1. < Polymyalgia Rheumatica (PMR)

What is the root cause of PMR? Is it contagious?

Posted by debbiev311 @debbiev311, Sep 23 2:31pm

Has anyone gotten an answer as to what their PMR is caused from? The root cause? Have a diagnosis but no explanation as to what is actually causing the inflammation. Don’t want to be on Prednisone for life.

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jeannewa | @jeannewa | Sep 24 6:49pm
In reply to @tuckerp "No meant unable. Not preaching here but only explaining. Generally after about 2 weeks your body..." + (show)
@tuckerp

No meant unable. Not preaching here but only explaining. Generally after about 2 weeks your body stops making cortisol. Cortisol is being supplied by the prednisone. When your body stops making cortisol you can no longer function without the prednisone. Dr's attempt to taper you off the prednisone to allow your body time to restart. The longer you are on steroids and the amount you are taking can be big factors in how long this takes. PMR unfortunately can take 6 months to years to burn out. Some may not ever restart their cortisol and need to take steroids for the rest of their life. So my comment was in short amount of time( 2-3weeks) you will no longer be able to just stop taking prednisone. The longer you take them the harder it gets to stop.

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Ok, makes sense and that's also what I understand. I'm 4 months into a slow taper from 20 mg daily to, now, 1 mg daily. I expect to put this all behind me in 8 more doses. I have no lingering symptoms and really feel like PMR never happened.... unless I look back at my medical record and personal journaling!

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