Nausea - is it the pred, or something else?

[calibriel]

Hello and thank you for the constant flow of useful insights. I know that stomach problems are a known side effect of steroid use, but I couldn’t see anything under nausea in the FAQs - sorry if I’ve missed it.

This is my story: I’m 73, PMR diagnosed in summer 2020; since when I have reduced successfully with only one small blip: now on 1.5 and staying there until after my planned hip replacement next month. A year ago I had a warning about pre-diabetes, and because of that and needing to reduce weight for the planned op, I put myself on a low calorie, low-carb diet. That has been really successful: I have lost over 1.5 stone, and my last bloods in the autumn showed improvement in blood sugar. I allowed myself to relax the diet a bit over Christmas, but only put on half a pound. Now I’m back on the reduced diet - I’d like to get my BMI closer to the normal range before the op, because I know I’m likely to put on weight afterwards, not being able to exercise as I normally do - but ever since I’ve developed a new symptom: feelings of nausea when I’m hungry, which go away briefly if I eat. Does anyone else have symptoms like this on pred? I’m a little concerned in case my weight loss is due to something more sinister than my diet. I feel well otherwise except I tire easily - but what can I expect at my age?

Apologies for the long post and thank you for reading.

[PMRpro Ambassador]

One cause of nausea when hungry that improves with food is excess acid.

healthline.com/health/nause....

Another cause of nausea at low levels of pred is adrenal insufficiency - your adrenl function isn't keeping up with the rate at which you are reducing your pred and isn't topping it up enough with natural cortisol.

Really you need to discuss it with your GP to decide which of the various causes it moght be and to rule out any nasty ones.

[Charlie1boy]

Hi,

I certainly experienced feelings of nausea when on low levels of prednisolone. On occasions it was so bad that I just had to go and sit down and rest for a couple of hours or so.

Rather surprisingly to me, I was able to eat, and once I’d done this, the nausea gradually subsided.

I put all this down to my adrenals struggling to get going again.

Good luck.

[calibriel]

Thanks for the responses. I’m going to try herbal teas: I’ve got both ginger and camomile, both good for tummies. I don’t know why I didn’t think of it before

[piglette]

After you have your hip op you need to eat well to improve the healing process. It really does make a world of difference. You can eat healthily of course.