@pmrnew

People say all kinds of things about lower doses of prednisone. Many people do elaborate tapering strategies just to reduce .5 mg in 2 months. Minuscule doses of prednisone seem to make a big difference to many people. I personally haven't ever cut a 1 mg tablet of prednisone in half. I might have tried it but there were too many crumbs. I never question the necessity of cutting 1 mg tablets in half if that works for people.

Anyway ... an endocrinologist I saw when I had adrenal insufficiency from long term prednisone use told me 3 mg was a very small dose of prednisone and there was no need to taper from that low of a dose. For context ... this was only true when my morning cortisol level was within the normal range. Until my cortisol level returned to within the normal range, I had to stay on 3 mg prednisone as a maintenance dose for my low cortisol level. I was too scared to go from 3 mg to zero in one step so I never discontinued prednisone that way. I did a "countdown taper" by doing 3 mg- 2 mg - 1 mg - ZERO ... all systems go for no prednisone for a day. I did a few test launches so I repeated this pattern a few times before I actually blasted off of prednisone.

It is true that 5 mg of prednisone is considered to be the "physiological dose" which is equivalent to the normal daily cortisol production of the adrenal glands. If your cortisol level is low then you may need that much prednisone.

The "medicinal effects" of 5 mg of prednisone might be too low to control PMR Many people have flares when they get to 7 mg of prednisone so my guess is that at least 7 mg might be the therapeutic dose to control PMR inflammation assuming people still have an adequate cortisol level.

My thought is that there are two conditions in play after we taper below 10 mg. It is either active inflammation caused by the disease we take prednisone for. It can also be a low cortisol level due to a side effect from prednisone. Another possibility is a combination of both of these problems.

if you have read down this far ....are you from the Netherlands? I have fond memories of Camp New Amsterdam in the early 1970s when I was stationed there. That Air Force Base doesn't exist anymore. Someone told me the base is a "green space" now.