Has anyone tried Umary Hialuronica Acidio from Mexico?

@mjwebber, I noticed that you wished to post a URL to an article with your post. You will be able to add URLs to your posts in a few days. There is a brief period where new members can't post links. We do this to deter spammers and keep the community safe.

Allow me to post it for you:
- Pharmacist urges people stop using Umary supplement after Steinbach woman's health scare https://www.steinbachonline.com/articles/pharmacist-urges-people-stop-using-umary-supplement-after-steinbach-womans-health-scare

Hi Everyone! Thanks so much @jixster for starting this discussion on Umary. I have been following the discussion and wanting a PMR miracle of my own!! I decided to reach out to a friend who is an MD trained in Mexico. I asked her to see what she could find out about it. It was not a product that she was familiar with so she had to do some investigation. She reached out to a former partner in her practice who informed her to advise me NOT TO TAKE IT. She says that it has been reported to have VERY high levels of diclofenac in it but it apparently is not consistent so those amounts may vary widely from bottle to bottle. Large amounts of diclofenac can cause significant damage to major organs. She said she would be very worried about my liver, kidneys, or heart.

I am having crazy pain right now and will probably have to take to one of the biologics despite side effects because I have had no luck successfully reducing my prednisone.

I pray that we will all find some non-damaging solutions or that PMR will just quickly runs its course. I hope this information was helpful for someone other than myself and that pain is not in either of our futures. Blessings!
Sandi

Thank you. I feel this is very relevant information to share!

@sandiw77, Sorry to hear that you are struggling to taper off of prednisone. There is a tapering plan that has helped some taper off of prednisone that you might want to give a try.

Dead slow and nearly stop reduction plan (DSNS - Tapering)
https://healthunlocked.com/pmrgcauk/posts/131189593/dead-slow-and-nearly-stop-reduction-plan

Hi John,
Thanks so much for reaching out. I have actually used that plan because of your previous post. Thank you for providing us with such good info— but I have not even been able to tolerate the .5 decreases. My rheumatologist has worked very hard to help me. My inflammatory markers were through the roof last week so am back to 15 mgs. ☹️

You and me both rejoined the 15mg club, grrr, after doing the slow and careful taper using .5mg increments. I got down to 6mg before the pain and inflammation gradually settled in, and have now worked out that my lowest effective dose was 7mg. That may change next time and hopefully we both make it lower. How far did you manage to go before pain & inflammation returned? We're entitled to a grumble, but we may as well learn something from it.
Edit: Oops, sorry for being off-topic @jixster

@ megz, you are doing amazing! My lowest level was 12.5. ☹️ My rheumatologist wants to get me back on Kevzara because that seemed to be my best option but I hadn’t gotten to taper with it when they discovered I had hepatic liver cysts They think I have had them all my life but never knew. Praying for a turnaround! Good luck!!

The normal dose of diclofenac is 100-150 mg daily. 25-30 mg daily is not worth worrying about. You can get that much using OTC Voltaren Gel. I was on it for many years until I went on Medicare and the Part D drugs plans don't cover name brands. Had to get Feldene from Canada. Yes NSAIDs are hard on the kidneys but most people don't go into acute renal failure if they get blood work regularly and the doc is vigilant about watching things. The GFR is the value to watch. That's the Glomerular Filtration Rate. The BUN & Creatinine are what most people are familiar with. If the BUN is 10X higher than the Creatinine, that signifies dehydration.
I don't know what blog you read but diclofenac is not really any stronger than other script NSAIDs. Otherwise you couldn't get Voltaren Gel OTC. The only one, as an RN, that I fear is Indocin. 2 wks on it and you will have blood in your stool. Rarely prescribed anymore.
As far as gut ulceration goes, that can happen with aspirin! The biggest/most common cause of ulceration is NOT drinking enough liquid when you take pills, not the drug itself!! If you just take a swallow or 2, it's enough to get the pills wet, then they get sticky and adhere to the mucosa of the stomach and start eating a hole, i.e. ulceration! Minimum 8 oz or with food! People don't seem to understand that the interior of the stomach does not have a pool of liquid in it! It is about as wet as your mouth is when not eating/drinking.
My grandson was at the gym and decided to take 2 Motrin. Big tough guy dry-swallowed them. Within a couple hours, his Dad was taking him to the ER thinking he had something bad going on in his gut!
Do not follow any blogs that are not from a trusted source like Mayo or Cleveland Clinic. Too much misinformation out there. Most docs and nurses will give it to you straight but I've seen some that have some really weird ideas and try to scare people. That said, I have put in a request to the FDA to ck this supplement before we all get too excited about it.

Have you read the link given by @mjwebber yesterday? Those Umary capsules contained 320mg of diclofenac, a toxic dose that sent the woman to the hospital emergency. "Pharmacist urges people stop using Umary supplement after Steinbach woman's health scare."
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/comment/1050846/

The normal upper prescription limit of 100mg diclofenac is only given to people who have been checked for other meds and health conditions by a doctor first. It's not safe for all and is only generally prescribed short term. So the presence of ANY diclofenac in an unregulated substance from Mexico like Umary is a very big health concern.

See this recent news article. Contains 3x the safe dose of diclofenac. You will feel great right away because it’s an anti-inflammatory. It was found to not contain ANY hyaluronic acid in the samples tested.