Sarcoidosis is a complex immune system disorder a female friend of mine has been diagnosed with. It is relatively well along and is to the stage that she is getting facial breakouts (which is how she dicovered she had it).
Upon hearing of my friend’s condition another lady in the office gave a distressing account of how a friend of hers that had this condition was taking a bunch of drugs for it and had all kinds of negative reactions to these drugs and was not doing well. This frightened my friend and after reviewing all the info about sarcoidosis on the web concluded that given the hit or miss (according to her) effectiveness of current therapies and the toll they take on the body she has decided to pursue alternative (ie herbal) therapies.
If know nothing about sarcoidosis but I care about my friend and if she is making a big mistake I would like to advise her as such. Does anyone have experience with sarcoidosis and recommendations as to the wisdom of eschewing conventional medical therapy for this complex and apparently not well defined disease.
Sarcoidosis is a disease that can be trivial or life-threatening (rarely). It can remit spontaneously or persist despite everyones’ best efforts to cure it.
There are clear indications and guidelines for its treatment (especially when to treat) the mainstay of which is with steroids (prednisone, cortisone, and the like).
Like so many things medical, make sure you’re dealing with someone who’s knowledgeable and experienced in the disease (say an internist or respirologist). Get a second opinion if in doubt.
In the end, there may have to be a choice between accepting the risks of steroids and accepting the risks of the untreated disease. Not an easy decision.
Steroid therapy is a mixed blessing at best - but it is managable. The responses vary widely, so what causes severe side effects in one will be barely a problem to another. Depending on your friends condition, it could be that she will require a small enough dose to avoid too many complications. On the other hand, be aware - there are side effects that are not often mentioned: depression etc., which can really mess with you if you are not aware it’s the drugs. I strongly recommend a book called “Coping With Prednisone” - I believe the author is Zuckerman - which covers many of the more severe side effects and how to combat them. Good luck!