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PMR Diet: Foods to eat and avoid
Polymyalgia Rheumatica (PMR) | Last Active: Sep 30 8:17am | Replies (146)Comment receiving replies
Hello @epidoc, Welcome to Connect. I'm also skeptical of any of the paid diet programs although years prior to my first occurrence of PMR I belonged to Weight Watchers when I was struggling at 300+ lbs. They helped me get to 250 and I kept going up and down from there.
I decided I had to make some lifestyle changes because Weight Watchers wasn't the answer nor was any paid program. After I joined Connect in 2016, I ran across a health blog by one of my Connect hero's Lee Aase which had an entry about "An Unfortunately Named Book - The Obesity Code" by James Fung, M.D. - https://www.social-media-university-global.org/2020/02/an-unfortunately-named-book/. That got me started on eating healthier along with intermittent fasting and I was able to get my weight down to around 210 and maintain it.
Good timing for me because my first occurrence of PMR was in 2007 and I was on prednisone for 3-1/2 years before I was able to taper off. My second round with PMR came in 2016 and I was able to taper off of prednisone in about 1-1/2 years which I credit with eating heathier and more exercise. I'm going on 7 years of remission for my PMR now so hoping it will stay in the background.
Have you made any lifestyle changes to help manage your PMR?
Replies to "Hello @epidoc, Welcome to Connect. I'm also skeptical of any of the paid diet programs although..."
@johnbishop
You mention intermittent fasting which I do believe is helpful in losing and maintaining weight loss. My challenge right now on day three of 15 mg prednisone/day is how to prevent weight gain.
I am up at 6 - 6:30 am to take my prednisone. That necessitates eating food with the three 5 mg pills. So there goes my intermittent fasting.
I might try to have my last meal of the day at 3 pm and move prednisone dose to 7 am which gives me 16 hours of fasting.
Any thoughts?
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@johnbishop
Hi John,
I have always followed a fairly good diet, 5-6 days a week of exercise, walking several miles a day and maintained a normal weight for my height. I’m not a regular alcohol drinker but have an occasional cocktail. I am celiac, so I eat no gluten.
I started experiencing PMR symptoms in June-July. I thought the pain was due to too many squats and using heavier weights. We were in Maine for 4 weeks were I only walked, hiked and did pottery, but continued to have symptoms. Since my Father had PMR I figured out that this was likely the issue. As a consequence I decided to purposely increase my intake of anti-inflammatory foods…primarily vegetables and fish, decrease sugars (most difficult change), added fresh turmeric, and no alcohol.
It took several weeks to get to see a physician who agreed with my diagnosis and ordered ESR and CRP. I have had two doses of 15 mg prednisone so far.
Of interest was that while my ESR and CRP are elevated they are about half of what I’ve seen for mean levels in several studies. Has me wondering if the diet changes I made had an impact in my ESR and CRO levels. I plan to continue the more anti-inflammatory diet because I would like to taper off prednisone as soon as possible.