How was Naomi Judd cured?

[want2live]

Not meaning to threadhog, but I thought someone here may know. When I went to Naomi's site, there were some links to some holistic books, but no clear explanation of exactly what she took to attain SVR.
Anyone know the real deal? And why wouldn't she just come right out and say what she did?

[want2live]

Yep, writing is very hard work. I'm a songwriter (wrote alot more before I was dx) Didn't mean to imply that writing a book is not work!
Thanks!

[PhilaGuy]

I think you were speaking more to the fact that celebrities expoit their fame by writing silly little books that the public gobbles up and mistakes for literature!

Or maybe that's just me!  :-)

[glamazon]

I can't *not* write! No matter how fatigued or listless I get, it doesn't much affect my imagination or ability. One thing I had going for me was, all three screenplays were adpatations (two were my novels). However, the script I'm working on now is an original.

Now, I will say this. My new script would be completed by now, too, if I wasn't suffering from this listlessness and frequent urge to do nothing but watch movie. Often I can force myself to get started -- and once I do, momentum takes over and you need to pry me away from the keyboard with a crowbar -- but if I can't, then I'm looking through my collection ( http://www.glamazon.net/Videos_1.html ) of videos for a film I haven't seen recently.

Christine

[mikesimon]

From Jan 13

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) Jan 13 - The addition of amantadine to a regimen of interferon alfa-2b and ribavirin does not improve outcomes in patients with chronic hepatitis C viral (HCV) infection, researchers in the U.S. report.

Amantadine is an antiviral drug with activity against the flaviviridae family, but clinical trials of the agent used to treat HCV have yielded conflicting results. A sustained response is achieved in fewer than half of patients with HCV treated with interferon plus ribavirin, they note in their paper.

In fact, lead author Dr. P. J. Thuluvath and colleagues write in the January issue of Gut, "We believe that amantadine should be abandoned as a potential agent for the treatment of HCV."

In their prospective study, Dr. Thuluvath, at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, and his team treated 171 patients with interferon alfa-2b 3 million units s.c. three times a week and ribavirin 1000 to 1200 mg daily for 24 weeks, with treatment continuing for 48 weeks if HCV RNA clearance was noted by PCR after 24 weeks. Eighty-five were randomly assigned to co-treatment with amantadine hydrochloride 100 mg b.i.d. and 86 were assigned to placebo.

Adverse event profiles were similar in the two groups, and withdrawal rates did not differ significantly. After 48 weeks of treatment, HCV RNA clearance rates were 40.6% among 28 patients remaining in the amantadine group and 47.8% of 33 in the placebo group. At 72 weeks, only 21 patients in the amantadine group and 24 in the placebo group were available for evaluation; response rates were 30.4% and 34.8%, respectively.

"We assumed that our study had the power to show a moderate difference if it existed," the investigators write, "but we did not find even a trend favoring triple therapy."

Gut 2004;53:130-135.

[MichaelT]

She had two rounds of monotherapy, first in 1990 and then in 1996.

Interferon - the "natural" cure!

[lackalustre]

in the first issue of HEPATITIS magazine there is a cover story about Judd.  it said  she  did  6 mon. of interferon and stopped from what i remember.  she then found a "good" dr.  and went another go at treatment- for a year this time i believe.  this time she got remission.    ive read other accounts about her in other publications that dont mention interferon/tx. at all and just say she was healed by positive thinking and new age philosophy.