Point taken, CJ, but the harshness comes from the seriousness of the
message.

If one person, just one, convinces himself not to try tx because of reading
and believing someone's "alternative" suggestion here, and dies because of
it...
well, then it would be my fault because I chose to be wishywashy rather than
stomp on the bullshit. And don't think for a minute that it's not possible.
Too many newly diagnosed heppers come here, have a lurk around, latch on to
something that sounds easy and never come back, or look any further. Too
many people here don't want to be thought of as Nazis, or heavy and spooky,
so they ignore rather than correct the misinformed posts. Too many people
would rather be popular than right. So, cuz I don't really care who likes me
or not, I have adopted the role of pointing out that snake oil experiments
are a really, really stupid idea.

That said, I do believe in the benefits of herbal medicine, but it must be
legitimate herbal medicine, the limitations of those benefits must be made
clear, and herbal medicine should not be considered as an alternative for
conventional treatment of hepatitis C.

Nu-Liver pills? Gimme a f.cking break.

Spidey

p.s. I'm not really a Nazi, or heavy or spooky.

You didn't offend me, but I am concerned that I may have offended you.
Reading my post again, I should have omitted the words insulting your
intelligence but I stand by the rest of it.

I doubt that your alternative treatment will make much difference, one way
or the other, in the outcome of your treatment. All science to date has been
unable to find evidence that anything but peg-interferon combo can kill the
virus, and that's the objective: to kill the virus, to stop it from
replicating. Viral loads and liver function tests often fluctuate with no
explanation. These tests also have no relationship to how the patient feels,
or the condition of his liver.

Let me tell you a bit about my own experience with the dragon...

I was (unknowingly) infected in 1982 and spent three months very ill as the
disease was in its acute stage. Doctors were mystified; I wasn't jaundiced
and my lfts were normal, but could barely walk across the room. They finally
exhausted all their ideas and sent me to a psychiatrist, who declared me
sane after several months of psychological testing, interviews and
exercises.

I never regained my previously excellent health, endurance and strength. My
symptoms were classic hep C, but hep C hadn't been identified yet. My
symptoms continued and, ironically I began to drink heavily. Every year or
two I would see a new doctor, asking that he or she try to figure out these
mysterious symptoms. No luck, although I was prescribed everything from
antidepressants to estrogen-- all with bad results. I looked for help in the
alternative arena, and was prescribed a variety of vitamins and herbs
(oddly, never milkthistle), again, all with bad or no results. No one
suggested that I stop drinking, but several suggested that my poor health
was a result of my past i.v. drug use and even accused me of continuing to
use.

Twenty years went by, and I rearranged my life to accommodate my illness. I
became self-employed so I could work at home and schedule my time to allow
for sometimes days when I couldn't function. I gave up seeing doctors,
conventional and alternative.
Then, in a period of several months, my health deteriorated dramatically. I
lost 60 pounds (couldn't eat), was in constant pain, bedridden and bloated
up like the Michelin Man. I looked forward to death to end my suffering.
Still no jaundice, but a friend carted me off to yet another doctor, who
immediately sent me to the hospital where they ran a whole battery of tests
and discovered... yes, hepatitis c. But that wasn't the cause of my most
recent symptoms; I had gallstones. Again I looked at alternative treatments
for hep c, this time doing some serious research because the alternative was
interferon, which I wanted to avoid at all costs because of the duration of
treatment and severity of side-effects. My doctor told me not to worry
though, because I "probably had minimal, if any, liver damage."

Months later, when my gallbladder was removed and a liver biopsy taken,
cirrhosis/bridging fibrosis was revealed. My own research convinced me that
interferon/riba was my only hope of a cure, although "cure" wasn't accepted
as a possibility then. I campaigned and argued for the next year to get the
treatment, and to have my health insurance co. pay for it. Succeeded on both
counts, and I believe that I was the first person in British Columbia to be
prescribed pegylated interferon.

Today, with renewed good health, I am quite active as a local hepatitis c
resource person and offer my assistance to anyone who wants it (a few
members of the established medical community actually refer hep c patients
to me because of my knowledge and experience). Most of the people I talk to
head for the alternative therapy. Nobody in their right mind would choose
peg-ifn if there was another way to beat this dreadful disease. And, because
alternative treatment is called "alternative," people believe that it really
is an alternative way to achieve a cure. I have seen people become very ill,
and die, because of this optimistic belief. Some have been acquaintances; a
few, close friends.

Perhaps, I hope, that you can see now why my patience with alternative cures
is so short, and why I abandon tactful phrases to make a point that I so
strongly believe is critical. But, I apologize for slamming you so hard. Now
that we both understand each other a bit better, let's put that behind us
and continue forward.

All the best to you, and your treatment.

Waterspider