Honest to Pete

OK, did any of you ever watch "The Tick"? It was a cartoon that ran for a little over two years, from September 1994 to November 1996; a lovely spoof on superheros. The Tick (the hero, inept but oddly effective, loosely based on Superman) had a sidekick, The Moth (Arthur, inept, nerd, much smarter than the hero) and a coderie of superhero friends, including All American Maid (based on Wonder Woman, her shoe was an awesome boomerang), saved the world on a regular basis. The Tick spent a great deal of time coming up with his superhero cry, but the best he could come up with was, "Spoon!" Anyway, in one episode, The Tick fought the common cold. It was one of the grossest things I have ever seen, as his arch-rival was a glob of mucus (I tried to find an image online, but couldn't). "What's the point," you might ask. I feel like The Tick in that episode. Utterly inept and fighting mucus that threatens to take over the world. Oh. Wait. That was Pinky and The Brain. Oh well. You get the point.

What does any of that have to do with the subjects of this blog? Other than leaving me completely uninspired to write anything, not much. At least, not on the surface. I thought I'd look into menopause and immunity and see what I came up with. Did you know that the lowering of estrogen affects our immune systems? Changes in the immune system during menopause and aging was a study done at the Department of Gynaecology and Obstetrics, Garcia de Orta's Hospital, Almada, Portugal. The abstract I've linked you to concludes, "Recent studies indicate several changes in immune response, either with suspension of hormone therapy or with its replacement at menopause."

This article in Science Direct,

Menopause and aging: Changes in the immune system—A review, finds the same thing. The results of the review found that "After menopause, there is an increase in pro-inflammatory serum markers (IL1, IL6, TNF-alpha), an increase in response of the immune blood cells to these cytokines, ..." The underline is mine, by the way. This is particularly interesting to me because the medication I'm on for my arthritis is called a TNF-alpha inhibitor, or biologic. TNF-alpha, loosely put, is the part of the immune system that is sent out to destroy alien invaders, usually a virus or bacteria. In the case of someone living with an inflammatory autoimmune-based arthritis, the immune system is blocked from sending them out, so they can't destroy our joints. What's going to happen as my estrogen gets lower, thereby, according to this article, creating more TNF-alpha? This is interesting, because TNF-a proliferates in a womans reproductive system, as well as in the brains of people with longterm depression.

 

Which reminds me, I can't take my dose of medication on Saturday morning, since my rheumatologist told me at my appointment yesterday that I shouldn't since I'm sick and I've had two chest infections in the past year. That's one of the adverse effects of the biologic medications in some people - an increase in infections.

 

Back to TNF-a ... I wonder if the increase in this isn't partly responsible for some of the things menopausal women experience. Jeepers creepers, another thing to research.

 

You know, now that I look more closely at the two links I provided in this post, I think they're about the same study. I'm going to keep them both, just in case.

 

Either they've put the heat on here, which I can't imagine since it's gorgeously warm outside, or I'm having a hot flash as I type.

 

I WANNA GO HOME!!!