What are reasons to take a medicine that weakens your immune system?
February 7th, 2009 | by Michael |
raptorivaz asked:
For that disease or procedure you should take a medicine that weakens the immune system?
ANTONIO
For that disease or procedure you should take a medicine that weakens the immune system?
ANTONIO
13 Responses to “What are reasons to take a medicine that weakens your immune system?”
By Keir O on Feb 8, 2009 | Reply
To stop rejection with a transplant, this is due to the immune system seeing the transplant as foreign and attacking it weakening your immune system lessens this effect. However anti-rejection drugs severely shorten your life span this is why stem cell research into the cloning of organs is important as it may be able to provide an exact match so anti-rejection drugs are not needed.
The other reason is autoimmune disorders (such as good pasture’s disease) where the immune system attacks healthy cells weakening the immune system will also lessen this effect.
By David L on Feb 9, 2009 | Reply
Recipients of organ transplants.
People with autoimmune disorders.
I’m sure there’s others, that’s all I can think of at the moment.
By Michelle C on Feb 10, 2009 | Reply
One reason would be after an organ transplant so the body doesn’t reject the organ.
By mish-mish on Feb 13, 2009 | Reply
stupidity
helps evolution i guess
By Gaspard on Feb 14, 2009 | Reply
It might not be to weaken the immune system but rather to prevent it from attacking something in ur body… say a transplanted heart.
Or allergies are actually becaus the immune system is attacking the pollen so the medicine just inhibits the attack.
By billy on Feb 17, 2009 | Reply
The only reason I see is that the advantages of taking the medicine outweigh the side effects and it helps more than it hurts
By stormgryffen on Feb 18, 2009 | Reply
You need to shut off your immune system for major surgeries involving complex transplants. We’ve figured out how to transplant things like, say, kidneys that ‘match’ between donor and recipient, but the further away from a ‘match’ a transplant is, the further you need to shut down the immune system to prevent rejection of the new part.
Whenever there is a great chance that your body will reject something you are receiving, they weaken or shut down your immune system to prevent the rejections.
By daisy on Feb 19, 2009 | Reply
Cancer - chemo will destroy your whole body if taken long enough.
Same with the radiation.
By Sanguine on Feb 20, 2009 | Reply
I didn’t know this myself but very interesting…. this article was for treatment of Behcet’s disease… a disease where your immune system kicks into overdrive with no know causes that start the flare up.
Medications that suppress your immune system. Immunosuppressive drugs suppress your immune system, which overreacts in Behcet’s disease. By stopping your immune system from attacking normal, healthy tissues in your body, immunosuppressive drugs reduce the inflammation that your immune system causes. Immunosuppressive drugs that may play a role in controlling Behcet’s disease include azathioprine (Imuran, Azasan), cyclosporine (Sandimmune) and cyclophosphamide (Cytoxan). Since these medications suppress the actions of your immune system, they may increase your risk of infection. Other possible side effects include liver and kidney problems, low blood counts and high blood pressure
By trebor namyl hcaeb on Feb 22, 2009 | Reply
organ transplant, to prevent rejection of the new organ
By Kris L on Feb 24, 2009 | Reply
There are actually many diseases where weakening the immune system is better for the patient. Right off the top of my head, I can think of two: psoriasis (the dry and flaky skin that both itches and hurts and never seems to go away completely), and rheumatoid arthritis (the most crippling and deformative type of arthritis). Others could be some types of cancer, especially during chemotherapy, to help the chemicals in the therapy fight the cancer cells. You may find other answers … because even though doctors know a lot, there are many ‘diseases’ and dysfunctions still being studied to find cures. You never know what new ‘discoveries’ will be made, or how a medicine that ’seems to hurt people’ may actually be the ‘thing’ that leads to finding a cure!
By RaWen on Feb 27, 2009 | Reply
Ditto what is said above. Also, immune system depression is a common side effect of prednesone. It’s a nasty drug.
By shawnallison on Mar 2, 2009 | Reply
Like stated in other posts, because of auto-immune diseases (such as Lupus and arthritis). In those diseases the body’s immune system is in overdrive and is basically attacking itself. The medicine helps to shut down the immune system to help slow down the effects of the disease.