Anti-inflammatory diet and supplements for PMR

Studies from GB and Japan show a high statistical correlation between recent (within 30 days) and sudden onset of pmr. ( See articles on pubmed). Unfortunately, the US does not have a formal process for tracking adverse events associated with covid vaccinations, so there are no US based reports. My 77 year old brother (who is an MD) experienced a sudden onset on an auto-immune disease this summer, within 2 weeks of vaccination. Both my brother and his internal med doc believe that the disease was caused by the vaccination. I live in a different state and had a similar experience- covid vaccine on Oct 10 and sudden (overnight) onset of PMR on Oct. 22

The US uses VAERS to report adverse reactions to vaccinations and I made sure that I reported mine, despite it being difficult to do so at times. Here is the site: https://vaers.hhs.gov/

I had a nurse friend tell me to only split pills if they have an indentation on the top which indicate that they guarantee to have the same amount of active ingredient on both sides. Otherwise you may or may not be getting the amount of active ingredient you imagine. My 1mg pills have a split on the top where I split them. I am down to .5 mg now and starting to taper to 0.
Week 1: .5, .5, .5, .5, .5, .5, 0
Week 2: .5, .5, .5, .5, .5, 0, 0
Week 3: .5, .5, .5, .5, 0, 0, 0
Week 4: .5, .5, .5, 0, 0, 0, 0
etc.

But whatever works! Good luck!

I'd be interested to see how that taper works for you with an increasing number of days in a row at zero dose rather than alternating days. We're all watching and learning here. Please let us know how you go.

Yes, I am only on week 2. But I’ve only had one small flare on this journey so far. That was going down from 2 to 1.5. I will report. I have followed this dead slow taper protocol for my entire taper.

Unfortunately I had to stop taking D3. This past summer my Vitamin D level was in the "toxic" range - what with being outside much of the time, taking D3, multivitamin (which included D0 and Calcium (which also has D), I was way over the limit. After stopping all D consumption my level returned to normal. I have now been able to reintroduce taking my multivitamin and Calcium with D, but no other supplemental D.

Good heavens, you must have been taking a lot of D3. Either that or individual D3 needs vary much more than I was aware. My D3 blood test last year while I was taking 1000IU of D3 once a day was only 51 nmol/L with a target range of 50-250 nmol/L. So I added a second 1000IU tablet with the second meal. I also added a K2/D3 supplement three times a week which contains 1000IU.

My D3 blood test a couple of months ago was 98 nmol/L (target range 50-250 nmol/L) which is better, so I will stick to what I am taking. What was your total daily D3 supplement intake, do you recall?

I'm aware that some crank "doctors" online push people to take very large amounts of D3, in the tens of thousands of IU a day, which can absolutely be toxic and harmful.
P.S. Depending on which country you are in, the blood test measurement units vary. I'm in Australia which uses nmol/L (nanomoles per litre) for vitamin D3. Other countries use ng/mL (nanograms per millilitre) which gives a much lower measurement number. IU (International Units) for D3 dosage are the same for everyone I believe.

I honestly don’t recall, and have since thrown the bottle of pills away. Never have I had such a high level, but the checking D levels isn’t necessarily routine.
My GP had recommended some time ago that both my the 90 year old mother and I take a D supplement, since generally no one in northern Michigan gets enough D.

You are a little ahead of me on taper, but I am doing it in a similar fashion. I’m now taking .5mg for about 5 days and 1mg for one day. I’ll soon be at .5 every day, stay there awhile and then start altering with none. On my first bout with PMR, I did a slow taper and went into remission for 12 years. On the second bout, I got off prednisone quickly , but it was back a year later, so am going very slow with no problems. I did have a scare about GCA about 2 years ago, but the biopsy was negative. I’ve somewhat given up on trying to understand PMR. At my first time with PMR, I also had leukopenia (low number of WBC’s). They have not been normal for 20 years. There is no treatment for this. They just monitor.

I’m trying an anti inflammatory diet too but in moderation. I haven’t had any drinks (wine) since diagnosed and on prednisone. I’m finding staying away from too much sugar (I’m only human so again in moderation), and trying to consume more gluten free crackers has helped as well as less red meat (eating chicken, turkey etc) and staying away from night shade veggies (eggplant, peppers, potatoes, tomatoes) also seems to help. I’m newly diagnosed. My rheumy started me on 15 mg but my pain was still at 6/7 so upped me to 20mg for 2 weeks. I’m tapering 2.5mg every 2 weeks and now on 12.5 which so far is working. I do have some pain in the mornings, but not debilitating and on the new taper it takes 5-6 days to feel less pain. I also walk 1-2 miles a day. Good luck.