping in on interefron, and they seem to minimize the potential side effects, temporary and permanent.
Wow on the BMD. Just wow.
I will vouch that it does bizarre and painful things to your joints: pains that come and go; extreme sensitivities in the bones that come and go; foci of pain and damage that moves from joint to joint month to month.
I try and stay away from all dairy / milk products, factory red meat, processed wheat, potatos, nightshade veggies, coffee, sugar, etc. Not only do they inflame my joints and arthritis, they negatively affect my psyche. Very sensitive to these things post-treatment. Sounds crazy but that's the way it is.
No spaghetti. No pizza.
The more green leafy vegetables and fresh (like just made in a juicer) juices I drink, the better I feel. Try it for two or three days.
A guy named Pagano wrote a book about psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis outlining a diet that just works. He admits to not knowing (and not really caring) why - he just knows that it works. It sems to work.
Medical science is catching up to anectodal remedies on this issue, too.
I will vouch that it does bizarre and painful things to your joints: pains that come and go; extreme sensitivities in the bones that come and go; foci of pain and damage that moves from joint to joint month to month.
I try and stay away from all dairy / milk products, factory red meat, processed wheat, potatos, nightshade veggies, coffee, sugar, etc. Not only do they inflame my joints and arthritis, they negatively affect my psyche. Very sensitive to these things post-treatment. Sounds crazy but that's the way it is.
No spaghetti. No pizza.
The more green leafy vegetables and fresh (like just made in a juicer) juices I drink, the better I feel. Try it for two or three days.
A guy named Pagano wrote a book about psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis outlining a diet that just works. He admits to not knowing (and not really caring) why - he just knows that it works. It sems to work.
Medical science is catching up to anectodal remedies on this issue, too.
It would be mere speculation on my part. If most doctors are unaware or unable to treat many of these post TX issues what weight would you give to an uncredentialed layman?
I take no joy in posting such things. My hope is that after a ponderous amount of posts on the subject that someone with the credentials, some ability, and perhaps some information or insight that such threads provide will bother themselves to look into the phenomena of post TX sides.
While these threads may not provide answers they serve as that impetus for the medical fraternity to take some action for this group of people who have been affected. Until one understand the cause of the damage it is hard to say if prophylactic preventative measures could help or whether some therapies or vitamin/mineral/dietary deficiencies could provide relief, or whether it is damage that cannot be reversed or repaired.
I do not know the answer, but I wish that this would get more attention from health providers or specifically, from those who provide the drug approval. I wonder if it would be worth writing the FDA and ask for an inquiry. The drug companies have had ample time to provide an answer and my guess is that they know the answer, or a pretty good idea. If it were to be 1% or 5% of those who treat, it adds up to a sizable amount, especially considering the resurgence in treating due to triple therapy.
The question to ask the FDA or drug companies is what is an acceptable number or an acceptable percentage of damaged patients?
willy
I take no joy in posting such things. My hope is that after a ponderous amount of posts on the subject that someone with the credentials, some ability, and perhaps some information or insight that such threads provide will bother themselves to look into the phenomena of post TX sides.
While these threads may not provide answers they serve as that impetus for the medical fraternity to take some action for this group of people who have been affected. Until one understand the cause of the damage it is hard to say if prophylactic preventative measures could help or whether some therapies or vitamin/mineral/dietary deficiencies could provide relief, or whether it is damage that cannot be reversed or repaired.
I do not know the answer, but I wish that this would get more attention from health providers or specifically, from those who provide the drug approval. I wonder if it would be worth writing the FDA and ask for an inquiry. The drug companies have had ample time to provide an answer and my guess is that they know the answer, or a pretty good idea. If it were to be 1% or 5% of those who treat, it adds up to a sizable amount, especially considering the resurgence in treating due to triple therapy.
The question to ask the FDA or drug companies is what is an acceptable number or an acceptable percentage of damaged patients?
willy
One thought about bone loss during tx: due to this possibility I feel it's important we keep up our intake of calcium and vitamin D during tx, as well as keep walking, or doing other weight baring exercise.
Counter the possible side effects by preparing for them.
Counter the possible side effects by preparing for them.
