Stephen B. Strum, MD

I have investigated EGCG given the provocative literature relating to my rare disease light chain amyloidosis (AL).  A major problem with EGCG is its poor absorption via the stomach.  It is far better absorbed via the buccal mucosa (i.e., lining of the mouth ⇢ cheeks).  I communicated years ago with Chef Albert Lauber of Neuchatel, a Swiss Choc…[Read more]

Ehud,

Drug-induced side effects are a major part of morbidity and mortality in the world.  Note the year of this publication; today this issue is far worse.
Lazarou J1, Pomeranz BH, Corey PN. Incidence of adverse drug reactions in hospitalized patients: a meta-analysis of prospective studies. JAMA. To estimate the incidence of serious and…[Read more]

Charlene, I am an MD but am by no means an expert on interstitial lung disease (ILD) and its many variants. However, I have been in medicine for 60 years and voraciously read, integrate and have been an investigator for important breakthroughs during my lifetime.  A basic in all of medicine is that if a treatment is not working, and the dosing is…[Read more]

This is a 3-wk follow-up

I have 191 papers (most  I have read), on the topic of  Terminalia chebula, known in India as Haritaki (and other names too).  Your post, Kim, led me to the paper, J.; Yang, S.-Z.; Zhu, Y.; et al. Targeting mechanosensitive MDM4 promotes lung fibrosis resolution in aged mice. Journal of Experimental Medicine and this pu…[Read more]

Margaret and Mary Francis,

I am pasting part of your post below in order to answer in context.

Mary Frances – My PF is radiation induced (breast cancer) and steroids are the treatment for it as they are for PF caused by hypersensitivity. They are used for IPF exacerbations but don’t stop that type of fibrosis. High dose prednisone causes seri…[Read more]

This reply is written with hope that patients will work together to improve the lot of all patients.  Fundamental principles in medicine have been forgotten.  Examples are

1. The requirement to obtain BASELINE studies before initiating a new treatment.

2. The need to have every patient’s medications & supplements checked for d…[Read more]

Regarding vaccination and IPF, each person must be evaluated based on that individual’s biologic landscape (IBL).  I can speak to this issue from the standard of those severely immunocompromised and for those with multiple co-morbidities who are at the greatest risk of hospitalization and/or death.

You can obtain a sense of your risk of…[Read more]

I just did a PubMed ( see http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed ) search on nintedanib using key words bone density, osteopenia, osteoporosis, bone resorption and could not find any peer-reviewed papers.

I concur with Adele.

Stephen

Testing of patients for any illness is dependent on the gravity of the illness at baseline, the history the patient relates to the MD, to follow-up of a new treatment after baseline testing.

Per your story, I would think that something as noninvasive as pulmonary function tests (PFTs) and a six-minute walk test (6MWT) would be a so-called…[Read more]

I am surprised that those with IPF or any significant lung disease are not fully vaccinated (x 2), been boostered x 2 with the monovalent vaccine and also received at least one booster with the bivalent vaccine (Moderna or Pfizer).  As a MD very much involved with SARS back in 2003 and now with SARS-CoV-2 in 2019, I think our medical institutions…[Read more]

I looked at the info you provided per URL. It is oriented towards a stock investment rather than presenting anything scientific.  I could not find any literature on tranilast or Nuformix and clinicaltrials.gov came up with nothing.

However, in searching idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) on clinicaltrials.gov I was shocked to see 473 trials…[Read more]

Sorry, but there is a lot of medical opinion that is misleading relating to COVID-19, vaccination, inflammation, mammography and probably a lot more.  I am a physician and one that is especially interested in SARS-CoV-2.  I wrote an article for the lay public back in 2003 at the start of the first SARS pandemic, and again in 2020 alerting those p…[Read more]

Kim & Others,

This forum is outstanding.  I have always felt that the resource of human-to-human has gone essentially untapped.  I try to encourage dialogue with my patients between themselves and also to have meaningful dialogues with their physicians and all healthcare personnel.  Sadly, medicine for the most part has become McMedicine. I, as…[Read more]

Sherry, I can’t imagine what you have gone through.  It sounds to me that your husband’s demise was related to pulmonary complications of COVID-19. I based this on the profile you had submitted for him but I realize this is by no means a substitute for a medical record review.  There is a growing list of post-COVID-19 illnesses that fall in the c…[Read more]