Glenn Frey Rheumatoid Arthritis Battle
This week, the dilemma of inflammation in our American diet and the damage prescription medications do to us on a regular basis was driven home by the Glenn Frey Rheumatoid Arthritis Battle… by the passing of Eagles co-founder Glenn Frey at the young age of 67.
I loved the Eagles. In the 70’s, I loved their songs and their harmonies; I loved Glenn’s voice, and I thought he was a hottie, so he was always my favorite Eagle.
For the past 15 years, he had struggled with RA (rheumatoid arthritis) which for a guitarist, must have been the cruelest of maladies. He had been taking medication for RA which his manager said caused complications of ulcer and colitis and which then led to pneumonia.
The medications for RA are typically Humira, Remicade and Enbrel all of which come with a host of possible side effects which include suppressing the patient’s overactive immune system. This makes patients vulnerable to infection such as Glenn’s intestinal infection for which he was hospitalized last summer. Suppressing a patient’s immune system also makes them more likely to contract pneumonia which is what eventually took Glenn Frey’s life.
These RA drugs have been shown to lead to increased risk of other health issues such as cancer and nervous system problems.
What is an autoimmune disease? Simply put, it’s when you’re body gets confused and instead of attacking toxins, allergens and the like, turns on itself and attacks your joints, skin and more.
What boggles my mind with all this is that conventional medicine still only focuses on suppressing the symptoms of a disease instead of getting to the bottom of what causes the body to turn on itself in the first place.
Most of these drugs come with some pretty dire consequences that are read in the TV ads over happy music while people (supposedly taking the drugs) are enjoying their lives and having a wonderful time despite the fact that the pill they’re taking may cause cancer, stroke and so on.
I know it’s not in the best interest of Big Pharma and the allopathic (traditional) medical community, but doesn’t it make sense to work with changing our diets to address illnesses such as this? We humans don’t have our bodies turn on us in an instant; this kind of problem takes time to develop. In fact, our bodies are designed to heal themselves if we just give them the proper fuel (food) so they can do just that.
We can eat to aggravate or eat to heal.
I know Glenn Frey was a workout fanatic who tried to stay in shape to beat his illness. Unfortunately, it is becoming apparent it takes more than exercise to undo the damage done to our bodies by eating food that creates inflammation. Research is supporting the fact that most disease and premature aging is the result of inflammation.
One New York City doctor was quoted as saying, “Untreated RA can be a very serious medical condition. Ideally, we’d like to get it under control.” The takeaway I get from that is get it under control with “better” drugs not with figuring out how to eat to be well.
Makes me very, very sad…
Helping you achieve Major Wellness in your life!
Cheryl A Major, CNWC
