Steroid therapy recovery

[Foreigner]

So... I'm not on steroids in order to build mass, but my issue relates to steroids so I thought I'd come here and ask the experts.

I've been tapering off prednisone for months now (it's a corticosteroid for those who don't know). I was originally on 60mg to help with a life threatening condition, now passed.

Now that I'm down to a very low dose and will be completely stopping it soon, I'm noticing that I have a lot more fatigue than normal. My testosterone levels are also below normal (bloodwork confirms this), which can be a result of corticosteroid use. I'm concerned that there may be permanent damage to my adrenals due to long-term suppression by prednisone. My doctor said that sometimes it can take up to a year for the adrenals to start coming back to full function after such long corticosteroid use, but some people never achieve full recovery, and some even require low dose prednisone for life in order to function. Someone I know is on 5-10mg for life because her adrenals were damaged by prednisone, granted she has used it for decades. That freaks me out!

I don't want to fuck around with my hormone system too, but I do want to try to help it out as much as possible, so that's why I'm here.

There are herbs I could take for this and I've tried a few, but a lot of them are adrenal stimulants, and stimulating weak adrenals can lead to crisis, so I'm avoiding that. Also, most herbs that treat adrenals are also demulcent so they loosen the bowels (i.e. licorice root), something I absolutely must avoid right now. I know that proper rest and eating well are key, which I've been doing. I'm chronically fatigued anyway so it's not hard to make time for rest in the first place.

I'm wondering about supplements? Someone mentioned I could try 25-50mg of DHEA daily, but I'd be nervous about messing with a sex hormone precursor when I'm still so young. I just don't know enough about it. I've been experimenting with a high quality colostrum supplement recently and I'm finding it very powerful. It contains IGF-1 which has some growth hormone properties, and I do notice more energy from it. Mainly I've been taking it to modulate my immune system which has been haywire since I got sick months ago.

Any advice would be appreciated. This is new territory for me!

 

[CFC]

Hi Foreigner,

If I was in your situation, I think my first move would be to spend a few months seeing if restoring youthful growth hormone levels might recover the adrenals and fight the lethargy.

Unfortunately it's not easy (or cheap) to get hold of quality pharmaceutical synthetic (recombinant) hGH. However it is very easy to get hold of growth hormone releasing peptides, which will cause a release of your body's own natural growth hormones from the pituitary gland.

At the right dose, these can restore your own natural growth hormone to levels approaching those in late puberty. Clearly this should be a very good thing for repair, recovery and energy. It should also help improve your general physical health and wellbeing, especially given that after that long on predisone you're probably not in the best shape of your life?

You would need to inject these peptides subcutaneously (ie into the belly fat with a very fine insulin needle). For maximum effect you would preferably inject 3-4 times across the day, although you could get away with a single injection just before bed as a bare minimum. The bedtime shot helps synchronise with your own natural release of GH at around midnight, theoretically increasing the magnitude of the pulse, and also improving sleep quality.

Specifically, you'd be looking to purchase GHRP-2 and Mod-GRF (1-29). The two work synergistically together. You can think of it like one (Mod GRF - GHRH) initiates the GH pulse, while the other (GHRP-2) increases its amplitude.

There are dozens of peptide websites around, just Google. It's not illegal, merely a 'grey' area at present so we can discuss websites here as long as we're not plugging particular ones.

The typical dose per injection is 100mcg of each. You can use more, but that's approximately maximised on a cost-benefit ratio. Given the relative affordability of GHRP-2 though, you could increase the dose of that to say 150mcg, but beware that it is a Ghrelin mimetic and can make some people ravenously hungry for about 15-30 mins.

The Mod-GRF usually comes as 2mg (2000mcg) and the GHRP-2 comes as 5mg (5000mcg). You reconstitute using sterile/bacteriostatic water, and keep in the fridge until used.

 

[Genetic Freak]

So... I've been tapering off prednisone for months now (it's a corticosteroid for those who don't know). I was originally on 60mg to help with a life threatening condition, now passed.

