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Prednisone dosage split

Posted by bamiller57 @bamiller57, Feb 20 11:15am

Something that may help someone but confirm with your physician before implementing. I had a major flare up a few weeks ago. My Rheumatologist started me on a 20 mg Prednisone taper. For several day after about 7:00 pm the symptoms came back with a vengeance and lasted throughout the next morning. I ask my Rheumatologist if I could split the dose, 10 mg upon waking in the morning and 10 mg with dinner and he said although Prednisone is best taken in the morning when your body is naturally producing it to try the split dosage. Since splitting my symptoms have subsided.

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michik | @michik | Feb 26 6:38pm
In reply to @janetilley "Yes I always take prednisone with food- buried in a spoon of yogurt! It’s the only..." + (show)
@janetilley

Yes I always take prednisone with food- buried in a spoon of yogurt! It’s the only way for me. I kept it beside my bed. Taking it at breakfast was too late for me- too much pain getting out of bed. I’d rather get the pred working as I slept. It has never disturbed my sleep. Plus I’m up 2-3 times anyway for bathroom. Family trait. I’m at 3 now and ready to taper to 2.5 in two weeks. Evening dose now works best. I found it best to adjust habits as PMR evolved. What works at one stage, may not be best as disease progresses. I learned that tactic early on from this chat room. As I’ve learned so much. Good luck.

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Thank you for the info. I'm so looking forward to my appointment with the rheumatologist. Hopefully she can help re the abdominal issues. Best of luck to you with the pairing down.

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cavalryman | @cavalryman | Feb 27 10:29am

The HPA, Hypothalamus, Pituitary, Adrenal axis is responsible for cortisol production. To stimulate this axis it is better to take most of your dose in the morning, as if you have a large amount of steroid in your system late night early morning the axis will not work as normal. This is more important when on lower doses in order to get the adrenals to wake up after steroids have supressed them.

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