Ragnar method

[georgedog]

Has anyone heard or tried the Ragnar method. ? Georgedog

[SnazzyD]

I’d never heard of it so looked it up to find it is taking the new dose for two days then the old dose for one day and repeating once more before settling on the new dose. Is that right? My question is, why wouldn’t one just do the DSNS stop method as it is much slower and much gentler? Especially if you’ve had problems. I (just GCA) had problems with low adrenal function that gave me fatigue and general pain, so I followed the DSNS method mostly and took 6-8 weeks to drop 0.5mg, being even slower when below 3mg.

However, for those new to this, PMRPro replied about Ragnar in this link

healthunlocked.com/pmrgcauk...

[DorsetLady PMRGCAuk volunteer]

As SnazzyD says PMRpro’s DSNS is based on the Ragnar method....and here you can get more info from the man himself -

healthunlocked.com/pmrgcauk...

[PMRpro Ambassador]

There is no Ragnar method" as such - Ragnar was an early member of the PMRGCA charity based in the northeast of England although he is Swedish. He used the approach Snazzy mentions to get below 5mg when he failed again and again to manage the way his doctors said.

And as both Snazzy and DL explain - the "Ragnar method" became the basis for the DSNS method which I, together with others in the NE charity, developed some years ago. To start with we aimed it at patients on under 10mg but realised there were also people at higher doses who were sensitive to changes in dose and who could benefit from using a similar approach.

[Pipistrelle]

Hi: I was on the original forum too with many of you nearly a decade back, where Ragnar had done a document affectionately called Ragnar’s Reductions that was a godsend for many of us having difficulty dropping a full 1mg or even 1/2mg as we got below 10mg. As others say this has been incorporated into the new approach. I found this approach of graded reductions worked fantastically! It enabled me to start to avoid the pain period I’d always have for a week or so with reductions. I’ve been in remission 8 years now, I hope that is encouraging to people as it seemed such a long and confusing journey when in the middle of that pain and initial diagnosis. It cheers me no end to see such good and supportive and wise discussion on the forum here, because truly the norm is we have to do so much learning on our own and even basic diagnosis sometimes! Take care all and stay safe.

[sara44 in reply to Pipistrelle]

I am so happy that you were in remission how long did your actual disease process last before you went into Remission

[Pipistrelle in reply to sara44]

I had pain for a few months, gradually worsening, before I got a referral to a rheumatologist and diagnosis and at that point I was on preds for what was then considered the standard textbook period of two years. Then it took maybe another year to slowly regain most of my flexibility. I think I ended with some joint damage (permanent) -- arthritic knees and a dislocated collarbone that is permanent (surprisingly, this isn't really even noticeable to me but 8 years on, it does seem to be contributing to occasional flares of pain in the affected shoulder (that meets the other end of the collarbone). I wrote a post and shared it yesterday into the recent 'shared stories' thread that has more detail. I did VERY slow reductions once I got below 10 and especially, going below 5mg.