Has anyone tried taking Ibupropen for the inflammation instead of the Devil Drug???? How about Curamed with curcumin/tumeric herbal supp.?

[trexjo54]

I am a 6 mo Pmr sufferer. How did this happen to me??? I do not fit the profile !!! I am a physically active 58 year old male of Hispanic/Mexican heritage, I guess on my Mother's side they originated from Spain. Time for a DNA test, ha,ha.....

[Hidden]

Yes me! Try Pantothenic Acid (B5) too...

[Hidden]

Hi Trexjo,

Yes is the answer to you question. Befere I was diagnosed with PMR, I was taking full dose of Ibuprofen 3 times a day. It got rid of the pain and stiffness mostly, but after a few months on it, I woke up one morning and could hardly move. I could no longer sit up and eventually rolled out of bed on to the floor and cried for help! Rescued by my partner and off to GP the same day.

She suspected PMR, even though my bloods showed no results positive. Put on 30mg pred straight away - all pain and stiffness gone in 3 hours. After a year I had a flare with bad headaches and was put on 30mg again. Same response and after another year I am now on 9.5mg and battling to get down, but feeling pretty good.

I hated this drug ------- but since I have come down to the lower doses, beneath 10mg, I am realising that it might be able to put PMR back to sleep, maybe forever and side effects almost gone.

This 'devil drug', as you and many of us might describe it, is unique in it's ability to subdue inflamation. Nothing compares, but it takes it's toll and we that take it have to be prepared for a battle. Don't give it an inch - no extra sugar, cut right down on refined carbs and leave that salt pot alone. After all, we don't want diabetes or high blood pressure, do we?

Many folks cannot tolerate the awful side effects of pred at the higher doses. We all know them well, weight gain in all the wrong places, big fat face that is often bright red, feeling really hyper and letting every one know it. And the dreams, well that word doesn't really describe what goes on when we eventually doze off, does it? Nightmares, with Ridley Scott directing were my experiences. 3 hours of hell before I woke up.

All I can say is this, the side effects diminish as the doses are reduced.

Back to your question about Ibuprofen. It's a good NSAID, but taken long term it can cause kidney damage and also damage to the stomach. Also, it cannot compete with prednisolone in the battle with certain inflamitory illnesses.

Pred has been proved to ward off the risk of developing GCA.

Quite a few of our members fight PMR with alternative medications and seem to be successful, but the diets they follow seem to be much stricter than if they were on pred.

I take suppliments along with pred, multivits, OEP, calcium, glucosamine and a few more. I seem to be getting on well after 2 years on this drug and my health has definately improved - energy levels well up!

Pats.

[trexjo54 in reply to Hidden]

Thanks Pats!!! I am also fighting gout at the same time!!! I have changed many dietary items. Even so, I can't stop the redness in my big toe waiting to explode. I take allopurinol to alleviate the uric acid but so far my dosage keeps going up. I amm so stressed because I had a flare of pmr when I I hit 10 mg. Back up to 20 but keep having severe pain when I attempt to do anything physical. MY BACK feels like I broke it!!! Good news is that I see the Rheumy tomorrow, hopefully she will help. I think I may take a pr

escription pain killer so I can sleep. Don't want to so maybe I'll just struggle through until tomorrow.... Thanks for listening......Best of luck to you in your recovery..... Trexjo...

[Celtic PMRGCAuk volunteer]

Hi Trexjo

Yes, I took Ibuprofen and Paracetamol for about 8 months during my first undiagnosed year. I never take pills of any sort without a real internal fight but I was bedbound and travelling to my hospital rheumy appointments by ambulance and wheelchair and desperately needed something to get me through the journeys, but I took the smallest dose possible.

Towards the end of that first year when all the pain was eventually resolving, a blood test revealed that I was suffering from reduced kidney function on my sole kidney and obviously I wondered whether the Ibuprofen was to blame.

Because I hadn't been diagnosed and treated with steroids, my recovery was short-lived and all the symptoms of what we now discovered was PMR plus those of GCA returned with a vengeance. I had no choice but to take high dose steroids because my eyesight was at risk. They became my best friend and my worst enemy but never a day goes by that I feel grateful that they existed and got me out of a wheelchair and saved my sight (I am now in remission and off steroids).

Turmeric can be helpful, as can many other anti inflammatory foods (oily fish in particular) as far as easing the pain of severe PMR is concerned, BUT the steroid route is at the moment the only really proven way to get control of the inflammation that is causing the pain. Untreated, that inflammation can leave the way open for many other nasty and worse invaders to attack our bodies.