I've been reading the discussion on Lupron's potential for treating adrenal
disease with interest.
 
>Personally I can't cite cases, except a friend of mine whose ferret was
>given Lupron.  It "appeared" to work (progress was tracked through clinical
>tests).  Estradial went down, blood (I think it was hematocrit) went up,
>hair regrew, and, best of all, frequent urinating returned to normal.
>Coincidence?  Perhaps, but this is a lot of change soon after starting
>Lupron.  Unfortunately after a few months, adrenal symptoms returned.
 
Hmmn.  Don't ferrets with no treatment at all frequently regrow their hair
and then have it all fall out agan?  It might be interesting to see what the
bloodwork looks like on ferrets cycling throught this without treatment.
This makes me think that one possible explanation is that it doesn't work at
all, but that in some ferrets the treatment coincides with the cycle, which
I suspect is tied to photoperiod??
 
If hair regrowth and subsequent loss in an untreated ferret is tied to
photoperiod length, it would be interesting to see how that ties in with the
results of treatment with Lupron.
 
Some of the 'miracle arthritis cures' aren't cures at all, but (so I've
read) just the normal result of the disease waxing and waning, the disease
will wane with no treatment at all in a portion of the patients.  If not
compared with an untreated 'control group' it might look like an effective
cure- the reader might assume the control would have a zero improvement rate
in the same period.  This is why control groups are used in studies.
 
Another possibility is that the treatment is effective.  I was wondering
whether it might be possible for Lupron when given in conjunction with
Lysodren (sp?) might have some sort of synergistic reaction or chemical
recombination that results in an effective treatment (not a cure though).
 
Since I don't know the chemical nature of either drug, I don't know what
potential for that kind of reaction exists.  Just curious though.  (Dr.
WIlliams, any thoughts on this?)
 
-Ilena Ayala
[Posted in FML issue 2214]