I have been reading other comments that Pred can cause breathlessness , I go to the gym a my heart rate goes upto 176 and I can hardly talk, it feels like I am giving a asthma attack. I know I have put a stone on in weight since March, I was on 25mg for PMR I am now on 15 mg reducing by 1mg a month. The sweating is as bad as the breathlessness. I have found the stiffness is coming back again since reducing. Dioes any one out there excersise and there heart rate goes up high.
Would appreciate ate feedback if you think us us normal. I do not have an apt with the Rheumatologist until end of Octobdr.
1mg a month
I'm very impressed you can go to the gym! What exactly are you doing when you begin to find the breathlessness coming on? Not being the athletic sort, in my early days I was just doing fairly light exercise - walking mostly - so I didn't have the effect you describe. But I did go through a period about a year ago of getting very lightheaded when walking, and maybe that could also have been described as a sort of breathlessness. I felt I wasn't getting enough air. But that all seems to have gone away now. Why don't you experiment with less taxing exercise for a while and see if that helps? After all, you are trying to recover from a pretty serious condition and you need to be kind to yourself.
Hi margaret89358, after reading on the forum and everything else I can find, I will never reduce my Phed, by more than 10% . Next I will not reduce if my body is in pain. I tried to walk 10 minutes at a time to start, take a break, 10 minutes more, that was enough! Now I can do couple miles in the am and another couple in PM for 4 to 5 miles a day. Never pushing to hard. Sweating, my shirt will be drenched, and night sweats also. Terrible, I think it is just part of the game. Hang tight, we are all in this together!
About the breathlessness ... Whatever activity you are doing, you should slow down to the point that you can talk and do the same activity. I am not sure what your age is, but if you can get your HR that high, I am guessing you are probably close to 50 or so. If you can, slow down your activity until you HR is below 125-130 and keep it at that level. Instead of trying to do high intensity, try to slow down and do it longer...
As far as sweating , I would not worry about it much. Not sure if it is PMR or pred, but it does make you sweat more. Make sure to drink enough, to replace liquid you lost especially now that hot weather is coming.
Pred reduction should be done based on PMR symptoms, not on some artificial schedule. If you your PMR symptoms are returning, slow down and let the body "catch up" with reduction. There is no point reducing if you feel pain. The purpose of pred is to manage inflammation caused by PMR... pred does not cure.
I have had several pred side effects, but I think the sweating was one of the worst.
I started on 15 mg last August now down to 6mg and I must say never had sweats and no shortness of breath walk my dogs 4 times a day right from the beginning even when pain was bad kept on going as legs got better the more they were used. Exercise every morning for about half an hour with no difficulty now very little pain .
Well said nick67069! Bravo!
That's it donna25417, two walks a day, sometimes a third after dinner 4- 5 miles a day, up from 2/6, just a little more each day, never push too hard, nice and easy does it. 🙂
Nick has already covered some of what I was going to say - but the bottom line is that YOU ARE NO LONGER HEALTHY. You have an autoimmune disorder which is causing your immune system to attack your body and which, in some way which is not entirely clear to anyone at the present, is making your muscles intolerant of acute exercise. It is the same for all of us. The pred only relieves the inflammation and so the swelling and pain is reduced and probably the blood supply to the muscles is improved. However, the actual damage to the muscle function remains - and what probably happens is that the muscles are unable to repair themselves after exercise and increased DOMS is the result (delayed onset muscle soreness).
You have a new normal - and you have to adjust to that. I'm not saying don't do exercise, exercise is good for us, but it is also important to let your body tell you where to slow down. Which it is doing but you are trying to ignore it. You have to start over again - and build up your training schedule appropriately. Heart rate is one of the indicators that body tissues aren't getting enough oxygen and nutrients, so is breathlessness. I used to ski with PMR, before PMR I walked out onto the slopes and skied for an hour or two without much rest from day one - with PMR I had to start with 3 very short runs with rests on the lift being essential! I couldn't do the same distance as a longer run for some considerable time. And REST between exercise sessions was key.
The weight gain is also obviously a factor - and a good way to approach THAT is to cut carbs drastically. Everyone is a bit different and some people can eat carbs when on pred and exercise and not gain weight - but they really are the exception rather than the rule. Pred changes how your body processes carbs and also causes your liver to release spikes of glucose into the bloodstream - and increases your risk of developing steroid-induced diabetes. Cutting carbs reduces that risk too.
But first - you have to accept you are not perfectly healthy, you have a chronic autoimmune disorder and that you have to adjust to that. Google the "spoons theory by Christine Miseriando" and "gorilla in the house by batsgirl". Then you can work on managing your spoons and accommodating the gorilla that is PMR in your life.