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prednisolone and bronchitis - what effect will it have?

Mary

Moderator Resource
Messages
17,335
Location
Southern California
Urgent Care prescribed methylprednisolone for my bronchial cough the other day but have not been able to bring myself to take it. You're supposed to take six 4 mg. pills the first day (divided doses), 5 the next, then 4, 3, 2 and 1. I've only had one Cortef like pill before, which didn't seem to do anything to me.

What I'm wondering is, does anyone know if this is going to screw me up? One person told me the first day especially might interfere with sleep. But I'm sure it will affect me in other ways. I'd like to know what to expect.

In the meanwhile I'm drinking a lot of water and eating honey and have managed to cough up some stuff (green - yuck!)

Any info would be appreciated - thanks!
 

Hip

Senior Member
Messages
17,824
It seems that corticosteroids are used to reduce inflammation in acute bronchitis:
Decreasing inflammation is the goal for treating acute bronchitis. Albuterol inhalation, either with a hand held device (meter dosed inhaler, MDI) or nebulizer will help dilate the bronchial tubes. Short-term steroid therapy will help minimize inflammation within the bronchial tubes. Prednisone is a common prescription medication that enhances the anti-inflammatory effects of the steroids produced within the body by the adrenal glands. Topical inhaled steroids may also be of benefit with fewer potential side effects.

Use acetaminophen (Tylenol and others), nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory (NSAIDs) like ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin), naproxen (Aleve, Anaprox, Naproxen), and aspirin to treat fever and decrease the inflammatory response.
Source: here


It says here that:
Ginger tea may also help bronchitis symptoms, as ginger is a natural anti-inflammatory.
 

Rebeccare

Moose Enthusiast
Messages
9,064
Location
Massachusetts
What I'm wondering is, does anyone know if this is going to screw me up? One person told me the first day especially might interfere with sleep. But I'm sure it will affect me in other ways. I'd like to know what to expect.
I don't know how this medication might people with ME/CFS. Different people react to steroids differently. I've known some people who have become very slow and sleepy on it. Meanwhile, when my mother took it she became rather manic: she organized all of the drawers in the house, mopped every single floor, and barely slept. People came to visit, expecting to see her incapacitated and in bed, and instead found her busily dusting the blinds and vacuuming the carpet! I think it also may have also made her constipated, but I've heard that others have diarrhea. Weight gain can be a side-effect over a long-term course, but I don't think that's an issue if you'll be finished with it by the end of the week.

In my experience (well, my mother's experience) taking steroids can help your body get through this faster, but as with any medicine you have to weigh the risk of side effects. If you're really unsure about taking it, I wonder if you could talk to your doctor, ask if this medicine is really necessary (it really may be in order to clear up this infection!), or ask if there are other medicines that you could try instead?

In the meanwhile I'm drinking a lot of water and eating honey and have managed to cough up some stuff (green - yuck!)
Yuck indeed! You might want to try breathing steam if you haven't already! Either in a hot shower, from a pot of water you've boiled on the stove, or from a nice cuppa tea. It can help loosen up all of that gross mucous so you can cough it up and get rid of it.

It says here that:
Ginger tea may also help bronchitis symptoms, as ginger is a natural anti-inflammatory.
But really, you don't need to be sick enjoy delicious ginger tea! I think I might go put the kettle on now...


I hope that good wishes from across the country can also help heal you a little faster!

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Pearshaped

Senior Member
Messages
580
why didn't they prescribe you something like symbicort?(inhaler with cortisone)
Since you will be just a few days on prednisone I wouldn't be too worried about bad side effects.
The bronchitis puts an additional strain in your body so there could also be the chance you feel better with the prednisone so I would give it a try and see how you feel.
 

Wayne

Senior Member
Messages
4,300
Location
Ashland, Oregon
What I'm wondering is, does anyone know if this is going to screw me up?

Hi @Mary, sorry to hear about your bronchial cough. Since getting tinnitus in Feb. 2018, I keep up with news and developments on it. I've heard and read that prednisolone can sometimes help recent onset tinnitus because of its ability to quickly reduce inflammation. But others have reported the prednisolone can make it worse. So it can go either way.

