It's been kind of interesting to watch the anti-Rituximab memes developing. I expect, even if it completely proves out as an accepted treatment, even if it cures people, there will be those who cling to the fringe, just as there are with cancer and other diseases with "accepted" treatment options, because there will always be those who don't like the available treatments for whatever reasons.
Sure, cancer treatment can suck a lot, and sometimes it sucks too much to be worth it because it doesn't have great odds of success in certain situations: in other situations the odds are a lot better. (Hey, you know what most cancer patients have that we don't have? Information about the ODDS OF SUCCESS of one treatment over another! Based on Science! But there will always be those who want a 100% guarantee or else, and there ain't no such thing.)
Anyway, about the anti-Rituximab memes: I see some bees busily going back to the hive and returning with the message that "Auto-immune diseases aren't real! When they tell you a disease is auto-immune, it's a crock!" Which will come as unpleasant news to the people with lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, etc., who are pretty sure they have real diseases. Like us, they are similarly dissatisfied about knowing the ultimate cause of their illness; but unlike us, they at least have some therapies in place interrupting the pathological processes of their disease to SOME degree.
Joining the auto-immune club doesn't mean joining the most privileged club out there, that's for sure. I mean, they may look a *tiny* bit privileged compared to where we are right now, but in the bigger picture, they're still relatively starved for research funding and, to a large degree, respect.
I suspect the bigger pattern, historically, that we can't currently see will have a lot to do with our toxic environment - and I don't mean "toxic" in the knucklehead personal way people interpret it, which is "Something I can avoid by eating organic food, or purge from my body by doing a 'cleanse'!" I mean the chemical soup we've come to live in and accept, which none of us can avoid or "cleanse" ourselves of in any effective way. We are sold a line of thinking that our health is our personal responsibility (because large and powerful interests benefit from us fully absorbing this attitude), and so we mistakenly think "Get away from my arm with that needle!" addresses the right problem and fulfils our duty to act.
I think we're constantly being distracted from the need for political action by the repeated re-direct to our own personal bags of skin. Yeah, you want to do basic stuff to take care of your own health, but sometimes bad stuff happens to you that's (a) not your fault (b) not something you could have avoided and (c) not something that you can rid yourself of with any course of action currently available to you. You want that to change, look up the chain to where the buck stops -- don't spend all your energy wandering up and down the supplement aisle.
Sez me. Carry on with whatever you were discussing.
