Alternative to Prednisolone

[19741977]

PMR 3rd day Prednisolone hair began falling out. Now stopped. Am considering naturopathy. Has anyone had any success with this or anything else?

[MrsNails]

Hi

Do you mean you’ve stopped the Prednisolone or your hair’s stopped falling out?

What dose of Pred were you started on?

MrsN

[DorsetLady PMRGCAuk volunteer]

Don’t think you can blame Pred for hair falling out after 3 days only.

More likely a reaction to the fact the illness has been building up over the last few weeks if not months.

The subject of not taking Pred is raised regularly - and can’t say I can recall more than a handful of people (if that) over 8 years who have successfully managed it.

Do think very carefully about this - if your inflammation is left untreated or not sufficiently controlled it can lead to lots of others issues within your body you don’t realise.

This was latest post - healthunlocked.com/pmrgcauk...

[SnazzyD]

It is very common for the body to shed hair and skin after a time of systemic illness. To me it is a natural process so I didn’t do anything and waited for my body to decide when it grew back. Pred does have an effect after a time but that too is temporary. My hair fell out in clumps after 5 months of illness and then again, but less so, after a period of adrenal insufficiency at the lower end of Pred dose.

[PMRpro Ambassador]

You hair falling out after 3 days of pred is very unlikely to be due to the pred - but a result of your state of health over the previous few months. Often health conditions result in poor hair condition up to 6 months after the illness started and we do have a lot of people who blame pred for that. I had PMR for 5 years before I got to try pred - my husband complained about the hairy dust bunnies that were all over the house. At the time I was taking no medication of any sort.

Rather than write a very long post I will just provide this link to my time with PMR and no pred:

healthunlocked.com/pmrgcauk...

We have been accused in the past of being a pred support group or being in cahoots with Big Pharma. We are not - but the experience of thousands of patients has been that pred works.

As mentioned, the unmanaged inflammation is potentially causing damage you can't see or feel yet and without pred there is an increased risk of your PMR progressing to GCA - and then you would have Hobson's choice: high dose pred or risk total and irreversible loss of sight.

You will probably find that there are complementary therapeutic approaches that will help mitigate some of the adverse effects of pred as well as lifestyle choices that help. A primary one is to cut carbs - helps avoid weight gain and sugar and simple carbs are pro-inflammatory. But cure on their own? No-one has found a sustainable approach yet.