PMR, prednisone and Poor Sleep or Insomnia

Hello @shonnie, Welcome to Connect. I've had various teas when my PMR was active and I was taking prednisone but I wasn't aware of any drug interactions. The Rheumatoid Arthritis Foundation has some information on the topic here -- What Teas can you have while on Prednisone?: https://www.helpfightra.org/teas-while-on-prednisone/. The article does recommend talking with your doctor. Your pharmacist may be the best source for any drug interactions with prednisone. I did a check on Drugs.com and found no interactions but I would still talk with my doctor -- https://www.drugs.com/interactions-check.php?drug_list=1936-0,2284-10628

If your doctor doesn't have an answer, can you ask your pharmacist?

Thanks for the information John. I will see my doctor in a couple of days and will ask him. So far this tea is the best I have found for insomnia

When I have problems sleeping or even getting to sleep I normally take about a half a Benadryl. I learned that from my business travel days when sometimes a new bed or pressures from work might keep me awake. Hope you find a solution that works for you.

Welcome @jabrown0407, Thank you for sharing your experience with what helps when you have a problem getting to sleep. Do you mind sharing what you were searching for when you found Connect?

No problem - In April of 2019 I had an adverse reaction to my second Shringrix vaccination, immediately I had a cascade of health issues which went undiagnosed for close to a year - you guessed it - PMR. I am super sensitive to pharmaceuticals so taking steroids long term is off the table - actually taking them short term is undesirable. I could not embrace the PMR diagnosis because my muscle/joint pain was inconsistent with descriptions found online. Fast forward to today I finally decided to do a deep dive into PMR and became frustrated with the lack of a single medical book covering to topic from A to Z. What I found was pockets of research papers, during my online search efforts I stumbled across this site. I joined recently.
I have had a long list of problems including heart issues for the first time in my life - I'm 77. Orthopedic problems including impingement issues and bursitis, blood issues necessitating a bone marrow test, infectious disease issues, dermatology problems of a foot fungus (never had athletes' foot when a teenager and showering in gang showers), plus other problems way too numerous to mention. I have struggled with symptoms, pain and medical mysteries. I have reluctantly accepted PMR as the diagnosis, but never was the complex of other issues I had mentioned ever listed as possible companion issues. This I believe is selling the problem short. PMR is systemic and not just muscles and joints. Even Mayo Clinic's list of symptoms does not give a nod to the other possible problems like anemia, edema, heart issues, etc - this is what caused me to question the diagnosis in the first place.
Long answer for a simple request. For most of my life I have had to seek OTC and alternate solutions for things others can solve easily with an Rx. I learned the Benadryl trick decades ago while traveling on business. I use pediatric strength as a sleep aide.
Hope this help you understand me just a little better. Thanks for reaching out.

Thank you for sharing. I too am sensitive to many meds so took Prednisone for only a few months and since then have had to find my way through PMR with no clear paths. I agree PMR is systemic rather than just muscles and joints. Without easy access to tests I recently worked out that I have anaemia and after a few days of an old fashioned iron tonic felt much better and my pain and stiffness was vastly relieved. Anecdotal yes but true for me!

I am not a medical professional, but it is my understanding that taking too much iron can have dangerous, even life threating side effects if you do not need it. I had easy access to medical tests and my iron panel showed I had more than enough iron in my blood. I simply had low hemoglobin. Vitamin B deficiency is another common cause of anemia, I had plenty of that as well. They never found a cause for my anemia, so I never received treatment. Anemia alone was troublesome and of course fatiguing.
I actually used Mayo Clinic's wed site on anemia as a check list of the causes. This is another place where the Mayo Clinic could include PMR in their Inflammatory category. This category was not listed in 2019 but now that it is PMR should be listed to help people grasp the systemic nature of PMR. I wonder if there is a known treatment for PMR related anemia - just asking.

Yes those are indeed very wise words about iron which I am fully aware of. I have had mild anaemia many times over my life confirmed by testing and nowadays when the clear symptoms arise I lightly treat it with a herbal iron tonic for a week or so. I am used to being responsible for my health and am not based in the US but a country where natural remedies are more commonly used alongside meds.
I replied to you because you joined the anaemia PMR dots for me and thank you for that.

The journey I am on is to connect many of my symptoms to PMR. I have seen doctors in Dallas, TX both at Baylor medical and Univ of TX Southwest (a research and teaching hospital system) as well as consulted with a medical team at Cleveland Clinic. Several of the doctors diagnosed PMR but not a single one of them included any of my symptoms beyond muscle and joint pain as caused by PMR. I think this is tragic since my research has clearly exposed so many of my symptoms, anemia, edema and several others are connected. Connecting the dots is the journey I am currently on. I have asked Dr Goggle about things like "PMR Anemia" and have found creditable information - this is the only way I have been able to connect the dots.

@jabrown0407, Thanks for posting that question! I never really thought about PMR related anemia. Here are a couple of articles that I found.

-- How to Manage, Treat Anemia of Inflammation in Patients with Rheumatic Disease: https://www.the-rheumatologist.org/article/manage-treat-anemia-inflammation-patients-rheumatic-disease/
-- "A condition called anaemia (an-ee-me-a), which is a lack of red blood cells that carry oxygen around the body, is quite common in polymyalgia rheumatica. Your ..." --- Polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR) | Causes, symptoms, treatments: https://www.versusarthritis.org/about-arthritis/conditions/polymyalgia-rheumatica-pmr/