Why taking anti-inflammatories including Pred could lead to a stomach ulcer

[Motida]

Dr Mark Porter who is a working GP writes most weeks in The Times. The link to today's article is below because he mentions steroids as well. I hope it opens. If it doesn't I can cut a paste the parts of interest.

thetimes.com/article/184977...

Today I had an endoscopy because of pains in the food pipe. The doctor doing the procedure was excellent and wanted to hear exactly where I felt pain. She had never heard of PMR so I gave her a quick explanation and the moment I mentioned Pred and being on it for over two years, she told me that Pred causes polyps and other things (I forget what).

She took some biopsies of the polyps for cancer and gave me the report of what she had seen an hour later. Unfortunately the imagining machine attached to the camera was not working so she could only give a diagram of the areas of concern. She flagged up inflammation in one area and I wondered if that was from the PMR?

Her parting advice was to try hard to reduce the pred as soon as possible - but we all know it does not work like that. We would all love to be off it.

[DorsetLady PMRGCAuk volunteer]

It does open -thank you…but I think most of us are aware that PRED and NSAIDs can cause stomach issues .. unfortunately more serious for some than others..but as you say it isn’t always easy to ‘get off the Pred asap’! 😊

[PMRpro Ambassador]

Anyone would think we LIKE being on pred!

[piglette]

Some doctors make us feel as if we WANT to be on pred.

[PMRpro Ambassador]

Ironically - PPIs to "protect" the stomach ALSO can cause polyps when used long term. And my MIL had polyps - never taken either in her life ...