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Low Dose Naltrexone and Prednisone for PMR?

Polymyalgia Rheumatica (PMR) | Last Active: Aug 4 6:29am | Replies (85)
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@pkalkstein

Now 9 days into LDN use. I have been experimenting and I still do not have a sense of how best to use LDN to speed my prednisone taper (and then use LDN for maintenance). However, this morning I arose with a zero (no pain, no stiffness at all) in my log. Last night I took half of a 4.5mg LDN tab at bedtime, then my usual 5mg of prednisone at 1:30. I followed this with 7.5 mg prednisone after breakfast. I will continue with this regimen and see if I can use it to get down to 10mg of prednisone. The LDN tabs from CareFirst (excellent compounding pharmacy) are quite small but my pill cutter handles them well. More to follow.

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Replies to "Now 9 days into LDN use. I have been experimenting and I still do not have..."
redboat | @redboat | Mar 12, 2023

Thanks for continuing to describe your LDN experience.

In terms of LDN's impact on the taper, won't it be self-evident from the lack of pain? If regular use of LDN helps you avoid remission - which I read the majority experience - won't that allow you to taper more successfully, and hence lower the total exposure to prednisone?

Or were you hoping LDN would let you speed up the prednisone taper faster than the usual schedule?

Just some thoughts.

It is interesting to see your prednisone schedule; it sounds similar to what I have now adopted:

9 am: ½ total daily dose
6 pm; 1/6 total daily dose
2 am: ⅓ total daily dose

I am trying to balance the desire to avoid morning soreness with prednisone's tendency to cause insomnia.

At my current high total daily dose (60 mg), insomnia becomes a problem. Last night I was able to sleep 7 hours with this regimen, although I did experience a little achiness around 4 am. Weirdly it felt like it was in the chest bones, not the usual shoulder, arms, and hips.

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