Is aromatherapy safe with PMR/GCA?

[Sandybo]

Hi, I started with a cold two weeks ago and now have sinusitis, I have been doing steam inhalation with some drops of aromatherapy oils in, is this ok? Have also been rubbing some oils in my chest at night, will it interfere with my medication?

I saw my rhuemy at the beginning of the week but sinusitis had only just started at that point, he wants me to start to reduce my preds by 1mg a month, I am on 10 mg at the moment and have been since end of December. I'm not to start reduction until I feel better when I am to have a blood test again as my crp has gone up a little probably due to the cold.

Any thoughts please?

[PMRpro Ambassador]

The best thing to do with any supplement or alternative therapy is to ask the pharmacist - not the counter staff. I wouldn't have thought there was any harm but an aromatherapy practitioner is the ideal person - have you looked on the internet? I know there are some that aren't recommended for certain states or illnesses.

Your rheumy is quite on the ball to tell you to wait for your infection to go before reducing and chest infections can raise CRP a lot, up to 60 has been measured.

This is a reduction scheme a lot of people have used successfully to reduce below 10mg, I used it from 15mg as I was very sensitive to dose reductions. A similar one is in use by a consultant in the north of England and this one is being looked at by one of the research groups:

healthunlocked.com/pmrgcauk...