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  Discussion on Gallium and degenerative joint disease
Author Message
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Thursday, Sep 8, 2005 - 11:53 am:

WOW, here is one that is hard to believe. A treatment that appears to be relatively inexpensive and safe that on one time use resulted in people with degenerative joint disease to be pain free for 2 years. This comes to me because they were treating their horses with it. Besides the incredible claims there are other troubling aspects of this report mainly of which is the research was carried out by the person who sells this product. If I had a horse suffering with DJD that has not responded to traditional therapy, I believe I might give this a try, with my veterinarian monitoring the whole experiment. I would love to start seeing some case reports from our members but this may be one too good to be true however there is other scientific reports that I can find that support this idea.
DrO

Med Hypotheses. 2005 Aug 22;
Elimination of arthritis pain and inflammation for over 2years with a single 90min, topical 14% gallium nitrate treatment: Case reports and review of actions of gallium III.

Eby G.

George Eby Research, 14909-C Fitzhugh Road, Austin, TX 78736, United States.

Arthritis is inflammation in a joint often with joint damage, usually accompanied by pain, swelling and stiffness, resulting from infection, trauma, degenerative changes, metabolic disturbances, autoimmune or other causes. It occurs in various forms, including rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, bacterial arthritis and gout. Gallium III can inhibit the production of inflammatory cytokines, such as IL-1beta, produced by macrophage-like cells in vitro. A dose-dependent inhibition of IL-1beta and TPA stimulated MMP activity by gallium nitrate at increasing concentrations occurs, demonstrating that gallium nitrate can be a useful modulator of inflammation in arthritis. Gallium III is an inhibitor of bone resorption and is an effective treatment for hypercalcemia. Gallium III has been reported to be effective in the treatment of mycobacterium butycicum-induced arthritis in rats by antagonism of iron III. Long-term elimination of pain from arthritis by gallium III was first observed in horses primarily being treated for navicular disease. Several people treating their horses with gallium nitrate coincidentally found that arthritis pain in their fingers ended and did not return after soaking their hands in 14% gallium nitrate solution. Therefore, the severely arthritic hands of a 60-year-old woman were topically treated with a 14% aqueous solution of gallium nitrate for 90min. Pain and inflammation from rheumatoid arthritis diminished rapidly, and neither pain nor inflammation returned during the following 2years from that single treatment. A 61-year-old woman who had osteoarthritis in her left knee, shoulders and wrists was treated orally with 50ml of a 1% gallium nitrate solution (120mg elemental gallium) daily using a two week on and two week off protocol, resulting in almost total elimination of pain while on gallium nitrate, while pain partially returned during the two week off periods. Treatment of frozen shoulder with topical 40% gallium nitrate for 120min resulted in greatly reduced pain and crepitus almost immediately with complete restoration of range of motion, with pain remaining essentially absent for over 1year. Mechanisms of action are hypothesized to include anti-inflammatory, bone density improvements, antibacterial, anti-iron III and anti-aluminum III effects. Proper use of gallium III may be effective in terminating pain and inflammation of arthritis for years, often with a single treatment.
Member:
Miamoo

Posted on Thursday, Sep 8, 2005 - 1:00 pm:

What are your thoughts of this product for navicular/caudal heel as we have been discussing this in a different post. Do you think it is worth a try?

Ella :-)∞
Member:
Mrose

Posted on Thursday, Sep 8, 2005 - 1:45 pm:

This is extremely interesting!! What exactly is Gallium nitrate? Is it currently being used for people as well as animals? Can it be obtained through our vet (I would assume)

Not only do I have a mare with severe arthritis in her one knee, but I suffer from osteoarthritis and osteoporosis due to lifelong dairy allergy.

Thanks for the information! I'm printing it up to take to my dr. and the vet both.
Member:
Chrism

Posted on Thursday, Sep 8, 2005 - 1:48 pm:

This guy has been kicking about for years as he had a web site that claimed cure for navicular using gallium nitrate 10 years ago.

I'd like to see some real science on it.

Here is his current web site - sounds like he can cure anything!

https://www.coldcure.com/html/
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Friday, Sep 9, 2005 - 8:19 am:

I remember looking at this guy once before (didn't you bring it up Chris?) and thinking "crackpot". The difference now is that reviewed scientific publications are accepting his work and independent researchers are finding mechanisms of action. I still think this might be a farce but hate to ignore what might be a source of help to those who have no other reasonable treatment options. I briefly went to look at the supporting work but mainly wanted to see if there was any danger in the use of this product. I will spend some further time researching this question.
DrO
Member:
Chrism

Posted on Friday, Sep 9, 2005 - 3:23 pm:

I had asked about gallium nitrate years ago when my older mare was diagnosed with degenerative navicular. I thought quack quack, too, so didn't bother with it.

BTW, the mare is 22 and just keeps on trucking. She had a similar flare up in early 2004 and we let her rest a few months after initial diagnostic work and bute - now she seems fine. My regular vet and radiologist vet thought there was some soft tissue inflammation in her hoof area - perhaps impar ligament or a bit of bursa inflammation. They compared the radiographs to the 10 yo. ones and bone is pretty consistent. So much for degenerative diagnosis.

She had been jumping jumps on her own from way from paddock to barn, and cleared a very, very wide berm and did a sharp turn - we think that torqued her a bit. (This self jumping had been going on a bit - there were jumps in her turn out that she'd go over for fun.) She is now living at a friend's and no jumps are acessable. Although we think she jumped the paddock fence to be with a horse buddy since none of us put her there. She used to do this at another farm.

She is one funny horse with a big, top mare, personality. My young mare is so different - sweet, compliant, etc. In retrospect, I can see why I always had my hands full with the older one. She isn't alpha mean, but alpha self assured/stubborn/shop steward.
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