Can PMR (Polymyalgia Rheumatica) be induced by vaccine?

Posted by kristem2020 @kristem2020, Jan 2, 2021

Good evening, I’ve recently been diagnosed with PMR. It came on a week after my flu shot October 23, 2020.

Has anyone experienced the same diagnosis after a flu shot?

Interested in more discussions like this? Go to the Polymyalgia Rheumatica (PMR) Support Group.

@roswelldad

At the age of 68, I was in excellent physical condition. I had none of the underlying conditions published by the CDC in the summer of 2020 that were causing the majority of hospitalizations and deaths from Covid. My philosophy at the time was, “if it comes from a pharmaceutical company, I don’t want it in my body.” Largely because of the early misinformation about the mRNA vaccine preventing both infection and transmission, I was guilted into taking it.
I received the second dose of the Pfizer shot on March 26, 2021. About a month later, I noticed a pain in the joint at the base of my left big toe. When the pain continued to worsen, I went to my family doctor who made the diagnosis of gout. I have never had gout before, and my uric acid level was normal. After initial treatments with prednisone and colchicine, the symptoms only worsened. By July, my entire left foot was extremely swollen. Additional attempts by my doctor with different combinations of the same drugs only lessened the symptoms slightly. Considering that a typical gout attack only lasts about a week, this was obviously a reaction to the shot. I had also found some research that explained the mechanism behind how the mRNA vaccine can trigger inflammation: https://www.cell.com/trends/molecular-medicine/fulltext/S1471-4914(22)00103-4
In September, my doctor sent me to a rheumatologist. The rheumatologist very matter-of-factly stated that their practice saw may patients with gout and arthritis reactions to the mRNA vaccine that they provided the typical treatments for. I had also found hundreds of entries of gout and arthritis reactions in the CDC’s VAERS database. (The rheumatologist’s estimate was that less than 10% of adverse events are actually reported to that database.) He put me on 30 days of colchicine. By the end of that 30 days, the symptoms were almost gone. After a few more weeks, I could say that I finally had no more symptoms. But I really had no way of knowing whether that last lengthy round of colchicine was what got rid of my symptoms, or if it just went away on its own after almost 5 months. There was never any fluid drawn from my left big toe joint to determine the presence of urate crystals.
Fast forward to late March of 2023, when I started noticing some pain in my left wrist. As it started getting worse, my doctor referred me to a wrist/hand specialist. After taking x-rays, his diagnosis was tendonitis and put me on a 6-day methylprednisolone pack. After the first day (6 pills), the pain decreased noticeably, but increased again over the next 5 days. After about another week, I was back at the rheumatologist who thought it was either gout or pseudogout and prescribed colchicine again, which I took from May 14 to June 5. Beginning in early/mid-May, symptoms typical of different types of arthritis started showing up in other areas. My right wrist and hand began hurting as much as my left. I felt neck pain if I moved my head to far either up and down or left and right. My shoulders started hurting. If I take a deep breath, my I feel some pain in my rib cage. Finally, both feet have been very swollen for several weeks. It is now June 18, and all those symptoms are still present. I’m alternately taking ibuprofen and acetaminophen now to help reduce the pain. Same as two years ago, there was nothing in my blood work or anything else that would normally be connected with these different types of arthritis (PMR?).
I have found more research that starts to call into question the claim that the mRNA vaccine cannot alter a person’s DNA. I also found an article that investigated the effect of vaccines on people with two genetic variants of the Methylenetetrahydrofolate-Reductase (MTHFR) gene, C677T and A1298C. Having done 23&Me, I discovered that I have both of those variants. Unfortunately, there does not seem to have been any studies looking specifically at a link between those variants and the mRNA vaccine. Hopefully, we will see more research performed on both of these topics that might help to explain not only the reaction I had in 2021, but a return of similar, but more extensive, arthritis-type symptoms nearly two years later.
I will provide an update at some point as my symptoms progress. Having spent most of my adult life learning about and practicing many things good for my health, I have been mostly mad at myself for giving in to the pressure of taking the shot, but of course I’m also furious about the misinformation from Fauci and others. My only hope now is that this isn’t something more permanent.

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YES!!!! I as well got pmr and then unfortunately it morphed into gca 4 months later. I am mad at myself for taking it too. I thought i was doing the right thing and now this had ruined my life. I will never take another covid vaccine again. The first 3 shots i got a yeast infection about 2 weeks after. I have never had a yeast infection in my life. The 4th booster got a yeast infection again and then a week after that i was really stiff and felt lousy. Pmr was diagnosed may of 2021. Sept i got gca. These are not coincidence, the booster did this. I hope more people hear our stories so they have more info to make a decision on whether to get a booster or not.

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I have always thought that mine was tied to a botched flu shot injection in October, 2018, but the onset was not immediate. It’s just that I had to work through a frozen shoulder for months and months and then the rest of my body fell apart. Who knows? The disease is so mysterious. But they do say it can be a result of an injury. I had no issues with any of the COVID shots, barely a sore arm.

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I honestly don't see a connection, but I came down with PMR the day after having my most recent Covid booster - this would be my 6th or 7th shot including the initial ones. I'm a 79-year-old woman in mostly good health, only reaction after shots was the mildest pain at the injection site, and not even that with the last one. On that same day I was doing a lot of physical activity, mowing, weed-wacking, shifting furniture around because a new bed was coming in, and then sleeping on an unfamiliar and overly soft mattress. Next morning, huge shoulder and upper arm pain that I assumed was from over-work... until it wouldn't go away and got worse.

