adrenals

Good question Karen!

I'm down to 1 mg, but still have days I'm extremely tired and sometimes my sleep not so great.  I'm not stressed, I'm working really hard to not be. 

I tried to look up how long till our body goes back to normal, one site said we need to include cholesterol type foods to help adrenal glands, interesting, so I happily eat bacon and butter and egg yokes.  

I had stayed at 6mg for about 4 months. I still had better days and tired days.

So, I'm not sure how long it takes to get our body to balance again. I'd imagine we are all different too. I wonder if I "wore" out my addrenals when I got PMR because I was seriously stressing out over family crap and other stuff and had food poisoning during all that...my poor body. ;( 

I try to be careful with caffeine, sugar, fruit, I have small amounts but even those sometimes affects me with kind of an anxious feeling. Must balance with healthy fats and protein. Sometimes that's hard. 

Hope someone has a good answer. 

The adrenal glands are part of a set-up in the body that produces all sorts of substances that are essential to life. It is called the HPA axis and comprises the hypothalamus, the pituitary, the adrenals and the thyroid is also involved. The adrenals themselves produce a corticosteroid called cortisol - via adrenaline. While you are taking an artificial corticosteroid, which prednisolone and prednisone are, at above about 7mg (but it varies from person to person) your body registers that there is enough circulating in the body and doesn't make any more - just like your central heating boiler knows from the thermostat that the room is warm enough and doesn't create more heat. 

As you reduce the dose eventually, somewhere under 10mg, you are no longer taking in more than you need so your body should start to produce enough to bring it up to the right amount. But it is a very complicated process and lots of substances are involved - and like everything where several people have to agree - it swings around a bit as it sorts itself out. But it doesn't come back all at once - as the dose of pred gets lower, so your body has to make more to keep the total amount at about the "physiological level" as it is called. Too much is also not good - that's what causes the symptoms we get as side-effects of taking pred.

For some people the process is quite straightforward and, especially if they reduce slowly enough, it all goes well. For others it is a bit more fraught and some doctors like to keep people at about 5mg for several months to let the body catch up. At this stage you are always getting some pred so things are usually OK, although you may feel more tired than you did due to the PMR - and that is usually a sign to slow down. 

If you are in a very stressful situation this can cause problems - you need extra cortisol to deal with it. It doesn't matter whether it is physical, emotional or traumatic stress - you can become quite ill. It can also happen at higher doses of pred but the lower levels are more difficult. That is why patients on long term pred are told to carry a card or medicalert bracelet that tells healthcare professionals that you have been taking pred for a long time so they know what may be wrong if you are taken ill. This situation doesn't stop as soon as you finally get off pred - it can take a year, sometimes even longer, to get back to normal. The longer you were on pred, the longer it takes usually.

You will find all sorts of stuff on the internet about this idea that they can become fatigued and how to make your adrenal glands work again/better. The majority of it is woo - honestly - and is a made-up "condition".

I googled "scientific medicine adrenal function" and the best links that came up were from sciencebasedmedicine, hormonedotorg and medicalnewstoday. All are written in easy to understand language and are far quicker for me to tell you than if I wrote the same - which I would. 

Does this answer your question? If not, tell me what you still don't get and I'll try again.

Since we are discussing the Adrenal Glands...I read this morning that the recyclable #7 plastic bottles, containers are a concern for chemical leaching into food & drink. They are made using BPA & are not standardized. BPA is a Xenoestrogen which is a known Endoctrine Disruptor. the Adrenals & much more are part of the Endoctrine System. I have been using a double-sided  #7 cup to keep my water cool all day. Not going to use that any more. Gosh, we don't need any more things playing against our health!