I have been reading all these comments about bone and joint pain post treatment-here is my story-I have herniated and bulging discs in my neck, along with mild stenosis and arthritis, I also suffer with lumbar issues, I have been in chronic pain for nearly 14 years with it.. I am unable to turn my head fully to the left, or up and have a constant headache. My arms, hands, knees, left foot and toes and hips would go numb. ok, here is the weird part, I am on round 2 of treatment, 1st time peg and ribo only-48 weeks, this time triple therapy with incivek added, 24 weeks. Both times absolutely NO neck pain, and full range of motion while on treatment. My doc is baffled by this, she said my pain should be worse. Any thoughts?
This link pertains to bone loss as attributed to IFN treatment;
"Decreased bone mineral density after therapy with alpha interferon in combination with ribavirin for chronic hepatitis C "
http://www.natap.org/2008/HCV/022008_02.htm
(title and first paragraph)
"Decreased bone mineral density after therapy with alpha interferon in combination with ribavirin for chronic hepatitis C
Journal of Hepatology Nov 2000
Jose A Solis-Herruzo1, Gregorio Castellano1, Inmaculada Fernandez1, Raquel Munoz1, Federico Hawkins2
Received 13 August 1999; received in revised form 24 February 2000; accepted 10 May 2000.
"We conclude that treatment of chronic hepatitis C with combined therapy for 12 months may cause a reduced BMD in almost all patients Although this study does not definitely prove that this treatment was the cause of the reduced bone mass found in this group of patients, we believe that physicians should be aware of the risk of this potential secondary effect of the antiviral therapy..... A survey among male patients, aged between 31 and 48 years, who had been treated with either IFN alone or IFN plus ribavirin for 12 months, showed that only patients on combination therapy displayed low bone densitometry T-and Z-scores..... The T-score values were in the normal range in group 1 (0.19±0.6) None of them had T-scores under -1.0. Four of the 19 patients treated with this combination had T-score values below -2.5, that is, in the range of osteoporosis. None of them presented symptoms of bone fractures. The remaining 15 patients showed T-score values between -1.0 and -2.5, that is, in the range of osteopenia."
===============================
(my comment-willy)
One would expect given these results there would be more followup studies. If someone can find these it would be a good thread to place them in; perhaps they will refute these findings.
Given that there is bone loss it could also explain that some people have dental issues post TX, but perhaps if that is true it could be due to a different/separate mechanism.
willy
"Decreased bone mineral density after therapy with alpha interferon in combination with ribavirin for chronic hepatitis C "
http://www.natap.org/2008/HCV/022008_02.htm
(title and first paragraph)
"Decreased bone mineral density after therapy with alpha interferon in combination with ribavirin for chronic hepatitis C
Journal of Hepatology Nov 2000
Jose A Solis-Herruzo1, Gregorio Castellano1, Inmaculada Fernandez1, Raquel Munoz1, Federico Hawkins2
Received 13 August 1999; received in revised form 24 February 2000; accepted 10 May 2000.
"We conclude that treatment of chronic hepatitis C with combined therapy for 12 months may cause a reduced BMD in almost all patients Although this study does not definitely prove that this treatment was the cause of the reduced bone mass found in this group of patients, we believe that physicians should be aware of the risk of this potential secondary effect of the antiviral therapy..... A survey among male patients, aged between 31 and 48 years, who had been treated with either IFN alone or IFN plus ribavirin for 12 months, showed that only patients on combination therapy displayed low bone densitometry T-and Z-scores..... The T-score values were in the normal range in group 1 (0.19±0.6) None of them had T-scores under -1.0. Four of the 19 patients treated with this combination had T-score values below -2.5, that is, in the range of osteoporosis. None of them presented symptoms of bone fractures. The remaining 15 patients showed T-score values between -1.0 and -2.5, that is, in the range of osteopenia."
===============================
(my comment-willy)
One would expect given these results there would be more followup studies. If someone can find these it would be a good thread to place them in; perhaps they will refute these findings.
Given that there is bone loss it could also explain that some people have dental issues post TX, but perhaps if that is true it could be due to a different/separate mechanism.
willy
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