Bottom line is that before Covid, I'm guessing that most of us only had annual innoculations for flu. With all the millions of Covid jabs, if vaccines brought on the condition, wouldn't there have to be one heck of a jump in the number of PMR cases?

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Regarding the relationship between COVID vaccinations and the incidence of PMR, I think the jury is still out. Hee is what the NIH said in March 2022:

"In the context of worldwide vaccination against COVID-19, physicians must be aware of the possibility of the onset or relapse of PMR, notably in the first 2 weeks after vaccination. This short delay between the first PMR symptoms and vaccination strengthens the probable role of the vaccines in the occurrence of incident PMR. The start for vaccination for individuals over 75 years with comorbidities or living in nursing home started in France in January 2021. The intensification of COVID-19 vaccination for all individuals over 55 years occurred in France until May 15th of 2021. During this period (May to October 2021), 12 patients were diagnosed PMR including our nine vaccinated patients. Regarding the same period of May to October from previous years, PMR were diagnosed in 3 (2020 with confinement) and 6 (2018 and 2019) patients suggesting an increasing incidence of PMR. Despite this possible link, we cannot exclude that these patients would have developed PMR also without vaccination. In view of the spread of COVID-19 pandemic, the interest of the vaccination remains superior to the risk of PMR or GCA.

We report here series of patients with incident PMR occurring within 2 weeks after mRNA COVID-19 vaccination. Our findings suggest a possible vaccine causality and, in the context of the ongoing international COVID-19 vaccination campaign, encourage a search for recent vaccination in patients with incident PMR."
Here is the link to the article:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8694785/#:~:text=During%20this%20period%20(May%20to,an%20increasing%20incidence%20of%20PMR.

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@emaureen

I honestly don't see a connection, but I came down with PMR the day after having my most recent Covid booster - this would be my 6th or 7th shot including the initial ones. I'm a 79-year-old woman in mostly good health, only reaction after shots was the mildest pain at the injection site, and not even that with the last one. On that same day I was doing a lot of physical activity, mowing, weed-wacking, shifting furniture around because a new bed was coming in, and then sleeping on an unfamiliar and overly soft mattress. Next morning, huge shoulder and upper arm pain that I assumed was from over-work... until it wouldn't go away and got worse.

Bottom line is that before Covid, I'm guessing that most of us only had annual innoculations for flu. With all the millions of Covid jabs, if vaccines brought on the condition, wouldn't there have to be one heck of a jump in the number of PMR cases?

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I personally believe my PMR is vax related and there has been a spike in PMR diagnosis since the vaccines were released.

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My PMR is linked. An odd symptom surfaced a few months after my first Pfizer injection. Out of the blue my arm was extremely sore at the site of the injection and lasted a couple of days. This happened about three times over the course of a year. Then I developed shoulder pain after walking. Then about 2 months later, all the symptoms kicked in—extreme muscle soreness and stiffness, low grade fever, discomfort when sitting, difficulty standing after sitting, extreme stiffness upon waking in the morning (my knee joints wouldn’t bend for about 20 minutes).

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@veronixa

We need to find out where to report this because I’ve read that it’s unusual and not many cases being reported!! I want to report it so they know just how common it is!!

I know one thing for sure, no covid vaccine for me and never another flu shot!!

I saw a video that states that one of the side effects of the covid vaccine is autoimmune diseases. Beware!!

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My rheumatologist feels the 2 shot vaccine for Covid triggered the disease. I was told NOT to have any vaccines now, including the boosters. Covid desrtoyed more lives than we can imagine.

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@kristem2020

Thank you for your reply. I received the flu vaccine October 23, 2020 and by oct 30 , 2020 I had debilitating joint and muscle pain. I could sit on the toilet with out assistance because my left knee, quad, and hamstring were too painful. My hips were also very stiff. My left knee was the size of a softball and the leg was swollen. My SED was in the 40s. My CPR was not far behind.
Within another week my shoulders and arms followed suit with immobility. I was put on a low dose of prednisone which did not help. I suffered for weeks while the Drs
We’re ruling out other diagnoses. Cat scans, ultra sounds, and MRIs. Oh and neurological testing as well. All negative. I went to Brigham and women’s and that’s where I was diagnosed with PMR. Like others I suffered more that I could ever imagine immobility to be.
I’m 100% better but not 100% by any means. My life has changed from an extremely active woman to one who is struggling to find out what caused this so I can fix it.

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Amen, Kristem2020

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@vandyms1974

My rheumatologist feels the 2 shot vaccine for Covid triggered the disease. I was told NOT to have any vaccines now, including the boosters. Covid desrtoyed more lives than we can imagine.

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Amen. I'm with you no more vaccines for me

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I'll continue to take whatever the Health Department has on offer unless medically advised otherwise. My memory is very fresh of all those early Covid news stories with hospital images where you could barely see the patient because they were hooked up to so much equipment. And the refrigerated trucks used as temporary morgues.
I came down with PMR the day after having my most recent booster. However, I'm not making the connection with the vaccine as much as doing a lot of yard work and moving furniture on the same day - that is, some soreness from a needle aggravated by over-work.

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