I've recently been diagnosed with PMR and like most people don't look forward to long term prednisone use. There are all sorts of alternative therapy's out there and I'm sure most have been tried. A doctor told me about using low dosage Naltrexone as an alternative anti inflammatory especially after the prednisone dosages have been lowered to 10 mg or below daily. Has anyone heard of this and if so has there been any success? Thanks, MM
http://www.lowdosenaltrexone.org/ldn_and_ai.htm
mmcgett,
above is the website to read all about LDN.
I do know two people who have tried it and whilst it did no harm and it seemed to work for a while in one case, but did not have any effect on the other.
No harm in trying, but wait till you are down below 10mg and preferably 5mg.
Use the topic search as it was discussed on this site a while ago.
mrs UK, Thanks for the information. Think I'll stick with presnisone especially if I can quickly get to that 5 mg level. My problem has been that it only attacked me in the lower back and one leg and especially in the right knee. It took 30 days of high dosage (40 + mg) prednisone to stop the excruciating pain in my tendons muscles and right knee. Once the pain was controlled, I've been able to reduced to 20 mg/day in two weeks and with luck 17 mg next week. Thanks again. MM
Hello all
It has been awhile since I posted on this site.I have had PMR for about 2 1/2 years now and have been able to taper my Pred to 11mg's from over 60mg. I would love nothing more then to get off the pred but living with the pain is a worse alternative. Over the last few years it has been a bit of a rollercoaster, in that as I get feeling better I want to reduce my pred faster and then the pain comes back. I then decide to tough it out for awhile before kicking up the pred for a short period. I have tryed several regiments including Radnars. Radnars seems to work the best if I stick to it. The balance between when to stick it out and uping the Pred is tricky. I still have a problem with this. In fact the reason I tuned into this site again was to read and remind me to stay the course. I am currently at that point where the pain level is either going to get better in the next few days or I am going to kick the pred back up to 12 for a few days.
The question for those with more experience with PMR is.....I normally have my worse pain a few weeks after I start a taper, but this time I have been at 11mg for over 5 weeks and bam I feel like I got hit by a truck. Arms,Legs Feet, and Neck hurt. Could this be the Pmr coming back, or just a different way my body is reacting to the taper.
Sorry for the rambling, but I think my wife is getting tired of my complainting about my aches and pains.
Best Regards to all
Craig
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