Steroids occur naturally in the human body. So why the controversy about Multiple Sclerosis steroids used in MS therapy? Of all the steroid types – glucocorticosteroids, mineralcorticosteroids, androgens and progestins, the glucocorticosteroids, or glucocorticoids are normally used as part of any therapy for treating relapses of Multiple Sclerosis. Steroids of this group are produced by the adrenal glands and are present in the body as cortisone and hydrocortisone. These cortisones have an immunosuppressive effect of deactivating the white blood cells known as T-cells. T-cell reduction is also the effect desired in many other drugs currently in trial stages. The interest in MS steroids in treatment is that these white blood cells are primarily responsible for the damage done by MS. All this is to say that reducing the white blood cell count would reduce the severity and the frequency of relapse of MS, steroids being a good way to do this.
Synthetic is better than natural in this case.
But synthetic steroids can be formulated to do it better. So Multiple Sclerosis steroids synthetically formulated for this purpose should reduce the relapse severity and recurrence frequency even better right? This is the main idea behind the popular brand Solu-Medrol, as well as many other similar brands of the same formulation. But despite the promising and documented results, MS steroids used in treatment have absolutely no effect on the overall progression of the disease. It only reduces the relapse rate. You will have to decide if the relapse reduction is worth the side effects that are widely known in MS steroids used to treat these symptoms. Side effects are wide ranging and well-documented, so they won’t be gone into here.
Artificial symptom relief
Some patients report Multiple Sclerosis steroids make them feel, overall, better. For reasons not completely understood, steroids usually have an uncategorized slightly euphoric effect. Patients repeatedly report feeling better after being administered steroid treatment, But clinical tests observe no cause, or no reason for this “better” feeling. Sometimes these patients will ask for prolonged or regular steroid treatments. It is similar to drug-seeking behavior sometimes seen in opiate addicted patients. But because of the unwanted side effects of prolonged steroid use, this is not advisable, even if they do feel better. Psychological problems developed as a result of having Multiple Sclerosis should never be treated with steroids, but instead should be treated with a drug that directly affects the brain and is more specific to the type of psychological problem being experienced.
