Prednisone and other Medical Drug Issue

Bigger Stronger Leaner Injuries and Rehab
1

Hey everyone,

Long time reader, first time posting.
I’ve been doing a lot of research on my problem but I haven’t been able to find anything remotely close to answering my question so I decided to seek out help here :slight_smile:

Anyway, the last year I had some health issues which required me to take different kinds of medication two of which are Prednisone and Mestinon(a medication that is usually given to patients with Myasthenia Gravis).

First I took the Mestinon one on quite a high dose (reached up to 120mg/day at least) only for about 10 days but given there were no positive results from it I was told to get off it. I did, but no one told me that I should “Taper” off it so I just stopped taking it period. Let’s say this happened friday or saturday. So on Monday I go to do my regular Chest + Tri’s training but I notice I can’t lift a damn thing so I say it must be withdrawal symptoms so about halfway through I just leave thinking that’s the last I’ll have to deal with that.

To this day however my triceps, and possibly my chest muscles given that most strength based exercises recruit triceps as well, are unresponsive when training or even when flexing. The muscle is there yet it just won’t “tense” up.

In addition to that I went through about 4-5 months of Prednisone (about 60mg/day). During that time I felt like a got some slight strength back but it still didn’t feel right. Anyway I was strict enough on my diet so I luckily didn’t put on any water weight but I did lose about 15kg (from 94kg, 1,80m height I was at my best and growing :)) ). No big deal I’ll work hard to get it back.

So although I got off the pred, correctly this time by tapering, (last dose June 17th) I did get some withdrawal symptoms which went away a couple weeks later. But my triceps got weak again.
*** I did do a lot of Injury physiotherapy type exercises for them trying to get them up to par, and assessed strengh by doing push-ups. At first I couldn’t do 1, then worked up to 25 while on pred, and now off it for almost 4 months still only manage about 8-10 and see no improvements ***

Anwyay I keep hearing that Pred takes about 6 months to completely clear out of the body so I would still suffer diminished gains, less-responsive neuromuscular connections until then which I’ve noticed in other muscle groups yet still manage to get a decent session done with them.

So as far as I understand, the mestinon screwed up the the neurotransmitters’ acetylcholinesterase in the triceps so that’s why they are unresponsive and hope that it’s still because of the prednisone “after-effects” that I’m not seeing as much, if any improvement in them. Well that’s my theory anyway

The only thing i’ve found on the subject regarding Extreme Muscle Weakness from Mestinon is that they prescrive Atropine injections localy (and another drug which I forget) but asking around about this drug I get told that it’s for people who don’t work out and I’m better off doing what I’ve been doing and being patient.

Any thoughts? :slight_smile:

Chris

2

Uuuummm, do you have Myasthenia Gravis?

I only ask that because I have MG and as a regular mestinon user, I can honestly say its “long term” effects only last for 4-6 hours. Not days/months. It almost sounds like you do have MG but you haven’t stated that or not. I will mention that there is something weird about mestinon that is probably worth investigating, but this isn’t my day job. Creatine has a habit of “smoothing” out the effects of mestinon and I think that might have something to do with the idea of mestinon just causing your muscles to waste so much energy that the firing rate of fibers is completely awkward. Creatine however allows more energy to be there, thus keeping the contractions a bit smoother. Its probably NOT going to fix your issue but eh, give a week or two of creatine loading a shot and then stay in maintenance at about 2.5 to 5g a day. :smiley: That trick is the only way I can keep my MG in such a remission state.

Prednisone, eh, my experience was that being on it for over a year and tapering off of it, it does take six months to a year for everything to really seem like its back to normal. Hormone levels will look fine but metabolism and the like, takes a long time to get back to pre-prednisone. How that affects your musculature though, I’m not too sure. Prednisone didn’t really do any favors for my strength other than keep the MG away.

Hope this helps in any way possible.