Hi,
I have been dealing with PMR for a while. Started on Prednisone 15 mg last July after figuring out the diagnosis of PMR. I am tapering off the prednisone as the side effects are causing me more issues than the PMR at this point. (Sleeplessness, crabbiness, wt gain if I don’t watch my weight, high blood sugar if I don’t watch my diet, those types of things) The prednisone has helped but time to get off if it. I started at 15mg and am down to 7 mg now tapering down 1mg per month. Tapering more than that can cause other issues so you must taper SLOWLY and under a Drs care.

I am finding high sugar in my diet seems to exacerbate the PMR symptoms, walking and arm exercises helps me with the stiffness. It’s a fine line though, if I exercise or do too much, then I pay the next day.

I find PMR to be frustrating at times, but I am progressing forward with the taper, watching my sugar intake, figuring out HOW MUCH activity I can tolerate and WHAT activity I can tolerate. Right now I do about 30 minutes a day, of walking and arm exercises depending upon the day. If I have too much stiffness to walk very far one day, then I make up the time by doing arm exercises while sitting, which helps the shoulder stiffness. I still do my housework, grocery shopping, etc even if painful to stay as active as possible.

Because PMR is an inflammatory process, I found out the hard way that I need to be careful with repetitive activity as I developed a bursitis of my hip from too much gardening. Again I had to figure out HOW MUCH and WHAT type of activity I can do. Keeping my sugar intake down along with eating fruits and vegetables helps too.

This is a long term challenge but I hope what I have figured out and pass along to you will help.

Please discuss any diet, medication and exercise changes with your Dr. We are all different and what works well for one person may not work for another. Keeping track of pain is a plus too.