Folks who have tried many biologics?

This is just my personal self-experimentation and not a recommendation (especially the fasting — consult with a medical professional and fasting forums before attempting that, because it can be intense).

It’s something like this:

  • no meat, eggs, dairy
  • salmon or sardines maybe once a week
  • only whole foods made from scratch (except sauerkraut, vinegar, and olive oil)
  • no sugar, alcohol, or caffeine
  • low salt
  • I eliminated wheat, tree nuts, and nightshades until I can figure out what is going on, but I’ll probably add a few Brazil nuts per day soon.
  • No added fats except for small amounts of uncooked olive oil

It’s basically whole grains (rice, quinoa, amaranth, oats), legumes (lentils, split peas, adzuki beans, mung beans, etc.), lots of vegetables (cabbage, broccoli, kale, onions, carrots, yams, radish, etc.), lots of fruit (papaya, strawberries, blueberries, cherries, watermelon, bananas, etc.), and seeds (sesame, sunflower). I only drink water and decaf coffee. Nearly all of the food is prepared from scratch, so the only salt comes from the small amounts I add to food and from the sauerkraut that I buy.

I did a 4-day water fast at the beginning of the month, which took care of my exhaustion problems, and I’m still water fasting on Mondays. On the other six days of the week I confine my eating to an 8-12 hour period. I try for 8 but sometimes it’s 12, especially on the re-feeding day after a fast, where I have to gradually reintroduce food.

It hasn’t slowed or reversed the skin psoriasis problems which are out of control at the moment.

So the doctor has prescribed me methotrexate, which I’ve been trying to avoid. The medication was prescribed over an online message in just a couple of lines of text telling me to take it once per week along with folic acid once per day. No other instructions or warnings, and no mention of blood tests or ongoing monitoring. Also no mention about the fact that the current biologic is totally failing and whether I should stop it or not. Does that sound normal?

I’m trying to get a second opinion but haven’t been able to contact another doctor yet.

Which biologic are you taking too? I can’t see you identified it The mxt should help your psoriasis though as it’s so well known to do that. I do hope you can tolerate it better than I did back when I tried it. In the UK we have to try mxt plus another cDMARD before we can access biologics. And it’s often added to biologics to help them work better.

Taltz is the one that is failing.

One worry about trying the mtx is that I thought you’re supposed to get tested beforehand and be monitored during the initial period, but I was prescribed the medication over chat with no mention of testing, and only two sentences of instructions. No warnings.

Your TB etc testing done before you started Talz should suffice. But they ought to do a base line chest x-ray too. Blood test monitoring should be done every two weeks initially to see how your liver and kidneys are liking or not liking mxt. Your GP can do them though. If after two months your blood tests are ok they tend to move to monthly blood tests. Mxt can be hard on the liver. Given Talz is also specifically supposed to help psoriasis too, I would consider it’s failed you utterly if your psoriasis is this bad.

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I would describe the Taltz as a catastrophic failure that rapidly left me much worse off than when I started biologics. That’s just my personal experience though. It might work well for other people who have different circumstances.

I tried Taltz, it was a looser for me. after Enbrel, Cosenytix, and Humira. It was a looser. Doc took me off after 6 months. PsA got worse. I just wrapped up trying Tremfya for nearly a year. It helped, but not enough. Switching to RINVOQ.

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I started on MTX, then imuran, arava, otezla, enbrel, humira, stelara, cosentyx and starting skyrizi once this tooth infection clears up.

I was on 5mg of prednisone for 3 years. I felt like it was killing me. She weened me off but it was rough.

The only doctor available to me was a teledoc for 2 years. I finally found a doctor that accepts my insurance and does physical exams a few months ago. He decided to double my cosentyx and I got a eye and tooth infection concurrently, neither of which I’ve ever had before. Also my A1C went from 6 to 9.7 in two months, liver enzymes way up and bilirubin up.

I am hoping the skyrizi works. Stelara was the best one so far, but my body outsmarted it after a few years.

I hope you all have good luck and find relief.

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Nothing was working for me, so after a bunch of trips to the ER I’m on RINVOQ now. Also recovering from an infection.

I hope you feel better soon.

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Over 10 years I have done:
Otezla
Enbrel
Cosentyx
Humari
Tremfya
Taltz
Rinvoq

I am not on Rinvoq and I am having a better response to it than any of the shots. My doc has told me that remission will never happen for me and that he only hopes to slow it done. I’ll let Rinvoq go for a year and see.

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Good to hear that it’s having an effect for you. It hasn’t kicked in for me yet, but I’m hoping this one works.