Germans say Placebos are UNETHICAL!

The article in the following link makes several intersting points. The four most immportant ones are listed below. However the one that caught my attention was that in this study the Germans decided it would be UNETHICAL to have a placebo group.

In the study doctors tried giving two different concentrations of IVIG to pregnant women who also had MS to see if there was a way to stop MS from returning after the pregnancy.

The Germans, unlike the American FDA, find the idea of having a placebo group where sick patients are given NOTHING to be UNETHICAL.

Funny that our American FDA thinks patients should suffer without medication for the sake of more "valid statistics" but the Germans who gave us Dr. Mengele and many other cruel death camp doctors find the idea of watching patients suffer and die for the sake of "pretty numbers" to be UNETHICAL!

Here are the four other important points from the article:

(1) MS rates are increasing especially among women
(2) Pregnancy turns off autoimmune disease. Here it is MS, but pregnancy temporarily "cures" other autoimmune diseases as well.
(3) After delivery, the autoimmune disease returns.
(4) IVIG helps to stop the autoimmune disease from returning after delivery.

The fact that autoimmune disease is NOT permanent but can be turned off in a pregnant mother offers hope of a cure when the mechanism is elucidated.

IVIG is IntraVenous ImmunoGlobin. Immunoglobin is made by B cells of the immune system. Killing off B cells with Rituxan can put autoimmune disease into remission. But Rituxan can have dangerous side effects. IVIG can also stop autoimmune disease. However IVIG can occasionally kill the patient or make the recipient deathly ill.

There is currently lots of research trying to determine the part of IVIG that turns off autoimmune disease.

There may be a hormone released by the fetal placenta that calms the mother's immune system and prevents not only rejection of the fetus by the maternal immune system but also turns off the maladapted maternal autoimmune response thus ending the disease until after delivery.

Somehow all of it leads back to B cells and a healthy immune system. Who knows how. Yet the answer is close. Just a little more research or a little more directed and effective research.

Here is the URL of the article: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/586261