Moonface

[Yorick123]

I was diagnosed with PMR at the end of November last year and have tapered from 15mg a day down to 6.5mg a day now without incident. I have been fortunate in avoiding the side effects apart from Moonface and I wondered at what daily dose I could expect it to go away? Thanks.

[DorsetLady PMRGCAuk volunteer]

Afraid that’s a bit of a ‘how long is a piece of string question’ - it seems to vary from person to person.

Now you have asked the question you can see related posts, but you may get as many answers as there are replies.

[piglette]

I managed to avoid the moonface by cutting out gluten, I did reduce carbs dramatically too. It may just have been luck although I still think it was the gluten!

[79andCounting in reply to piglette]

I've been gluten-free for five years, just started on Prednisone a couple months ago... and I have moon face.

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to 79andCounting]

Are you still eating g/f carbs? They are unbelievable carb dense!

[79andCounting in reply to PMRpro]

I have GF pasta once or twice a month and maybe a dozen slices of GF toasted bread over the course of a month. Other than that it's all veggies, fruit, seafood and occasionally pork of some kind. No oils other than EV olive and avocado oils.

[annimills]

I live in France and my Rheumy advised me to cut out salt because it retains fluid. Give it a try.

[agingfeminist]

I was on a very low carb diet from early on in the PMR journey. I have always been on a no sugar, no added salt diet for decades. BUT I still got a moonface. Don't worry, it does go...

[PMRpro Ambassador]

No real answer - and it varies from person to person. I never really developed the classical moonface, even on methyl pred where I did gain a LOT of weight, but my face was much rounder than it used to be. I cut carbs drastically, lost 35lbs in weight, mostly from the typical pred-weight areas, and looking at me now there is no real sign I have been on pred for 15 years. It was on my medical notes "Cushingoid" and "metabolic syndrome" but a kind cardiologist agreed neither was now true and removed them from the list!

[Yorick123 in reply to PMRpro]

Thanks so much for your thoughts everyone, it seems like diet is the thing I must focus on.

[Missus835]

My moonface and Buddha neck have pretty much gone. If I intake too much salt or too many carbs, I tend to puff up. Also have puffy eyes, but not all the time. It's all diet-related me thinks.