CBD oil to reduce prednisone

Hi Marla

I started taking CBD Hemp capsules..no THC.   I'm taking 15 mg at night and it definitely seems to be helping.  I'm on 7.5 mg of pred.  I haven't tried reducing yet but will in another week.   My rheumi says to go down 1/2 mg every 2 weeks. I might try every 3 due to the numerous flares I've had over the years.  Diagnosed in 2011😩    From what I've read from another member I might have to up the dose of CBD.   I've never smoked and can't get my head around vaping. My son in law has a prescription and vapes CBD with very low THC for his migraines and he sees a vast improvement.   I live in the states and CBD Hemp oil can be purchased on line as well as in a health food store.  It is a bit pricey .. but if I can off the pred..or at least under 5mg...I'll pay th price. 

Hope this helps!

Hi Marla,

i am using CBD oil to help me decrease my prednisone dose but not in lieu of taking enough prednisone to manage my inflammation.  I think if you are having flares often you might try decreasing more slowly and never decrease before you are feeling well (as can be).  After my last flare I made it back to 5mg and stayed there for 7 months then started to reduce very, very slowly. I have successfully made it to 3.5mg where I had flared twice before and I’m feeling good.  I believe it is the CBD oil that has allowed me to do this especially since stress is my trigger and I have been going through some extremely difficult times with family. 

I hope you are successful in getting down to the 5mg so you can have your surgery but go slowly so you avoid the seesaw with flares.  They seem to get worse and harder to get back in control each time.

Hugs,

Diana🌸

At your dose level even three week intervals between tapers is probably too fast, especially as you describe having had "numerous flares".  Make it at least a month, each .5 reduction, and be aware of any increasing fatigue because that will mean your adrenals need a bit longer to catch up.  I will be interested to learn if your taper proceeds uneventfully with the help of CBD. 

So if you have fatigue, do you stay where you are until your adrenals catch up before reducing further or do you go back up a little for a while and then try to reduce again? Not trying to hack this post, just trying to figure things out. Thank you.

Nope, I think it would be counterproductive to use pred to deal with fatigue as it's the pred which has caused it in the first place.  I just go very slowly both so I don't get a flare of PMR, which happened last year when I tried to go from 1.5 to 1, and also to make sure I don't become ill from lack of cortisol.  But that's just me.  I'm sure others have different ways, and I'm sure people have varying degrees of fatigue, and many maybe no problems at all!  in my case I don't have much stamina, but I don't really get the deathly fatigue very often.  It worries me that I get it at all by now, but there it is.

I stayed a year on 5 mg due to fatigue. It is a low dosage so I thought it was better to feel weell than continue down. After that year I tried to taper one day new dose and two days old dose for about a week. Then I reduced by 0.5 mg. Many others followed that regime and they called it the Ragnar method. Eileen et al later stretched out the tapering period and started the DSNS method which seems to work very well for many.

I am soon 81 and have been off pred for almost 10 years. Fortunately no flares. I used pred for 3 1/2 years including the year on 5 mg.

Good luck to all from Ragnar

Makes sense, thank you!

ill be at 3 years in September, no end in sight.  Thank you for your thoughtful words...I'm thinking staying at 5 is the way to go.

whoops.  Can't count.  2 years!  (Blame it on pred head!)

And we are all eternally grateful to you for figuring out how to taper successfully!  Unfortunately on pred I developed increased ocular pressure, high blood sugar (controlled by a very strict diet which sadly has prevented my regaining lost weight), possibly bone thinning (corrected though diet and exercise) and a tendency to be easily injured, rotator cuff, that kind of thing.  I think I would be worse off if I had stayed at 5 for a long time.  At the moment I'm hanging around the 1.5 - 2 level.  

i have been on 10mg of prednisone for 3 years. i am tapering 1 mg every 3 weeks. I'm now at 7 mg daily. i started taking full spectrum cbd oil 6 weeks ago. i take 12.5 mg of cbd 3 x per day. it has really helped me. it takes a few weeks to feel any effect. i use LAZURUS full stength and since i am on disability the company gives a 60% DISCOUNT. A 6000mg bottle cost me $80.00 and will last 4 months.

Hi Mike, (and all) It's been a while since I've posted. Life has been an up and down journey for me recently. I'm currently back down to 6 ½ mg Pred having had PMR now for over 2 years. Since my last posting, I've had several flares due to the stress of my father-in-law's heart attack, subsequent kidney failure, and eventual passing just before Christmas.

I finally got back in touch with hand surgeon #2 and got a song and pony show of different diagnosis and prognosis than the first visit. I found another hand surgeon, and now because there has been so much time since the tendon rupture he suggests not doing the surgery. My right arm ulna head has some osteoarthritis. The rough calcification severed one of the two tendons on my little finger, the small extensor tendon. This new surgeon doesn't think I'd gain more extension (lifting my little finger, right hand, above horizontal) than I have (which is none). I agree with him, that flexion (gripping) is more important. So I will live with it. He will go in later to scrape the ulnar head so it doesn't abraid the other tendons.

Using the new full spectrum CBD oil I purchased, (25 mg/0.5ml per day), is so horrible tasting, that I'm researching gel capsules for liquids to fill for dosing, instead of putting the drops on the back of my tongue. I also found that taking it with food helps with stomach reflux, and retasting the CBD oil. Once I finish with this bottle, I'm going back to vaping it. My Firefly 2 is an awesome vape (it heats, doesn't burn the flower. You inhale vapor not smoke, I've never coughed using it). The CBD flower I get from the dispensary is grown for no THC. I get no after-effects from vaping CBD, like I do with the oil. Some folks don't mind the flavor of the oil, but I basically gag on it, because of its high percentage (1,500 mg per 30ml bottle) of plant extracts.

Does it work? Yes, if you can build up your system to it (takes about 3 weeks, daily dosing). I just prefer to vape it instead. Hemp is Cannabis. It's the plants' Genus, split into a variety of Species. All strains and varieties of THC plants are mixed CBD, CBN, CBC, CBG and others in a low percentage. I found if I vape a mix of Hemp (CBD) to THC in a 60:40 ratio, I get NO high from it. This happens because of what is called the entourage effect, the brain associates with both cannabinoid sites, CB1 and CB2. These sites are also located thru-out the body. It's the entourage effect that negates the high, as long as you calculate the percentages of each flower type and mix what works for you. Each person is different, just like with Prednisone, and how it's assimilated in our bodies.

The science of this interaction is what I have been studying for the last 2 years while vaping Medical Cannabis (I have a medical card from my State Massachusetts, USA). The difference is medical cannabis undergoes testing for purity, potency, % of a few other cannabinoids (listed above). This makes medical cannabis more expensive, but safer than "street" Cannabis. There are actually over 85 different cannabinoids the Cannabis plant provides. It's a huge topic, and far to complex to go into here. But suffice it to say, vaping mixed CBD:THC works better for me than straight CBD.

Hope this helps. Good luck on your journey!

thanks for sharing. it is only 1 month that i hv been on pred . i suffered for almost 3 months before it got so bad that I went to my internist Thought I was dying-

what a miracle drug after 1 day on pred i thought i cld run a marathon

i now spend so much time reading abt pmr

pred and other options not much else out there