As much as half the patients suffering from an often debilitating form of inflammatory bowel disease can experience their symptoms starting to disappear in as short as just six weeks by initiating use of a medicine generally reserved for cancer patients, researchers reported in the May 26 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine.

Researchers from Harvard Medical School, the University of Florida and Washington University School of Medicine provided assistance to lead this national multicenter study of the drug sargramostim, which is also known by the trade name Leukine.

From Sciencedaily.com:

“If the drug really works the way we think it works, it’s 180 degrees in the opposite direction of everything else we do to treat Crohn’s disease,” he said. “We still don’t really know what causes Crohn’s disease. The traditional theory has been it’s an overactive or inappropriate immune response against bacteria in the intestine. Now a theory has come forward that perhaps the problem isn’t that the immune system is overactive, it’s that the initial cells that stimulate the immune system to deal with injurious agents to the bowel are not active enough, which then leads to the chronic inflammation.”

Crohn‘s disease afflicts 1 million people worldwide, about half of them Americans. About 20 percent of these patients have a blood relative with some form of inflammatory bowel disease.

Traditionally, doctors have used drugs such as steroids and other immunosuppressants to treat Crohn’s disease. And while these medications result in similar remission rates, about 40 percent, they suppress the immune system and can be associated with other side effects.

“While some patients have gotten remarkable results with these agents, we still don’t have the drug we’re really looking for, one that has fewer side effects and is an effective therapy for most patients,” Valentine said.

Dr. John F. Valentine, an associate professor of gastroenterology, hepatology and nutrition at UF’s College of Medicine and the Malcom Randall Veterans Affairs Medical Center, said these findings can lead to renewed debate over cause of Crohn’s disease and the best method of treating it that actually could be immune system stimulation, and not immune system suppression.

Tags: Crohn's disease, Leukine, sargramostim, steroids

Posted in buy steroids, Steroid Cycles, steroid nation, Steroids and Anabolic Steroids