No appetite and RA | Arthritis Information

 

Has anyone of you experienced extreme lack of appetite with your RA? This is ridiculous. I am NEVER hungry and NOTHING sounds good, except coffee. I wish I had that problem.  Hypothyroid...big appetite...RA...big appetite.  That's why my biggest fear was how it would affect exercise, so far so good.

TheLa2008-03-08 06:54:33Geeze, why couldn't I have that problem?  I don't mean to make light of your post.  Losing weight when you don't want to is no joke.  I'll be interested to see how many people share your symptom.  Hi I know Jess and Thela..my sister says the same thing, so I want to be as sensitive as possible. I would love to pass it on to one of you, but I know how frustrating it is to lose weight too..it sucks. I am down to 113 pounds now and I am 5'5. It is not good and gosh how I used to love to enjoy Cici's...how crazy does that make me? LOL. My son took me yesterday and it did nothing for me. I was diagnosed with hypothyroid about 10 years ago and it is stable, as far as I can tell, so I don't think that is what is causing the reaction..I just can't put my finger on it. My husband said to get a prescription for marijuana..that should fix it...he is looney! Hi Schell, I loose weight when my RA is active. My doctor can tell by my weight chart how I'm doing. I'm 5'4" and my weight swings from 110 to 135. I've been doing great for the past two years and my weight is at my max. Hate the weight gain....but I am feeling better. I also lose my appetite when I flare.  I can't eat either.  Then, when I add the burst-and-taper of prednisone, I get to feeling so great and I'm so active, I continue to lose weight until I'm off the prednisone. I had that problem about 20 months ago. I decided (without consulting my RD) to quit taking MTX because I couldn't stand the way it made me feel. After about a month I noticed that I had no appetite, and lost 25 pounds, most of it muscle, in less than 3 months. I'm a pretty skinny guy to begin with, and looked like a bag of bones. I was also peeing constantly, especially at night ... almost hourly. I went to see my Rheumy, who royally chewed my butt out for stopping the MTX without asking him first. He told me that my adrenal glands were barely functioning because of my RA, which was causing the weight loss and constant trips to the bathroom. He put me on 20mg of Prednisone, which returned my appetite almost immediately. He also put me on Humira and told me to start taking MTX again (7.5 mg, which seems to produce no nasty side effects at all). I gained back all my weight in 6 months, and have a perfectly normal appetite now.

If your weight loss is accompanied by having to go to the bathroom constantly, please see your doctor. My RD told me I'd have been in big trouble if I'd have waited another couple of months.
treefrog0012008-03-08 10:02:24tree frog..thank you! I get up a lot at night to go to the bathroom. I am taking prednisone now, and it still hasn't come back (appetite) but I will go see him this week and find out about that. ThanksYes, and had three bad wasting episodes.  Got down to 102 lbs. right before finally being diagnosed and I am a small woman to start.  Up until then it was "depression" causing me to lose 30 lbs in a month, geez.  Good luck ~~ CathyI've lost 43lbs since Nov. In Oct. I had a partial hysterectomy, started tapering pred and switched from neurontin to Lyrica. I'm not sure which of those caused my lack of appetite and weight loss. I know it's not healthy, but I am not hungry. I crave cafe mochas which is my daily treat. I get a lg and nurse it all day. I eat a 1/2 banana in the morning so i can take my meds and I cook dinner for the family and eat a token amount to keep hubby from worrying. I had 3 dr appts last week... Tree Frog did you stop MTX or Prednisone without the drs knowlege.  MTX has no affect on the adrenals and can be stopped with no problems...I haven't really had an appetite since mymtx dose went up to 25mg.  I make myself eat because I don't have much room to lose weight either.  If I didn't eat I'd have to give up my cardio and I like that too much. [QUOTE=schell]Has anyone of you experienced extreme lack of appetite with your RA? This is ridiculous. I am NEVER hungry and NOTHING sounds good, except coffee. When I presented I lost 18 lbs. in 2 weeks and was a scrawny thing for the longest time. I could eat to my hearts content and not gain an ounce. [QUOTE=buckeye]Tree Frog did you stop MTX or Prednisone without the drs knowlege.  MTX has no affect on the adrenals and can be stopped with no problems...[/QUOTE]

I quit MTX cold turkey (I was taking 15mg a week, and the side effects were making me miserable), and had been trying to rapidly wean from Prednisone because I was concerned that it was responsible for the drastic increase in my intraocular pressure (possible glaucoma). My doctor suggested that the combination of changes to my meds created a situation where my already overburdened adrenal glands became overwhelmed with trying to deal with the tremendous amount of inflammation caused by my RA, causing me to go into a state of Adrenal insufficiency. Fortunately for me, the Prednisone booster reversed the situation rapidly. The bottom line was that I was really dumb to modify my medication protocol without consulting my Doctor first. Believe me, I'll never do that again.

Thankfully, the combination of Humira and 7.5 mg of MTX that my RD put me on has worked so well to control my RA that I've been able to slowly reduce my Pred dose to 2mg a day with no problems whatsoever. I'll be seeing my Ophthalmologist again in June, and hopefully my eye pressure will have come down. It's strange that I feel no bad effects at all from 7.5 mg of MTX, but 15mg made me feel horrible. I can't imagine taking 25mg of that stuff like some people have to.
treefrog0012008-03-09 07:13:17I lost an easy 25 pounds before I was diagnosed with lymphoma. I was actually happy that I lost the weight--no idea I was so sick.  My appetitie then dropped to zero--I only ate because I knew I needed to do it. And I lost still more weight on the chemo. I was Lympho Chic but it wasn't funny anymore. I've managed to pack on about 20 pounds since then only through grace and concerted effort. I'm still about 15 pounds less than where I was before but it's about right. I don't expect this will get easier with RA, but one needs to maintain a good weight. If you get heavy, your bones and joints are going to bear the burden.

When I was at my worst i went thru weight loss for awhile I went from 244lbs to 192 lbs in less than 4 months my wife and rd was very worried for awhile then they dropped my prednisone down and I went back to normal. so i really dont know for sure it was during an awful flare at the time when the flare was over they changed my prednisone it happened at the same time so i don't know which one it was for sure. But it is an awfulul feeling when you can't eat and the thought of food repulses you. I hope you get over this part quickly good luck hope you have a nice day.

[QUOTE=darrel]

... But it is an awful feeling when you can't eat and the thought of food repulses you ...

[/QUOTE]

It's funny, when I lost my appetite, the mere thought of almost any food, even my favorites, made me nauseous. Once I got my appetite back I started eating completely different things, and abandoned many of my old favorites. When I think of them, it brings back bad memories of the nausea, which doesn't make for much of an appetite stimulant. I used to eat a lot of chicken, but now I can't stand the thought of it.
tree frog that's weird i was the same way with the chicken now i would not eat a piece of chicken unless i was starving ha ha have a nice evening
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