(This is not about whether or not hydroxy helps against Covid19).
I'm recently diagnosed and was worried about starting hydroxy as I thought it was immune suppressing but as per a post on here today and my telephone call with the rheumatology nurse, hydroxy is NOT immune suppressing and does not make people more susceptible to catching colds, flu etc.
Inflammatory arthritis does however make you more susceptible, and she made it very clear that if the disease is allowed to march on without the medication, I would certainly be open to more infections, colds etc. so I started taking it pretty sharpish!
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Brychni
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I don't think that's quite correct, as it is intended to correct the OVER- activity of your immune system. That is, to bring it back to what is normal. Have a look at this:
Hi - someone posted a document this morning specifically about this issue and it clearly stated at the footnote that hydroxy is not an immune suppressant. Can't find it now...
Hi Brycnhi, you are right, Hydroxychloroquine is NOT an immunosuppressant. It is an antimalarial that has been found to help in various immune related disorders ..and now potentially COVID 19 but that's not yet absolutely proven. It has other benefits too, such as may reduce blood sugar and bad cholesterol, and doesnt have some of the nasty side effects of MTX. It does have SMALL risk of causing damage to sight and so needs to be carefully monitored every 6 months or so.
Hydroxy has been shown to help in early stages of Corona infection and is at present used in treatment in many countries. latest info from UK also that Hydroxy and Sulfa do not make you more at risk if you have RA.
If like me, you persevere past the first three months when you cant see any improvement and in fact, wonder if you feel worse because of mior digestive symptoms and nausea....you may realise that this drug has many many positives. Has definitely helped me regain my life and although I'm not symptom free. Im able to get on with life now. Hope it goes as well for you. If you do feel any transient nausea when you first start it, your gp can give you metoclopramide that stops that.
Hi - thanks for this insight of your experience with hydroxy. I only had nausea the first few days and I know it takes a while to work. However, and must be coincidence but my symptoms have accelerated since my diagnosis only 3 weeks ago. My wrists are really painful as are other bits of me and I can't find any information about how quickly inflammatory arthritis can progress. Info on real time symptoms popping up is thin on the ground. I find myself wondering if the pain I'm feeling is how it feels - if that makes sense! My feet are so bad that sometimes getting through the last but of a run is difficult and the same for long walks. My elbows , especially the right one is also bad enough to stop me from using my laptop. Is any of this normal for inflammatory arthritis?
i share your pain...I also felt my symptoms seem to be getting progressively worse rather than better so I honesty wondered what the point was...except my Rheumy warned me very clearly that this would happen. I'm so glad i kept it up even when the magical 12 week mark was reached with no real amazing improvements... but then i started to realise that I wasn't quite as bad and the pains were easing enough to actually let me sleep at night. It was so gradual. Looking back, I can see how ill I was and how much progress I've actually made. Persevere and see how it goes. xx
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