Since arthritis can’t be cured, why not prevent it instead with immunization? That was a logical question researchers from the University of Queensland asked.
Immunization has been used to virtually wipe out many of the most dangerous diseases plaguing this earth. So why not arthritis?
Those who are genetically at high risk of suffering arthritis, or even those suffering early stages could benefit from this arthritis immunization.
Arthritis is an autoimmune disease, where your immune system fails to recognize your own cells and, therefore, attacks them as foreign entities.
Using immunization theory, the researchers extracted a specific type of immune cells from a blood sample from each arthritis patient participating in the study out of the University of Queensland.
The immune cells were then exposed to foreign body-attacking molecules as well as specific immune system modulators.
This “trained” the immune cells in to recognize the good guys (the patient’s own cells) from the bad (foreign bacteria, etc.).
The “trained” immune cells were then injected back into the patient’s system, where they multiplied and began doing their job more effectively.
The end result was a drastic reduction in chronic inflammation.
This method tackles the underlying cause of arthritis better than most other treatments and as most immunizations, comes with fewer side effects than traditional medications.
The downside is that all medications come with some level of risk. This treatment is also still in research state, so it’s not available in most places. And, unfortunately, it will probably not work for those with full-blown arthritis.
The good news is that arthritis can pretty easily be reversed using nothing but simple diet and lifestyle changes and avoid medications altogether.
The type of arthritis helped by vaccination was not mentioned. I’m aware RA is an autoimmune problem. Is it also helpful for other types of arthritis? Could vaccinations be developed for other autoimmune conditions as Sjogren’s, or Lupus? Judy