Re: Prednisone Withdrawal, Need Advice (kind of long) -- Steroid Warning Network

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Date Posted: 19:43:46 07/06/07 Fri
Author: Susan
Subject: Re: Prednisone Withdrawal, Need Advice (kind of long)
In reply to: Karen 's message, "Re: Prednisone Withdrawal, Need Advice (kind of long)" on 11:05:02 06/28/07 Thu

>Rosa:
>
>We all understand what you are going through. Ivy has
>helped me a lot. I take medrol which is the same as
>prednisone but a little stronger so 4 mgs or medrol =
>5 mgs prednisone. I started out on 24 mgs. of medrol
>last May 2006. I was on that dose until Jan. 2007
>when I started to wean. I have a lung disease that is
>not being helped right now by steriods so my doc wants
>me off of them too. I did okay with weaning until I
>hit 8mgs medrol (equal to 10mgs pred.) I was sick for
>over 4 weeks. I was nauseated, headachy, very
>fatigued, I had 2 periods in one month, and I was
>weepy and depressed. I just dropped to 7mgs of medrol
>last week and so far have had very little problems. I
>don't know whether my adrenals finally kicked in or
>what, but this drop has not been so hard for me. I am
>scheduled to drop another 1 mg on Monday, so we will
>see how that goes. One thing that I am doing
>different than what I have heard others do is that I
>am taking Cortef (hydrocortisone) the first few days
>of my wean. I take 2.5mg at 7am and 2.5 mg around 2-3
>pm when the adrenals are active. It seemed to work
>well. I only take it when I don't feel right. I
>haven't taken any Cortef in the last 2 days and feel
>okay. I see a DO who does alternative medicine and he
>told me that the Cortef helps boost the adrenals when
>weaning from prednisone or medrol. He says it works
>differently and helps adrenal cortex. I thought he
>was crazy, but I think it has really helped me. Once
>again, he is an alternative doc and most of the main
>stream docs might not agree with him. It's worth a
>try though. It has helped me so far. Just a thought
>for you!
>
>I wish you the best and will send prayers your way!
>
>Karen

Karen, I don't believe that Cortef boosts adrenals, it just doesn't suppress them as strongly as the more potent synthetic steroids do.

Any replacement hormone suppresses your body's production of its own cortisol.

I do think the Cortef is a very good idea. Also, adrenal insufficiency often causes salt retention and potassium loss, resulting in muscle spasms; potassium found in a salt substitute (if you have no contraindications) can help a lot; got rid of all my huge spasms.

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