Excessive use of cortisone, taken orally or by injection, can lead to many body disturbances. For example, it can affect menopause.

A large segment of arthritics are women in the forty- to fifty-year-old bracket. When they are in the menopausal stage, they must be doubly careful in using synthetic cortisone. Because the drug can cause accentuated flushing and high blood pressure.

Men and women of any age being treated with cortisone must be particularly careful to avoid falls or accidents, because of the great danger of breaking bones. Synthetic cortisone has a withdrawing effect on calcium and phosphorus and tends to leave bones in a brittle condition.

Cortisone has become so popular—yet is still so potentially dangerous if used excessively—that we are going to print the following chart for your protection. Before you rush quantities of cortisone drugs into your system, read this list of dangers.

POSSIBLE COMPLICATIONS FROM THE EXCESSIVE USE OF CORTISONE

Too much cortisone can cause the following bodily conditions:

Increased swelling of hands, legs, etc., due to electrolyte imbalance.

Carbohydrate imbalance, leading to diabetes.

Ballooning of the face, make the patient “moon-faced.”

Growth of hair in the wrong places (causing moustaches on women, etc.).

Acne, skin blemishes.

Additional excessive weight, make you obese.

Mental depression, nervousness, moodiness.

Elevation of your blood pressure.

Blood clotting disturbances.

Abnormally fast heart beat.

Haemorrhages of the gastro-intestinal tract.

Menstruation to be decreased, delayed, or completely eliminated.

Softening of the bones; danger of fractures.

Reactivation of peptic ulcers.

Development of larger tonsils.

Slowing down of your adrenal glands.

Reduction of the action of your thyroid gland.

Insomnia.

For the reasons shown above, we now know that we do not want large quantities of cortisone poured into our bodies. In arthritis, it is the quality of the cortisone which counts.

What, then, can improve the cortisone? What, in our bloodstream, can stimulate the adrenal glands into producing a higher quality natural cortisone?

We know that cortisone is secreted from the outer bark or layers of the adrenals. We also know that it takes steroid substances to activate these glands.

Vitamin D is a steroid substance. The only kind of vitamin D which can do the stimulating job is found in cod-liver oil.

The Whole Answer in Plain Words

We maintain that an arthritic who takes his cod-liver oil correctly can make his own cortisone. By emulsifying his cod-liver oil with orange juice, he can send oil bubbles containing steroid vitamin D to his adrenal glands and stimulate the glands into producing higher quality natural cortisone.

Without this better grade of hormone in your connective tissue, your tissue fluids gel and stiffen instead of functioning normally. And why is the quality of your cortisone not up to par? Because, for all these years, the stimulative effect of vitamin D and iodised oil has been missing from your bloodstream!

Final Conclusions about “Wonder Drugs”

Before ending this chapter about cortisone, here are a few words to the wise about two other commercially manufactured products.

You may have heard a good deal about ACTH. It deserves some consideration. ACTH is another hormone which can benefit only those with rheumatoid arthritis. Again, victims of osteo-arthritis are forgotten. ACTH is made from the pituitary gland. It can temporarily stimulate the adrenal glands into producing more cortisone.

Dr. E. F. Rosenberg of the Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago skilfully sums up the action of ACTH on the adrenal glands. He believes that ACTH causes cortisone to be produced through its stimulus of the adrenal enzymes, using ascorbic acid and cholesterol as raw materials.

In the cod-liver oil and orange juice mixture we have a parallel. Orange juice contains ascorbic acid. The oil globule, a sterol, takes on an adhering film of ascorbic acid. When the two, as a unit, reach the adrenal glands, they can stimulate the glands into making better-grade cortisone.

HYDRO-CORTISONE is still another drug being prescribed these days for arthritics. When injected directly into the joint, it has been found capable of anti-inflammatory effect. Temporary effect.

Pioneering in this field is Dr. J. L. Hollander of Philadelphia. He recently edited a valuable book, Comroe’s Arthritis and Allied Conditions.

Dr. Hollander believes that these injections of hydro-cortisone serve as a lubricating oil to the joint, by diffusing the ingredients of the hormone into the cells of joint linings.

Be it in the use of cortisone, hydro-cortisone, ACTH, or any other drug, medical records are now proving that they are all temporary aids. For lasting results, we will have to depend on our own adrenal glands and their ability to make better-grade natural cortisone.

Taking drugs can become a habit or a fad. Almost to the point of just trying to do “something” so you can say you’re fighting your arthritis.

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