When do prednisone side effects stop?

Hey all,

Right now I am at 30MG prednisone and tapering down 5mg a week. When can I stop the side effects to stop? Last time they really slowed down around 20 and stopped around 15 but I was going up and down for around 7 months so it is a much different experience than it has been during this course on prednisone.

my side effects are still here from being off it since mid november. i think it depends how severe your side effects were from it. mine were really bad so my body is still trying to adjust.

My first round (June-August), many of the side-effects disappeared pretty quickly, with the moon-face taking the longest. My second round (September-December), I had even more side-effects than the first time, and they took longer to go... but each side-effect died out at a different time, which makes it an impossible question to answer. The irregular heartbeat went away when I got down to around 15mgs, but the acne stayed with me until a couple months after I was off my last dose, and then there was everything in between. My hair is just starting to grow back.

What was almost worse than the side-effects, though, was that after being on it for so long, when I got down to the really low doses and especially after I finished my last dose, I had really bad withdrawal symptoms, which were completely different effects altogehter: extremely lethargic, dizzy/light-headed, very shaky, and major hair-loss (about half the hair on my head).

After that last round, I swore to myself that I would never go back on it. Unfortunately, I don't seem to have a choice in the matter... I just started it up again for the third time this year, and I'm afraid of what will happen this time around.

Bottom line: Prednisone sucks, but you should expect to be clear of all the side-effects & withdrawals within two to three months after your last dose.

Haha, this thread inspired me to write a blog about it. Anyone who's interested in hearing my story (and successes) with UC, prednisone, and Imuran, check me out at ronnielee-fightingforit.blogspot.com.

I agree with notsosicklygirl that pred's sides are very individual. Everyone's body chem is diff and therefore any chemicals you put in have diff reactions. As long as you don't have the 'betes or liver issues, sides should pass on its own.. or so says the docs. Well, that's not good enough for me, I want that crap out asap and I dont like it hangin around.

Here's the skinny on pred from my personal experiences: Pred is a precursor n isn't active until betahydroxyblahblah turns it into prednisolone (sp?) in the liver. So That's where I feel it needs the most attention. I posted something about milk thistle on a milk thistle post here last night and this is why I take milk thistle now. Mostly anyway. It targets the liver. Get the standardized stuff.

I hate pred and take it as rarely as poss so the day after my last pill I start getting pred out of me. 2 pills milkyT in am, pm and a gal of room temp distilled h20. Distilled bc it has low water memory and is devoid of blah blah and is great for stripping out toxins too. Often it will yellow out your urine like a b12 shot. normal.

Caution: I take x2 the dose of a liquid multi (yay more yellow pee) when doing this for a week or so bc you dont want to overstrip the good stuff. Also I drink pounds of raw carrots thru my juicer during flares and raw carrot juice has tons of the best Ca in it for osteoporosis help. That osteo mess is perm so I dont play around. I feel raw carrot juice is the best thing you can take during flares in conjunction with a liquid amino and coco oil. Just my opinion. Do your own research on it, or ask me, and you will be doing it too. I still drink it often but I'm lazier in this department when not flaring.

Peace and Love

The worst side effect I had was "steroid psychosis" and it occurred well after I tapered.

Did you have hair loss? If so how long did that take to stop?

I agree, its very individual. Also, I think it depends how long you were on the Pred.  Last year January when I started Pred, I was only on it about 2 1/2 months. The side effects, including moon face and any extra fat disappeared pretty quickly once I got down under 10mg.  Also the side effects weren't too bad except on the really high dose (above 20mg).  But I did start shedding hair back then and it never stopped until I had to go back on the Pred a month after being off (for me I lose almost no hair, barely a strand, when on 12.5mg or above of Pred. Below that it comes out like mad until its all out of my body). 

So this time, being back on Pred since last May (I was almost off in November though), the effects seem to be taking longer to go away. I'm also tapering very, very slowly right now so the effects of the taper don't see as severe this time.  The hair shedding is happening now but not as extreme when I have a faster taper. Although I'm just down to 10mg now so we'll see if it picks up. I hope not as its very thin already.

 

Well, they stop almost (obviously not jnstant,y since you have to taper pred for the adrenals to carry the slack again) right away the jnstant one switches to uceris because the latter drug more or less has the local colon benefit of 40 mg pred with the systemic effect of 5 or maybe 2.5 mg pred (whichs to say phsyiologic dose)- I say that because I am just eight days into uceris and it has had that sort of effect on symptoms while having zero nada zip effect on face, joints, insomnia etc. wish that drug was around years ago because it would have meant negligable impact from countless quick spurts for flares- however it still isnt technically a maintenance drug. i honestly think if they made it in smaller doses that it could for all practical purposes be, though.

The fact that uceris has no tapering regimen whatsoever and that one is allowed to go cold turkey to zero on it when done, says it all re. Just how non systemic itis, even if technically it has skme tiny systemic effect.

Post Edited (Probiotic) : 3/22/2013 12:03:14 AM (GMT-6)