I’m on the case Poo, I’m on the case. Check this out, the 14th box down mentions ‘peripheral inflammation’ and ‘peripheral inflammatory inflammatory biomarkers’. So that’s peripheral not systemic, which is intriguing.
And in this article, it would seem that interleukin 6 is one of these peripheral thingies:
Gosh! IL6 is one of the ones the newer biologics are hitting, aren’t they? They’re hitting several interleukin numbers but brain isn’t yet awake enough (too many back painkillers) to remember which ones…
Well I did 5 minutes googling ‘peripheral inflammatory biomarkers’ and think perhaps that’s enough for today. The overwhelming impression is that there are a lot of them and also that just about every ill known to humankind & rats is being associated with them / inflammation.
It really is complex from the small bit I’ve read - for example they think there are either two types, or possibly two switching modes? For TNF-a. That’s the theory they are working on as to why TNF blockers tend to exacerbate MS, despite it also being thought to be an autoimmune inflammatory process, so intuitively you’d think they should help.
I have three daughters…
LOL. And I have 3 sons … I could die unnoticed while they’re discussing footy.
Common sense / step by step logic doesn’t really give a lead in does it. This field must be really exciting for those who do the research though.
Simultaneously, or one or the other, depending on who you are??? I guess I’d think it’s harmful to the brain, i.e., brain fog is one of our big complaints.
@Poo_therapy I’m with you about prednisone…I was “That Girl” on prednisone…my husband is now on 5mg daily and I think it has helped him; however, he’s in terrible shape (physically and emotionally) so 5mg probably isn’t enough. But then there’s that 94-year old mom of mine who’s been on low-dose prednisone a long, long time. It definitely keeps her chipper, more alert and seemingly younger than most people her age…Sybil, just think how good low-dose prednisone would make you feel!! 
Commenting on the importance of mental health to those who suffer with chronic disease or just have general mental health stuff. I worked in the mental health field for 11 years. I saw first hand what can happen to everyday common folk. The lesson I learned was that mental health issues are exceptionally common, occurring in juveniles and others. What I saw and dealt with helped me understand that ignoring the problem leads to very bad outcomes. This is not directed to anyone particular. Anyway it allowed me to overcome the stigma of admitting I had a problem. Now, once PSA crept into the the picture my depression and anxiety were magnified and I started seeing a doctor. Therapy is quite useful and helps many people. Medicine also plays a part. There was no amount of thinking that was going to balance my biological chemicals. I believe normal problems become magnified with disease. My experience was once I started dealing with psa my other problems became worse.
On inflammation, nsaids , steroids—I find them helpful. Steroids make me feel much better. If I can take steroids in bursts I do. It is also important to remember side effects. Like recently, the steroids was further interrupting my sleep way worse than normal so I stopped sooner than my frequent two week cycle. I am a firm believer with no actual data to back me up–but I think the systematic inflammation has thoroughly messed up my ability to retain information. The brain fog is different from the longer term affects of dealing with the disease. All I know is there was a difference pre-psa with the me now. My short term memory is horrible and when I have severe brain fog I cannot think myself out of a paper bag. Something within my disease portfolio is having this affect.
Depending on what else is happening in the body / immune system … I think. The closest I come to understanding (which could still be miles away!) is that, as we know, the immune system is ‘A Good Thing’. But, if it malfunctions, the myriad parts of it do damage of different kinds.
And it is so complex that the researchers know that much remains to be understood. Like Jen said above, ‘things’ which are good news for some (e.g. TNF blockers) may be quite the opposite in some conditions, for some people.
Woodworm, some of the things you say so simply and clearly resonate with me very strongly.
This:
And this:
And a lot of other things too! Thank you.
I find it endlessly fascinating just ‘watching’ what the researchers come up with next. I have truly little understanding of what they’re doing but I just love watching what’s next and in what ways it’s different to the last breakthrough.
And I think you’ve got it in one @Sybil. The one thing that gets on my goat is people saying we’ve got ‘overactive’ immune systems. I don’t believe we do, we’ve got abnormal immune systems. It’s too simple to say ‘overactive’.
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