I am tapering off the prednisone, after about 6 years of being on it. gaining about 60 pounds. And now adrenaline problems that are causing rapid and irregular heart beat. Including high blood pressure. Now I am on medication to control the adrenaline problem, the prednisone really messed me up.

hello....read your question while researching my own health concerns about addision's disease....my mom developed colitis bad suddenly and ended up on prednisone for 15 years...they could never get her off of in...constantly she tried....she developed diabetes and arthritis and eventually had all of her knuckles replaced surgically....finally after 15 years of misery they put her on methotrexate the arthritis drug....and it flared up her colitis so bad she finally decided to have her large bowel removed and go with the "bag" and get to live some kind of more normal life than what the methotrexate provided....uncontrollable diarrhea....but she caught a super bug from improperly cleaned operating equipment and died a long cruel death in intensive care after months of alternating between comas and unbearable pain which no drug they could come up with could help....my advice is to go to a naturopathic doctor as soon as u can find one and get off the prednisone.....it is a killer if u ask me....:(((...but its interesting because i found your question researching addison's disease because i also have crohns and 3 other autoimmune diseases and now think that i have always had addison's disease and that it runs in my mother's family and that she herself actually had addison's as the underlying cause of all her illness and my own.....and there i find your question about tapering off prednisone like mom always was trying to do but couldnt.....perhaps your husband also has addison's and that is why he cant cut down?....i know no one could figure out why she couldnt cut down so it might be the reason.....myself i have been having what i think are addison crisis and went to a good naturopath and she could tell right away that my adrenals are not functioning and put me on and adrenal support supplement...i urge your husband to check into it....good luck and let me know how if goes:))))kat

hi there. i am a 26-year old woman. i have had autoimmune arthritis symptoms for about 2 years and just got finished tapering off prednisone. i was lucky--i was only on steroids for about 10 months, and the only significant outward side effects were very bad acne and a shortened menstrual cycle, but steroids really do a number on your body chemistry. i also am on methotrexate and humira, which have my symptoms 90%. here are some suggestions which greatly eased my tapering off. One is to try to stabilize blood sugar and feed your body well by eating whole foods, and especially by not drinking soda/alcohol or eating too much refined sugar. Another is to cut down stress as much as possible and to spend time in the sun to increase natural vitamin D. Finally, accupuncture and massage are great--not for RA symptoms, but to facilitate the recovery of the kidney-adrenal complex. Accupuncture is great for that. Through this difficult period in my life, I have come to realize that there is too much of a dichotomy between holistic and western medical approaches. One approach really can and does support the other, and if you commit to both approaches in good faith, they can and will enhance each-others' effectiveness. Your husband already has a tremendous asset in you, a loving and supportive partner. All the best of luck!

Where do I start! I have never commented on any of these sites before, but I felt I had to this time. There are alot of you having problems with this drug, which for me was the start of the root of all evil!  I was finally diag. with lupus fifteen years ago, which I had for about ten years before that. I went to the Cleveland Clinic and got lucky and got a dr. which did all the right tests and my ANA was positive. Was put on prednisone, felt and did better for a while. Had to take Methotrexate also for all the horrible pain from thr RArthritis. I was on prednisone for over ten years. Terrible weight gain, couldn't sleep, terible pain, flu like symptoms every other week, fevers, night sweats, sore thoat, earache, raw tongue,terrible tiredness, sometimes having to stay in bed for weeks at a time. Moon face, and what they now call buffalo hump, a hump on the back of my neck, between my lower neck and upper back. Finally after these ten years of never getting better but worse the dr. said it was time to come off the prednisone, so I started following his schedule of every week cutting a little. It took about three months, and I definetly felt worse all the time, but I stuck it out, only in the first week of being off all of it, I remember sitting in a rocking chair and not being able to rock or even get up from the chair without the help of my husband, and even then I could barely walk. On the fourth day of feeling like that we went to the dr.s and they ran blood tests and sent me home to "rest". The next day I recieved a phone call from the dr.s office to send my husband to the pharmacy to pick up a perscription right away, it was ready and waiting ther for me, and for me to take it immed!!  Then they would call me back. It was for hydrocortisone, 20mg, two times a day. As soon as I took it in a half and hour later I started feeling like I was alive again. Sure enough, the dr.s office called and said that my adreanal glands had stopped producing, and the hydrocortisone would take over for it. I was acutally sitting there, at fifty years of age and was slowly dyeing!! Your adreanal gland once it quits working, never comes back!!!!! I got that information from the best doctors alive. All the rest will tell you to try this or that , none of it works!!!!!!!!! I am still on the hydrocortisone, have been for six years now, twice a day. As long as I take it I am ok, and I don't have to worry about forgetting to take it, because my body lets me know, I get really tired and can barely move. If I have surgery, I have to tell them that I am adreanal gland defecient, and they have to give it to me in an IV with my surgery or I can't even lift my head off the pillow, or get out of bed without passing out!! I still have the lupus, always will. also have severe fibromyalgia, so I have all the bones and organ damage from the lupus, along now with the muscle and nerve damage for the fibro. But let me tell you even though every day living with this pain, I will never go back on the prednisone!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It led to everything bad that is wrong with me today. It ruined my life, and I feel so sorry for anyone who ever goes on it. Pain believe me when I tell you is terrible, but you can get though it other ways. Go to a good pain clinic, a good one, with dr.s that care and take the time to listen to you. and don't try to shove a bunch of pills at you, but offer you some real treatment. I have had both of my knees totaly replaced, the last two years, and they are now working on my spine to get me to be able to walk without so much pain, so far I have one more surgery to go thru on Wednesday, then the implantable spinal cord stimulator, which blocks the pain to the brain, and then we will see, but I have already had  two days in the last month that I was able to walk in a store, get what I need and checkout and made it home, first time in over two years!! So I had given up and now there is hope, for now, so if there is for me there is for you, don't give up. It really does make us stronger~