No,no not at all I'm sorry if it sounded like I took it that way CL. I was just trying to be funny, sorry it was like an hour left on a crappy week at work. I was just trying to liven myself up I guess.

Both of you ladies Marlene & Lynn I really appreciate your inputs all the time. You 2 always give the most complete guidance or opinions so trust me it's always appreciated on this side!!

You know it just could be my "stage" of having this disease. I'm almost 4yrs into it & as much as I've learned that aggressive MEDICAL, DMARD or Biologic & non homeopathic treatment is the way to go I guess my curious antenna's are up on listening to anything that may turn this crap off!

I know you 2 are experienced in statistics but wouldn't you agree maybe just a little that if it can burned "turned on" there has to be a way to "turn it off" as well? Like I said maybe that's just the stage my mind is in.

But once again, no offense just TGIF mentality.

Sadly, there is no known way to turn off the gene at the present moment. I think research is being done on this in Australia, but certainly nothing firm, or statistically significant at the present moment.

So if you stop smoking and that was the trigger, will the RA stop? Not really! Sometimes people do go into some kind of spontaneous remission, but I often wonder if that is a cause of misdiagnosis? Because Palindromic Arthritis, which very much mimics RA, has a total remission rate of 50% in 5 years. So, if you are ot in the half I was in, you might very well think you had found a cure, when in fact, the disease had reached its shelf life and was gone.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news!

I get the TGIF mentality....what a week,!!!!!

But seriously....if anyone wants to stop smoking let us know. I'll start a special topic - new year's resolution?

get you annual cat scan for lung cancer. they can grow to death in the span of one year - so my best bud who is a 40 + year smoker, I drag her butt annually to her lung cat scan. she uses it as a flag to fly to celebrate another year of smoking without lung cancer but we do it anyway. she is in an NIH test study on long term smokers. i would think a pulmonologist would have his treating privileges pulled for talking about the inconsequentiality of a lifetime of smoking, on the lungs or anything else for that matter. COPD sounds like it sucks. and emphysema, my oh my to not be able to inflate those sacks again, what is that like?

to the board, I tell you I am the poster woman for the effects of smoking, on others.

My dear Mom smoked her brains out right through her pregnancy and I was a super early premie over 2 months and my lungs were compromised. then I grew up in a house that i was smoked on everywhere and anywhere: nursery, kitchen, living room, car (with the windows rolled up and the heat turned on) and I developed childhood asthma and I had infant bronchiolitis at birth. that morphed to acetlectasis. Today I am the proud owner of crappy lungs.

long term smokers get your lung cat scans, annually so you can catch the first sign of lung cancer.

depot

Wow, Depot! What a sad tale! My grandparents smoked (except for my maternal grandmother) and seeing them and what it did to them, is one of the big reasons I never took up smoking, even when all my peers did. I'm glad more people today know about how dangerous both smoking and second hand smoke is. Well, except those who are in denial.