Why does poison - thalidomide ... help?

[Margaret Diann]

A mom shared that the doctors had to give her newborn son rattlesnake poison to slow his rapid heart beat.

A senior shared with me that his blood sugar was on the rise again after the maximum dose of glucophage (the rage in diabetes help ... inhibits liver from processing nutrition into sugars) ... and that he had seen the most reputable enocrinologist in AZ. The next thing: twice daily shots made of hilo monster saliva.

Question: why does that help? and he said the doctor said he would loose weight, too (?)

Now a question on why thalidomide helps those with bone marrow issues ... this thread

Original question:

My 72 year old father has been living with myelofibrosis for the past 10 years. Recently he was also diagnosed with myelodisplastic syndrome. Since then, his health has rapidly deteriorated. He has been getting weekly procrit shots for several years but they don't seem to be doing much. Blood transfusions have increased to at least twice a month. I was wondering if anyone knows of anything new out there that we could research that might help. He has a weak heart and cannot endure having his spleen removed. I know there's no cure, but I don't want to just give up and let this disease win. Can anybody offer any suggestions or somewhere to turn? Thanks. tracyMD

Responder -

My wife had a similar experience. The procrit seemed to have stopped working. Her oncologist suggested taking thalidomide in addition to procrit. She has not had a transfusion since--that was two years ago GEG

I asked GEG why? and he replied,

Thalidomide which was used as a tranquilizer was responsible for many severe birth defects.
More recently, however, it was found to help made red blood cells for people with bone marrow problems.

But please understand that I am a lay person and I am only repeating what I have been told by an oncologist.

Users of Thalidomide have to attest to the fact that they will not let it come in contact with potential or actual pregnat women--and there are other caveats.

GEG