Is Prednisolone 60 mg Daily OK for FSGS Patients

Question: Hello, I am suffering FSGS. Doctor gives me medicine prednisolone 60 mg daily. Is it OK? Should I recover 100%? I am 30 years old, male, lives in Bangladesh. Kindly suggest.

Answer: FSGS is a severe kidney disease characterized by scars in some of the glomeruli. No treatment can treat the scars. Therefore, you need early treatment to stop the disease from deterioration.

Short-term use of prednisolone is OK for FSGS patients

Prednisolone is a kind of hormone, which resembles a hormone we naturally produce in our adrenal glands called cortisone. It can inhibit inflammatory reaction in the kidneys and decrease permeability of capillaries so as to control protein leakage. The range for prednisone dosage in adults is 5 to 60 mg per day. Generally, prednisone treatment begins with a high doses which is gradually reduced over a period of few weeks. From this point of view, prednisolone 60 mg daily is OK for you. But it can not allow you to recover 100%. Because this kind of medicine can not remove the immune complexes from the kidneys to eliminate inflammation. 

Side effects of prednisone

But you should know that long-term use of prednisone or other glucocortoids has many side effects. For example, it causes your bones to take in less calcium, leading to osteoporosis. It can also slow down the immune system so that you will be more prone to infection and posssibly have an increased risk of getting cancer, diabetes, muscular weakness, etc. Moreover, it can increase in appetite, gain weight, lead to constipation, etc.

Try alternatives in the long run

FSGS treatment is a long process. In the long run, you had better avoid prednisolone and try alternatives. Because some of the glomeruli have been dead, blood can not flow to the kidneys timely, leading to ischemia and anoxia. Micro-Chinese Medicine Osmotherapy, Mediated Foot Bath, Mai Kang and decoction can expand blood vessels and speed up blood circulation to remove stasis and increase blood flow into the kidneys. They can also cleanse immune complexes from the kidneys to eliminate inflammation. Moreover, it can degrade extracellular matrix to stop kidney fibrosis. After a period of treatment, they can protect your kidneys well and kidneys in inflammation can recover. Because all the active ingredients of medicine in these therapies are all herbs, which seldom have side effect so that you can use them for long term.

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