Nature's Way

Doctors noted long ago that women get relief from rheumatoid arthritis during pregnancy, then relapse within a couple months. Why does pregnancy have this effect? Some arthritis researchers have tried to find a drug or chemical which would get the same results (hence, ACTH and cortisone treatments). Dr. Louis W. Granirer of Queens General Hospital in New York City reasoned that the healing substance was probably in the blood of pregnant women, and probably stayed there for a while after childbirth.

Last week Dr. Granirer gave striking evidence to the Society of Medical Jurisprudence that his hunch had paid off. A healthy woman after a normal delivery can readily spare some blood; from each volunteer, Dr. Granirer took about seven ounces. The plasma was pooled and about half a pint given to bedridden arthritis victims. After a few weekly transfusions, each recipient gained weight, lost pain and swelling, felt better in every way. By way of proof, Dr. Granirer showed movies of former cripples jumping rope.

One gnarled woman had become so shrunken that she weighed only 97 pounds when treatment was begun; her husband picked her up like a doll when she had to be moved. Now hale & hearty, she weighs 170 pounds, and her husband complains that she can toss him around.

Dr. Granirer has had 24 arthritics under treatment with postpartum plasma, half of them for two years. He has learned to cut the plasma dosage to 200 cc. and to reduce the number of treatments. Patients do not need to be hospitalized. The plasma takes longer (a month or two) than ACTH or cortisone to produce benefits. But the effects of the plasma, he believes, also last longer; relapses (which are often cruelly severe after hormone treatments) usually can be prevented by three or four transfusions a year. Best of all, says Dr. Granirer, he has not had a single case marred by incidental ill effects from the plasma. Judging from these preliminary reports, nature's remedy for arthritis seems to be the safest.

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