Treating Rheumatoid Arthritis with Prednisone

Prednisone is a steroid that is commonly prescribed to treat a variety of conditions. It primarily acts as an anti-inflammatory, which also works by impairing your immune system. It has been prescribed to treat asthma, allergic conditions, certain types of arthritis, among other things. For symptom management in patients that are suffering from Rheumatoid Arthritis, Prednisone is currently the most commonly prescribed medicine.

Medications that actively fight Rheumatoid Arthritis are classified under the term disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs – sometimes shortened to DMARDs. A typical treatment plan for rheumatoid arthritis will typically involve both symptom management and disease treatment. This means that you will likely be prescribed Prednisone in addition to some other type of medication in order to treat your rheumatoid arthritis. For rheumatoid arthritis patients Prednisone is often prescribed in lower dosages as it can have some unpleasant side effects if it is used at a high dosage over long periods of time.

Here are some commonly asked questions about using Prednisone to treat arthritis:

What is the typical dosage?

Although this will depend on the doctor and the individual, an average dosage is 5 to 10 mg per day. Some patients need as high as 70 mg per day, and other patients sometimes need a higher dosage but go back to a lower dosage schedule. The lowest possible dosage that will help your symptoms is what doctors will be looking for, so some trial and error might be involved at the beginning of your treatment.

How long will I need to use Prednisone?

Ideally, Prednisone is used as a bridge between treatment. It is prescribed to temporarily treat symptoms until other medications can start working. However, other times this does not work, and patients continue to use Prednisone for months or years.

Is Prednisone well tolerated?

Like most drugs, Prednisone is not without its side effects. Side effects become more likely, and more severe, the higher the dosage and the longer the duration of treatment. This is why Prednisone is ideally used as a bridge medication. Many people choose to use Prednisone despite its side effects, but many people are not happy about having to do so. If you have other medications that are handling your symptoms well, stick to them.

If you have Rheumatoid Arthritis, symptom management is important. You must often get the pain under control before you can begin any type of physical therapy. Therefore, while Prednisone certainly has its place, it is not something that should be relied on for a cure.

Arthritis is Not Caused By Old Age

Ray was an old style businessman. In these times of worker smarter, Ray created his business through a lot of extremely demanding work. Like many men, he had not paid much attention to his health but now as he was in his late 50s many aches and pains just weren´t going away. A visit to his local doctor resulted in a referral to an orthopaedic specialist.

The news was not good. “You have severe osteoarthritis in your right hip. You will need to go on some anti-inflammatory medication and you will probably need to have a hip replacement by the years end.”

It all came as a huge shock to Ray. He was stammering a bit,trying to make sense of how this could have happened.

“How did I get this?” he asked.

The specialist replied in a rather dismissive way, ” Unfortunately it is just one of those things that happen to us when we get older. It is quite common for your age.”

Ray was not happy. He was not happy with the manner that the specialist spoke to him and he was not at all happy to be labeled as old. He was determined to give the doctor a piece of his mind when a thought came to him.

“Hey,” he said. “Do I have any arthritis in my left hip? “he asked.

“The scans show that you left hip is clear of any arthritis,” replied the specialist.

“If arthritis is caused by old age, how come I have no arthritis in my left hip. It´s the same age?”

You may be wondering what actually causes arthritis?

Arthritis is the degeneration of joints as a result of three common scenarios:

Arthritis Cause No.1: After they have been damaged by injury or trauma

Particularly severe injury that physically damages a joint beyond its capacity to repair itself will inevitably result in some arthritic changes. It is very difficult if not impossible to prevent arthritic change in this instance. However the amount of arthritic change can be limited by addressing the following two areas.

Arthritis Cause No.2:

Excessive load being placed on them due to poor alignment or poor posture

Car tires can wear out unevenly and prematurely due to poor alignment and so can the joints in your body. When you have an upright and balanced posture your body weight is evenly distributed throughout your body. However, poor posture and alignment causes the weight to be unevenly distributed with some areas getting off lightly and other areas getting worn out by the excessive load.

Arthritis Cause No.3:Lack of flexibility resulting from a lack of use

If you only use joints in a limited manner in which you do not routinely exercise your joints to their full range of motion, the lack of movement will limit the amount of nutrition to the joints. This effectively begins to starve the joint surfaces of the necessary ingredients required to be able to maintain a healthy joint. It backs up the old adage, “If you don´t use it, you lose it.”