Hi there. My father has been on Steriods since June and tapered down for 80mg to 10mg. last 6 weeks suffered bad constipation and a bloated, nauseous feeling when he is unable to open his bowels. has anyone had experience of this? i thought it would be better now he is on the lower dose. He has GCA.
Appreciate any thoughts.
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m2147
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What other medication is he on? Has he spoken to the doctor about this?
GCA can affect the arteries in the trunk and sometimes that can affect the workings of the entire gastrointestinal tract but you can't blame GCA and pred for everything. Change in bowel habit should always be investigated - just in case.
Definitely one for the doc as there are so many causes. Has he been to one? It will help diagnosis to keep a diary of bowel movements along with amount, consistency and colour. If vomiting starts seek medical attention promptly.
Does he have any other new symptoms as well , even minor ones that may not be part of his digestion.
Is he on a PPI like Omeprazole or any other medication?
Has his diet or his fluid intake changed during the last three months?
Has he become less active in the last three months?
Has his Urine level changed too?
Answers to these will help us give some more general tips to help , although the most general advice is to increase fluids and Soluble Fibre in the diet .
He should also go to discuss it with the GP , but answers to the above questions could help us give you some things to ask the GP about.
I suffered with chronic constipation until my Dr. putting me on a vitamin d3 and a calcuim citrate suppliment. She prescribed it for my PMR/bone loss on prednosone. A few days into that, my constipation eased but I had no idea as to why. Then I came across an article that claimed that vitamin d deficiency is a major cause of chronic constipation. But later found that publisher may not be a reliable source. Further digging found no other sources of similar 'research'. So your guess is as good as mine.
It doesn't necessarily mean the info is duff.... but the publishing company is on a list of predatory publishers.. They are predatory in the sense they tend to charge the authors for publication. Sometimes that means that unsubstantiated work can be published. As I say it doesn't always mean info is duff!
Strangely, when I followed the link you provided to predatory web sites, it does not list ResearchGate! But the article here tells me to be suspicious: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resea...
I am suspicious of all publications. I track down the named authors and institutions. Almost all science/ medical research will have funder(s). But paying to submit research or articles is often like vanity publishing when no "legitimate" journal will publish the work for some reason. Having published in legitimate, well thought of peer reviewed journals in the past it's not easy to get published. I remember the first JANet that academia used and it wS the only access point! I have used things like researchgate but just a bit of searching round the authors. I use wiki a lot as a starting point but don't trust it... Anyone can edit it! 😂😂😂🤔
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