The graph of improvement from nervous illness is not a straight line. It is a graph that leads steadily upward, but at the same time has many minor ups and downs. This is inevitable until the initial improvement becomes consolidated. A very common pattern is one of improvement for a week or so, and then a down—a minor relapse. When this happens it is very easy to think you are right back where you were. But of course you are not. These minor reverses are simply things that we must learn to take in our stride as best we can. We can reassure ourselves in the knowledge that they will become less severe and less frequent until they cease altogether. Of course, I can help patients whom I see personally through these bad patches. In your case, just remember that they are part of the general pattern of getting well, and you will be all right.

Bring Yourself to Like Doing It-The attitude of mind in which you approach your relaxing mental exercises is quite important. It is not a chore that you have to do when you would really prefer to be doing something else. There is no strain about it. Instead there is a feeling of ease. It is something that you like doing. It is something natural, something refreshing, something good; and you look forward to doing it, just in the same way as you look forward to any other pleasant experience.

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The discovery of cortisone was hailed by medical science as one of the milestones of medical progress. We all remember, about 15 years ago, how much enthusiasm and excitement there was, both among doctors and arthritis sufferers. The world was made to believe that medical science finally had conquered this baffling disease.

It didn’t take many years before it became evident that cortisone was one of those remedies which are so pertinently called “remedy worse than the disease.” The “miracle” drug was found to have so many dangerous side effects that now many responsible and conscientious practitioners would not even touch it.

Cortisone is a hormone and is normally secreted by the adrenal glands. Now it is manufactured synthetically. Many other related hormone drugs are on the market, such as prednisone and prednisolone.

Although it is recognized that a derangement of the functions of the adrenal glands and other glands of the endocrine system contributes to the development of arthritis, the artificial use of these hormones, especially synthetically produced ones, does not mean the same as support or correction of the body’s own impaired glandular functions. On the contrary, instead of rehabilitating and revitalizing the functions of the glands, these drugs only damage them further and may bring about a complete breakdown of the body’s own healing powers, as far as arthritis is concerned.

Here is a partial list of side effects caused by cortisone: peptic ulcers; osteoporosis (softening of bones) with spontaneous fractures; mental disturbances; psychoses; neuropathy or the degeneration of nerves; PSC (posterior subcapsular cataracts); acne; hirsutism (excessive hair growth, particularly in women); diabetes; hypertension; disturbance in the metabolism and utilization of protein and fats; reactivation of tuberculosis; retention of salt and water in the tissues with resultant strain on heart and kidneys;11 probable reduction of resistance to carcinogenesis (susceptibility to cancer); etc.

This list should be enough to discourage anybody from using this dangerous drug. It can damage the liver, the kidneys, the blood, the bones, the nerves, as well as other vital organs of the body.

Worst of all, cortisone therapy causes adrenal atrophy and undermines and disturbs the entire biochemical stability of the arthritic patient.13 Corticosteroid therapy has a damaging effect on the joints12 and can cause deterioration of the tissues of the joints.13 Once cortisone is taken or injected over any appreciable length of time, it will cause such a breakdown of the organs and the functions of the body that often it will be impossible to bring the patient back to a state of health again. The Swedish doctors, Karl-Otto Aly, M.D., Lars-Erik Essen, M.D., and Jem Hamberg, M.D.—the pioneers of biological medicine in Sweden, whom I spoke with in regard to cortisone therapy—all unanimously stated that by far the worst adverse effect of cortisone therapy, even worse than its toxic side effects, is its damaging and undermining effect on the body’s own healing activity. It is very difficult, often impossible, to successfully employ biological treatments and restore a patient to complete health if he has used cortisone for any extended period of time.

Cortisone is a diabolical drug. It suppresses symptoms of arthritis so well that the patient believes it has made him well-suddenly he can walk, run, dance. But this is only for a moment. When the effect of cortisone wears off, the patient feels worse than ever. So he becomes addicted to it, and the withdrawal symptoms grow more painful the longer he uses it. Discontinuance of cortisone therapy is, therefore, accompanied by a great deal of suffering.

It is evident from the above why cortisone failed to fulfill its early promise and why now it can be counted out as an effective arthritis remedy.

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