Now that I'm down to a very low dose and will be completely stopping it soon, I'm noticing that I have a lot more fatigue than normal. My testosterone levels are also below normal (bloodwork confirms this), which can be a result of corticosteroid use. I'm concerned that there may be permanent damage to my adrenals due to long-term suppression by prednisone. My doctor said that sometimes it can take up to a year for the adrenals to start coming back to full function after such long corticosteroid use, but some people never achieve full recovery, and some even require low dose prednisone for life in order to function. Someone I know is on 5-10mg for life because her adrenals were damaged by prednisone, granted she has used it for decades. That freaks me out!

I don't want to fuck around with my hormone system too, but I do want to try to help it out as much as possible, so that's why I'm here.

Any advice would be appreciated. This is new territory for me!

Hi There... I have a friend on prednisone so have looked into his condition extensively... His condition differs to your in that he has permanent damage to the adrenal gland, as opposed to yourself that has merely suppression due to high levels of prednisone...

You are correct to taper off, that is the correct procedure for cessation of prednisone.. Yes you may notice fatigue in the short term this is normal before your adrenal gland returns to normal function..

Your Dr is correct it may take some time for adrenal function to return to normal, but there is a strong likelihood this will happen, so don't panic just yet..

You don't want to mess with your hormonal system, just allow nature to take its course, eat healthy and exercise regularly...

 

[Foreigner]

Thank you for the immediate replies!

CFC... I'm very intrigued but what you just wrote. I wouldn't do HGH because it might cause downregulation of my native growth hormone, which would entail another tapering process. I'm wondering though, if I use GH releasing peptides, couldn't that overtax my pituitary so that when I eventually stop using those peptides, my native ability to release them is somewhat exhausted?

Also... drugs that are in a grey area, hrmm... sometimes that's because there hasn't been enough research done on them to know how exactly they affect people?

My concerns are totally ignorant, and they come from lack of knowledge. You know more about this than I do.

 

[Serotonin101]

Peptides are being used by some in a medical setting. Tesamorelin is being used to treat the uneven fat distribution in aids patients. Some wellness clinics prescribe ghrp and ghrh in addition to hrt. Now the ones you'd be procuring are of the grey market sort as they are deemed "research chemicals" and not pharmaceutical grade. That's all I can offer on this topic unfortunately :/

Side note: been listening to a lot of foreigner lately

 

[CFC]

Thank you for the immediate replies!

CFC... I'm very intrigued but what you just wrote. I wouldn't do HGH because it might cause downregulation of my native growth hormone, which would entail another tapering process. I'm wondering though, if I use GH releasing peptides, couldn't that overtax my pituitary so that when I eventually stop using those peptides, my native ability to release them is somewhat exhausted?

Also... drugs that are in a grey area, hrmm... sometimes that's because there hasn't been enough research done on them to know how exactly they affect people?

My concerns are totally ignorant, and they come from lack of knowledge. You know more about this than I do.

No, there is no evidence of 'overtaxing' the pituitary in any of the studies. In adulthood the issue is generally that the GH already produced in the brain - of which there is plenty - simply isn't released anymore, and is broken down again before ever seeing the light of day. To some extent GHRPs simply encourage the release of this stored and otherwise wasted hormone. Also, the size and frequency of GH pulse that you can naturally achieve with GHRPs is still far below (dozens of times smaller than) levels the body produces in infancy and early puberty, which again mitigates somewhat against any concept of 'exhausting' or overtaxing the system.

In actuality GHRPs have been heavily researched since the 1980s, and as Sero points out they are now increasingly being taken up by life-extension clinics as a natural and more healthy alternative to r-hGH.

The main issue with them being in a 'grey' market is that they do not have to pass through strict monitoring and testing during production. Which implies that not all product are likely to be equal.

There is some conjecture about differing sources of peptides - most claim to be USA produced (for clinical research purposes) with the implication being that the quarternary ('3D' or folded) structure of the peptide is more accurate from US factories than from Chinese ones. This claim can't really be verified satisfactorily without FDA testing procedures...

From a completely anecdotal point of view, I've had several brands of GHRPs and GHRH tested via my own blood levels of GH. All of them recorded an increase of some significance, both 'US' produced brands (in particular Tom's peptides) and several unbranded or Chinese ones. I haven't seen many (well any) other people test their product in this way, but there may be some...

 

[Frankm]

Your pretty intelligent man good info