Has anyone used an anti inflammatory diet to get off prednisone ?

I am a registered dietitian and have eaten an anti-inflammatory diet for a couple of decades now and only contracted a mild case of PMR, which only hurt me at night in bed. It took 4 months to diagnose and I had no inflammatory markers at all. I weaned off of a low dose of prednisone in about a year and haven't had a reoccurence since Dec. 2022. I have posted about my diet multiple times in this forum, so you can do searches and find my previous posts. What I don't like about your doctor's recommended diet is the oats and nightshades part of it. He must be a Dr. Gundry follower, which I would never advise. Here is a debunking of his book: https://nutritionfacts.org/video/dr-gundrys-the-plant-paradox-is-wrong/
As I keep telling my kids, 'Put a rainbow on your plate".

A dietician would be familiar with the standard elimination diet, which is what @michwest appears to be on. Tomatoes and nightshade family plants are among the first to be eliminated, nothing to do with Gundry. And oats are eliminated along with other starchy foods.

@janiceem hi. Thanks for writing about your journey. So is your anti inflammatory diet that strict? No gluten dairy sugar alcohol? It actually wasn’t my drs recommendation- a friend of mine had gone on this diet with 2 auto immune diseases and after a month was not on any meds at all - only Tylenol occasionally. So I convinced my specialist to let me try it for a month. Oats in Australia (where I live) are not considered gf - as they may contain traces of gluten. I’m trying to be very strict and eat like a coeliac. I can’t imagine living like this forever though.

I hope it doesn’t but will see now that I’m off it for awhile.

I did go gluten free and it made a big difference. I didn’t realize that I’d been having inflammation from gluten for months, maybe years before PMR set in. Telltale signs were the shapes of my bowels movements, see Bristol Stool scale. While the Bristol stool scale tells me now if I’m inflamed, I learned from a DNA test that I have a genetic marker for celiac…which in my case means I’m gluten intolerant. Now I know root cause and can monitor it. If I eat gluten too much, then my hands swell and joints are painful. I try my best to go gluten free and take turmeric daily.

Thanks for reminding me about the elimination diet. It has been decades since I've practiced dietetics, although I have maintained my registration all these years with continuing education. Here is more to share on the elimination diet:
https://health.clevelandclinic.org/elimination-diet
That said, I do think that most of our current health issues in this country stem from an unhealthy gut, i.e., eating an ultra-processed diet, which lacks key nutrients and food that feeds our gut microflora (primarily fiber). 70% of your immunity happens in your gut.
I eat a primarily whole foods, plant-based diet, high in colorful anit-inflammatory foods. I do fudge a bit and eat a few sweets and I also eat small portions of animal protein.
Here is more on the benefits of an anti-inflammatory diet:
https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/wellness-and-prevention/anti-inflammatory-diet
And here is an interesting video from Nutritionfacts.org on lupus and diet:
https://nutritionfacts.org/video/friday-favorites-anti-inflammatory-diet-for-lupus/

Hi @michwest . I just replied to @megz with more a lot more information on this subject, but to answer your question more directly, what was recommended to you was more of an elimination diet to try to weed out offending foods that you may be sensitive to. My anti-inflammatory diet is not this strict-- I avoid most processed foods and focus on whole colorful, organic foods that are primarily plant-based, although I do eat a few sweets and animal protein almost daily. I also have a glass of red wine daily. I don't have gluten sensitiviy and eat oats every day with berries and soy milk.
Good luck to you in your recovery.

I definitely agree that a lot of countries have widespread health issues caused by poor diet including ultra-processed "foods" that are nutrient poor, lacking in healthy fibre, and full of additives, sugar and salt, which messes with our gut microbiome. It's all about making a profit from selling packaged garbage that pretends to be food. And I'd add that high sugar/carbohydrate consumption which causes obesity, insulin resistance and inflammation is another widespread health issue.

But with food intolerances and allergies on the rise, what's good dietary advice for you or me may not be good for others. It's an individual thing. For example, I have a bad reaction to things like turmeric and some seeds, but others say they are a must for them. Just because something is said to be anti-inflammatory doesn't mean it can or should be eaten by everyone.

Thank you - that’s helpful to know as I don’t think I could live on such a restrictive diet.

Thanks so much @janiceem I appreciate all the info and links which I will read carefully. I was so careful before all this so it’s hard to know the way forward once I work out if this diet works. I was a very clean eater before it!