almost down to 5 mg pred

[Phoebenooby]

i am on 5.25mg and feeling ok. I understand when you get below 5mg your adrenal glands start waking up. If this happens , does that mean the adrenal glands will fight off the remainder of the inflammation ? Or am i barking up the wrong tree? !

[piglette]

Adrenal glands produce hormones that help regulate your metabolism, immune system, blood pressure, response to stress and other essential functions.

[HeronNS]

Not exactly. Cortisol production is suppressed by pred and it takes a while for the adrenals to start to produce enough as the dose of medication becomes lower than the amount we normally produce. An additional issue is if we are in a stressful situation (and this includes good stress, like socialising, as well as unpleasant stress) it may not be possible for the adrenals to give us the extra boost we need to get through the event without being struck by extreme fatigue. Hence the need for extremely slow tapering at the lowest levels for anyone who has been on pred for any length of time, even if PMR is genuinely in remission.

[DorsetLady PMRGCAuk volunteer]

Have a look at this -

healthunlocked.com/pmrgcauk...

Your adrenals probably are already waking up, but to what degree cannot be said at this moment. The only thing fighting the inflammation your illness is the steroids.

See that 2 months ago you were reducing from 3mg to 2.5mg, and went back to 7mg… how are things now?

[Phoebenooby in reply to DorsetLady]

Not sure if this is for me? I’ve never got down that low…I think i was down to about 6.5 and had a flare and doubled it for a week and have tapered really slowly since then (august) and am now at 5.25mg. Still debating the covid jab! 🙈Thank you

[DorsetLady PMRGCAuk volunteer in reply to DorsetLady]

Apologies -when I looked at a previous post though it said that -either me not fully awake or HU confusing me!

Ahh.. see you replied to someone who was having issues at that dose -oops..

[PMRpro Ambassador]

No - nothing to do with fighting the inflammation really. The adrenal glands do lots of things including producing cortisol, the body's natural corticosteroid, and that is suppressed by taking pred so there isn't even more. Cortisol is involved in regulating inflammation - inflammation isn't always bad and is involved in wound healing. That is the only thing affected really and has to come back as the pred dose is reduced so your body works properly.

Pred is a far more effective antiinflammatory substance than cortisol. That is why it is used.

[SnazzyD]

No, the reason we have Pred it because it is way way more potent and wide reaching than our own natural cortisol. Inflammation of PMR/GCA needs an anti inflammatory that is very strong, the hammer to crack a nut.