Connect
← Return to Are painful swollen hands and fingers a PMR flare?
Discussion
Are painful swollen hands and fingers a PMR flare?
Polymyalgia Rheumatica (PMR) | Last Active: 2 hours ago | Replies (150)Comment receiving replies
I learned years ago in nursing school that Tylenol was not anti inflammatory but then I read somewhere a couple of years ago that new research showed it did have anti inflammatory properties. All I can say is, at the high dose on the “Tylenol for Arthritis” bottle it most definitely did. Nothing else could explain that result at the time. Oh, and I now live in Plano, TX near Dallas. I have decided to see an Endocrinologist to evaluate both my adrenal situation and my long term use of levothyroxine. My daughter saw one she really felt gave her great information and I will make an appointment with him. It will probably take months to get in though.
Replies to "I learned years ago in nursing school that Tylenol was not anti inflammatory but then I..."
So now I'm really curious ... Why have you been on a 5 mg maintenance dose of prednisone for 12 years? That isn't what rheumatologists want to happen to PMR patients. Most rheumatologists want their patients off Prednisone in a reasonable amount of time --- usually 2 years or less for PMR patients. After 2 years, rheumatologists start trying methotrexate, leflunomide or other medications.
I was given a biologic called Actemra (tocilizumab) because I was unable to taper off prednisone for 12 years after PMR was diagnosed. I needed much more than 10 mg of prednisone most of the time. I usually flared whenever I tapered to 7 mg. My rheumatologist said a 3 mg dose for the rest of my life might be okay. However, he thought I needed too much Prednisone to keep my inflammation in check. That was the main reason why the biologic was tried.
The biologic worked ... I was off Prednisone a year later. I have been Prednisone free for 3 years.
Your mention of taking Tylenol (Panadol/Paracetamol) for swollen painful hands was timely for me. For a week I've had red puffy hands with more pain and was dreading the possibility of rheumatoid arthritis developing on top of PMR.
So I took one OsteoPanadol (modified release, 665mg) at bedtime last night and woke this morning without hand redness or puffiness, for the first time in a week. The pain is back to my PMR ache baseline, not completely gone, but much better. My doctor recommended Osteopanadol but I rarely take it. Maybe I should have listened. I now have another tool to deal with this nasty ailment and will use it without hesitation. The qualifier is that what helps us may not work the same way for others.
Connect
Interesting, you're probably right about the Tylenol. Tylenol is what we call Panadol/Paracetamol in Australia, same thing. It reduced inflammation and edema in rats in a 2015 experiment.
"Evaluating the potential Anti-edema effect of Paracetamol on Sprague-Dawley rats."
"The result showed that there was about 88.46% edema inhibition as compared to the control... a significant decrease in edema and inflammation as well as less tissue congestion in the paracetamol group as compared to the control. From this study, paracetomol has shown a promising result in reducing edema and also exhibited some level of ant-inflammatory properties."
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/284003799_Evaluating_the_potential_Anti-edema_effect_of_Paracetamol_on_Sprague-Dawley_rats