Wellness

[LilacTree]

I've been on low dose prednisone for rheumatoid arthritis for over ten years.  Right now my dosage is 6 mg per day.  I never got the swollen "moon" face even when I was taking higher amounts.  One thing I have always done is avoid any salt and I drink a lot of water.  I don't eat salty prepared foods either.  I never drink sodas of any kind. 

However, let me just warn you that these physical symptoms are not the worst things that prednisone does to an individual.  It has completely destroyed my back and spine to the extent that I have 10 or 11 vertebral compressions, have had to have kyphoplasty surgery on two of them.  That, of course, is because it intensified the osteoporosis I already had, and will start osteoporosis in someone who never had it.  I am in pain from my back issues every single day.  I mean every day, there is never a day I do not have pain.

I also have growths all over my body, all over itching for weeks at a time, various other rashes, and it affects the liver and other bodily organs.  And it's extremely difficult to wean off.  6 mgs is the lowest I can go without getting Mack Truck RA pain.  It's because of these side effects that my advice would be to take it as a last resort.

You don't see these things right away.  Prednisone is a deceiving med in that it relieves the pain so quickly and one thinks it's a miracle . . . but down the road, after years, is a different story.