I'm super careful about taking anything these days that might exacerbate my tinnitus, and when it comes to drugs, I always to a quick online search on the name of the drug, followed by tinnitus. It's pretty amazing what can pop up rather quickly. I just did a search on Methylprednisolone and tinnitus, and came up the with following link: -- Methylprednisolone Tinnitus Reports - DrugInformer

In short, it looks like there's 63 FDA reports, and 11 social media reports attesting to this drug causing tinnitus. Based on my own experience with getting tinnitus from a single dose of an anti-nausea medication called Promethazine, I wouldn't even consider taking something like Methylprednisolone, even if the odds were only 1 in a million of it affecting my tinnitus.

You may want to consider the Hydrogen Peroxide Inhalation Method that I used to help my own 1 1/2 year chronic lung situation, which I wrote about at this LINK. I can personally attest to it being relatively benign, but of course, we're all individuals with unique circumstances. I hope you can find something that works well for you. I'd be careful with any potentially dangerous drugs however. -- Best...
 

Mary

Moderator Resource
Messages
17,335
Location
Southern California
@Wayne - you told me before I think about some positive results from a corticosteroid -am I remembering correctly? or is the problem methylprednisone in particular and, say, not Cortef or something similar? I'm so confused! And sick and don't have a lot of energy to do research - thanks for you links!
 

jesse's mom

Senior Member
Messages
6,795
Location
Alabama USA
I am so glad people weighed in here.

I am wondering if anyone takes less of a steroid than is prescribed. I have an open prescription for a methylprednisolone for my neck. (Sorry this is not about bronchitis) I have really speedy effects from this if I take them 7, 6, 5 etc as directed. It affects my sleep horribly much like @RebeccaRe 's mom. Up all night cleaning everything! Although I get tons done I crash badly for days and days afterwards.

I have taken this in the past many times for bronchitis.

What if I take 3, 3, 2, 2, then 1 till I'm out...

I wonder if @Mary and I will still some of the needed results yet avoid the ill effects.

Hope you feel better soon @Mary!:hug:
 

jesse's mom

Senior Member
Messages
6,795
Location
Alabama USA
I just found a link that might be helpful for people looking for information on steroids. There is a cold running through my house and I started getting it! When I started sniffling and blowing my nose a hundred times an hour, I took one 4mg MethylPREDNIsolone yesterday and one today. Both doses in the morning. I am the only family member who is not miserable with a cold and cough.

I tend not to take the steroids that are prescribed for me, for the inflammation in my neck and bronchitis. I hate the side effects, especially the sleep disturbance! The hungry all the time is not so great for me either.

I am glad I went ahead with this low dose. The way it is usually prescribed is: Take 6, 4mg tablets on the first day, then one less per day until gone. No horrible side effects this time so far. I even slept last night, and my neck is feeling a little better these last two days.

Here is the link if you are interested, just general information. https://www.acponline.org/system/fi...the_good_bad_ugly_-_michael_zacharisen_md.pdf
 

Mary

Moderator Resource
Messages
17,335
Location
Southern California
Hi @jesse's mom - Sorry, I missed your first post above! :( I ended up just taking 3 tablets on day 1, and then 2 the next, and then just stopped it. I don't know if it helped me or not. I did read that Advil could help in the same way because it's anti-inflammatory and that was the whole point of the methylprednisolone, to reduce inflammation.

I am glad I went ahead with this low dose. The way it is usually prescribed is: Take 6, 4mg tablets on the first day, then one less per day until gone. No horrible side effects this time so far. I even slept last night, and my neck is feeling a little better these last two days.

I'm very glad the low dose seems to be helping you! Yeah, that's how mine was prescribed, 6, 5, 4, etc. But I was afraid to take all that!

I'm mostly recovered. I was better and then I crashed and so I relapsed some, but not as badly as I had been. @Hip has written about corticosteroids being PEM shielders, helping to prevent PEM in this thread:
Corticosteroids such as prednisone, prednisolone and hydrocortisone are reported to be potent PEM shielders. When normal doses of these corticosteroids are taken around one or two hours before any physical or mental exertion, they can totally prevent any PEM from later appearing.

But these drugs were found to be useless if taken after the exertion. That is, they do not help if you are already experiencing PEM from a previous period of exertion.

Note that it is normal doses of corticosteroids (eg, prednisolone 20 mg, or hydrocortisone 80 mg) that can prevent PEM, not the low doses (eg, prednisolone 5 mg, or hydrocortisone 20 mg) that some ME/CFS patients take daily.
I have yet to try this, though it's been in the back of my mind for a long time!