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Low Dose Naltrexone and Prednisone for PMR?
Polymyalgia Rheumatica (PMR) | Last Active: Aug 4 6:29am | Replies (85)Comment receiving replies
I stopped LDN for two weeks to see if it made a difference. It didn't seem to, as when I tapered from 6.5 to 6 I got the usual adjustment pains, no more, no less. I have restarted at 2.2 mg of LDN because it was so good at taming my neuropathy and sciatica. I have read that LDN has helped others get off of prednisone, but not me. It's different for everyone.
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What do you mean by taming your neuropathy and sciatica? I have both of these conditions. I think they are both tame at the moment but I want them to be cured.
The sciatica used to be worse ... more like leg amputation seemed like a good idea to me. I took 60 mg of Prednisone instead of having an emergency lumbar fusion because of severe lumbar spinal stenosis. Taking that much Prednisone to relieve the pain was a bone of contention with rheumatologist. She spent my entire visit looking at the MRI results. She said she understood how much pain I was having but she wouldn't have recommended taking Prednisone. She spent the rest of my time explaining what she would have done instead of taking Prednisone. My response was that I thought I was going to die from just the pain and the surgeon said I wasn't the best candidate for surgery because of long term Prednisone use. I felt taking more prednisone would not do any more harm. My rheumatologist agreed and simply said she was glad Prednisone relieved my radicular leg pain.
My neuopathy seems to be improving. I have had EMGs and nerve conduction studies when the neuropathy was getting worse. I did an EMG when I had the acute onset of radicular leg pain because it caused me to also have foot drop. The EMG said peripheral neuropathy in the peroneal nerve was causing my foot drop. The foot drop wasn't due to the nerve roots exiting my lumbar spine were being crushed as the spine surgeon had feared.
In any case, all of the above is improving except I still have foot drop and severe spinal stenosis. I'm blaming it all on inflammation and/or Prednisone. I'm off Prednisone now and many things are improving.
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Thanks, that's interesting. I'm thinking it may help me with new ailments which have caused pain and problems since a flare a few months back, like Morton's Neuroma in the balls of the feet, making walking painful, and hand pain which used to resolve on prednisone is stubbornly sticking around now. Worth a try if I can persuade my doctor to let me try low dose naltrexone for a few months.