Been on pred for a year...ups and downs! Weight control top of my list but have developed a typical pred induced sweet tooth. Make own soups etc and for ‘pudding’ in the evening now make Sugar free jelly and eat with Bonne Maman yogurt with layered fruit (no additives just milk, fruit and little sugar) 103 cal! After several months, nails and hair have improved dramatically. Have looked up benefits of gelatin....they appear to be nutritionally positive for bones, joints and much more.
Just thought I would bring to attention of others as a low calorie, thoroughly enjoyable sweet tooth food. My husband loves this to.
Anyone else on the case?
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Pmrmolly2018
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Sixty years ago we used to say jelly was good for our nails! However - I have had better nails while on pred than since I was a child and my hair is also thick. It went mad on one sort of steroid (methyl prednisolone/Medrol) but on switching to a form of prednisone it calmed down and is back to normal.
My mum used to give me a cube of chives jelly for my nails - full of sugar though. I admire your creativity! You should of course, be prescribed Calcium and vit D which will help.
..yes, I do have Accrete D from GP but cannot take AA, I was unable to swallow food.. so looking for anything else to support bones and joints. This seems a natural way of doing it without more drugs!
There are several alternatives to AA that are administered by infusion - no-one has to go without bisphosphonates if they want them because they can't swallow!
..when I had a bad reaction to AA, I talked to others at our local support group and looked at your blog. Also read up about bisphosphonates...not much to recommend! Have, therefore not followed up other avenues available. However, as nutrition was my major, looked for other bone etc support the natural way. Gelatin/collagen, as you say, is an old and trusted nutritional supplement.
It’s surprising that pred is good for the nails...but not so good for the bones and joints?
I just put that in for completeness for others looking in - and did say IF they want them!
I think that the contrast may have been due to the blood supply not having been ideal to the nail bed due to the vasculitis - but I'm not the only person who experienced lovely nails! And at least some of the others also had no bone problems either - my bone density had barely changed after 7 years of pred. Joints, can't say, but they don't feel any worse than they did pre PMR!
Jelly is one of my go to desserts , I love it and make lots in little portions in the fridge for the whole family and add fresh or frozen fruit in them too.
You can get good sugar free jellies that have natural substitute sweeteners and you can get vegan jellies now too.
Making the stock for your soups fresh from bones also helps with your bone , nail and hair health.
You boil them up for a long time using leftover bones from a roast or you can get bags of them from a butchers either free or really cheap. You can reduce the cooking time using a pressure cooker or use less energy leaving it to cook in a slow cooker. It lets all the bone marrow and gelatine , and yummy flavour out and this sort of stock is really nutritious .
You can even just drink it as a lower calorie snack when you are hungry.
You can put the bone broth stock in the fridge or freezer it in portions to use later .
Thank you for your responses. All good! Makes us feel less useless if we can help ourselves...to supplement the ‘magic pred’. After a year I don’t feel quite so powerless. It’s been a while since I made my own stocks etc but the additional nutritional value to support bones etc worthwhile. Out with the Stock Pot!
All my life my nails have been soft, bendy, splitting. I have had to keep them cut very short - until prednisolone. They are now lovely and strong and I can grow them and wear nail polish. Yay! Pred took away my pain and gave me lovely nails. 🌻🌻
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