Cytokines are "any of a number of substances...that are secreted by certain cells of the immune system"
Rheumatoid arthritis is an inflammation of the joints causing pain. Inflammation is caused by your immune system to heal a problem, like a cut or an infection. This vagus nerve technique works by suppressing your immune system.
I don't really know what I'm talking about here, but maybe a better path to a cure is to stop the underlying cause of the inflammation?
"Doctors don’t know exactly what causes RA. It may be a combination of genes and environment" - WebMD. The body is attacking itself, finding out why sounds important to me.
As someone with pretty bad RA, it'd be nice if they could do that. Unfortunately, the ultimate causes behind RA are pretty obscure at the moment. While they don't work particularly well for me, cytokine inhibitors such as abatacept are one of the gold standard treatments at the moment.
Agreed. However, generally auto immune diseases like RA are caused by an immune system run amok. It's possible that treatments that break the cycle of the immune system overreacting can indeed result in long term alleviation of symptoms. Sometimes once the cycle is broken, remission may even occur.
I have horrible seasonal allergies, and although no one really knows the underlying cause, immunization therapy via injections of antigens has results in significant reduction of symptoms. So in my case, a non drug treatment that aims to blunt the body's response has resulted in the most important treatment of my allergies, even though a "cure" and the underlying cause is not well understood.
Cytokines are "any of a number of substances...that are secreted by certain cells of the immune system"
Rheumatoid arthritis is an inflammation of the joints causing pain. Inflammation is caused by your immune system to heal a problem, like a cut or an infection. This vagus nerve technique works by suppressing your immune system.
I don't really know what I'm talking about here, but maybe a better path to a cure is to stop the underlying cause of the inflammation?
"Doctors don’t know exactly what causes RA. It may be a combination of genes and environment" - WebMD. The body is attacking itself, finding out why sounds important to me.