REPRINTED FROM BEYOND HEALTH® News
The Dangers of Steroids
by Raymond Francis
In a recent article, we talked about the dangers of antibiotics, but we should remember that virtually all prescription drugs do serious damage to the body. With rare exceptions, they should be avoided like the plague. Antibiotics are damaging enough, but there is another class of drugs that is fast catching up with antibiotics in terms of abuse by physicians and the damage they do—these are steroids. Steroids are now being prescribed almost as frequently as antibiotics and are even being given to babies and children for inflammations of any kind. Steroids are even available over-the-counter in products like cortisone ointments and DHEA.
Using steroids is basically not a good idea. Steroids are hormones, and hormones regulate important body functions. Little is known about how hormones function in the body, and even less is known about how hormones interact with each other. Hormone regulation is absolutely critical to the body's biochemistry and, given our ignorance, playing games with this chemistry is a game you are almost sure to lose.
Steroids are prescribed extensively for allergic reactions, asthma, eczema, arthritis, ulcerative colitis, and all types of inflammatory and auto-immune diseases. However, the beneficial effects appear to wear off in time, leaving the patient in worse condition than before they started. Steroids are part of the 80 to 90% of modern medicine that has never been adequately tested to determine safety or effectiveness. And unsafe is what they are! New research indicates that steroids are not only more dangerous than previously thought, but can do a variety of permanent and devastating damage even after a single dose. Steroids, even in low doses, can kill and many people have died from them. There is no such thing as a safe dose. That's why Dr. John Mills, chief of infectious diseases at San Francisco General Hospital and former professor of medicine at U.C. San Francisco said, "Steroids are probably the most sleazy of modern day medications."
While steroids can appear to be like a "miracle cure" for asthma or arthritis, the fact is they don't cure anything, they merely suppress the symptoms. You may feel better but this comes at a high price. Medical journals are filled with horror stories. The Annals of Internal Medicine reports that oral steroids can cause osteoporosis with an eight percent reduction in bone mass after just four months. The Lancet reports that inhaled steroids, prescribed for asthma, retard growth in children after only six weeks. The British Medical Journal reports that extensive eye damage and visual loss can be caused by using topical, over-the-counter, 1% hydrocortisone ointment for two weeks.
It doesn't matter whether you take it orally, inhale it, or rub it on your skin, steroids do damage to your body's self regulating systems. This damage can happen fairly quickly and can be irreversible. Rubbing even a little cortisone ointment on your skin will affect the chemistry of your entire body. There is also evidence that steroids taken during pregnancy can cause autism and that childhood use can damage cognitive performance. Both topical and inhaled steroids can cause glaucoma and cataracts. Other reported problems include fluid retention, thinning skin, slowness in healing, headaches, muscle weakness, immune suppression, angina, hair loss, and depression.
Drug companies continue to make these dangerous chemicals and doctors continue to prescribe them. The evidence is clear. Even low doses for short periods of time can cause serious damage, and taking higher doses for long periods of time is asking for trouble. The thing is, you don't have to use them. There are plenty of alternative approaches to accomplishing the same ends. Vitamin C, vitamin E, and quercitin are natural anti-inflammatories that are both safe and effective. Since the steroids only address symptoms, getting to the causes of a problem and addressing them is the more intelligent way to go. The choice is yours.
Raymond Francis is an M.I.T.-trained scientist, a registered nutrition consultant, author of Never Be Sick Again and Never Be Fat Again, host of the Beyond Health Show, Chairman of the The Project to End Disease and an internationally recognized leader in the field of optimal health maintenance.
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