AutoImmune Anti-Inflammatory Diet for PMR

There are a few members who have begun strict diet protocols and I'm sure there will be one of those along soon.

I stick to a mainly Mediterranean diet and cut carbs where I can.  I lost the first 2 stones of the 3 I picked up fairly quickly but the last stone is still there.

To put this into perspective, I have been on steroids for 16 years in varying doses and I think that last stone is a lost cause!

Avoiding carbs as much as possible has helped a lot of people on all the forums avoid/minimise weight gain and even lose weight while still on pred.

I gained a lot of weight due to PMR itself - 5 years of restricted activity and comfort eating towards the end of those years when I was practically housebound due to pain and having been told not to drive for another reason. With the pred it rearranged itself to the usual places and with a different steroid I gained more weight in about 5 months. On being switched to yet another form of steroid and starting a strict low carb diet I lost weight steadily, albeit slowly, and finally had lost 36lbs, all the pred weight and more.

Like Nefret, there is a stubborn 5kg I'd like to lose that won't go - but hey ho, that's life. I've had PMR for 13 years and been on pred for 8 - but I have weighed more than I do now whilst NOT on pred. I also use a Mediterranean low carb approach.

Many people have omitted/added foods to their diet - and the low carb approach is one version. Sugar is very pro-inflammatory so cutting it and simple carbs makes a lot of sense anyway. It also helps avoid developing steroid-induced diabetes and the weight gain - I posted a long explanation on one of the recent threads. 

Depending on what other medication you are on, turmeric, ginger and garlic are available as supplements and are probably useful in cooking for anyone as anti-inflammatory substances. Oily fish is also beneficial. One lady on the forum used them and swears she could tell the difference when she missed them for any reason.

One lady did try the AIM (I think) diet and found it helped - but found it too restricting to be able to manage it long term so I would count that as a fail overall! That is the main point - it HAS to be an approach you personally can stick to for more than a few weeks. In fact this lady is now on different medication - and I suspect the jury is out as to whether it was PMR she had or not.

My approach is kind of ad hoc.  Not following any precribed regimen.  But owing to risk of diabetes I cut out virtually all refined carbs, especially wheat, and sugar and still eat very little althoug pred dose now very low.  I had for years had a tbsp of food grade h*** oil every morning and continue this.  I now also have a cup of ginger tea (fresh grated ginger) every evening, have been taking a kelp supplement and recently discovered the aloe which is occasionally recommended as an inflammatory.  I'm a vegetarian.  Would eat more fish but it now seems impossible where I live, ironically on the Atlantic coast,  to find anything (other than smoked mackeral) which isn't either open pen farmed or a product of China or caught unsustainably.  

Hi muddyooh, I am probably going to sound like s wacko, but here goes.

My wife had been suffering from migraines for over 13 years, had to take

the hospital numerous times, they would give her meds intravenously to

Stop the attack. She was visiting a friend, who lent her a book to read, she

read some of the book and to me and said this guy thinks he can stop my

migraines. Some of what he is saying is way out there, what do you think?

Easy, I will start the diet with you stay on it as long as it does not affect my

sugar readings. I have a diabetes for 55 years this July, that I know of. First

diet and exercise, now for a longtime time oral meds. The BS readings have

been adversely effected. Removed all dairy, eggs, grain, meat. Added fruits,

vegetables mostly green leafy, wild caught fish. Guess what my SR went

down, how could this be I was eating sugar, I don't understand this at all. As

My wife read more she discovered that with some additional supplements

the diet could also address autoimmune problems. I am currently using

that diet. I am currently on 30 mg of Prednisone a day, SR are high, but not

as high as last year. My wife's migraines, not one in 49 days. She cannot

believe it and neither can I. I don't think I can say more than that on the

Forum. Good Luck!

alcohol it is a cleansing diet also and to see if it helped with my PMR  lost 15 pounds , well I must say I felt so much better almost no pain at all.  So April ate normal except no longer ate bread or drank soft drinks  and although not a lot of pain there was some that returned  , am now on Day 2 for another 30 days see how that goes .