Prednisone
 

I am in the midst of another nasty respiratory infection and am on prednisone. Besides helping with the infection it has given me a lot of energy which i have been lacking for the last 6 years and also has elevated my mood. I have been on prednisone many times in the last 6 years since i have had over 40 respiratory infections during that time period, but i dont remember it giving me so much energy and elevating my mood so well. I know you cant stay on steroids for any length of time without serious side effects, but i was wondering if there is anything similiar that i could try. Except for well butrin nothing else ive been prescribed has helped with energy.

yes... they do that at first...
 

I had a nasty spider bite several years ago (it resembled Lyme).

I had to take really high prednisone to take the inflammation down which was considerable (I could barely walk--my ankle). I was really flying along there. It took all the pain away from my arthritis..erased it. I was pretty perky. After the taper, my crabby achy self returned. :( It did reveal to me how much pain I had everyday, tho, and just must have blocked it all.

When prednisone (it was called cortisone then) came along in the late 40's, it was thought to be a miracle drug. Doctors way overused it and overdosed it.
Many people became manic, and some frankly psychotic! There was a movie made about it even starring James Mason:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049010/plotsummary

So watch out. Today the abuse of anti-inflammatory steroids is less likely, but people on very high doses may react this way, still.
In the short term prednisone is valuable especially for asthma/lungs. If you continue with shortness of breath you could try Singulair...I use this with great success. No steroid actions, it works on inflammation differently.

Hi, thanks, i do take singulaire already 10 mg at night. as with anything there is always too much of a good thing, then it becomes not such a good thing , i just wished that antidepressant for pain also gave energy...ha

I've had to take prednisone many times mostly due to problems with lupus and more specifically a low platelet count. Some of those times, the dosage was rather high. (I pray I wont have to take this medication again). Anyway, I only recall one instance where I felt a higher energy level and was also a bit upbeat while on it. This was followed by some grouchiness when getting off of it. In retrospect, I don't really know why that particular time this is what happened. It could have been going up on a high dosage at a fast rate. Then tapering down rather quickly as well.

In any event...please do your best to control your appetite, and eat well. By this I mean low fat, low sugar. etc. Drink extra water. You might talk with your Dr. about gentle increases and decreases with prednisone.

BTW, even though I found prednisone to be "annoying," it really did seem like a miracle drug!!!

Due to this chronic respiratory infection, when the last course of prednisone was finished, i started getting sicker again, so yesterday i was put on another course starting at 40mg. I havent noticed the same lift in energy this time.

I'm very sorry. My husband noticed how much more energy I have since taking different vitamins, especially the B vitamins. Recently, he started taking a B50 tablet and 1000 mcg of B12 daily. He has noticeably more energy and is very pleased with the results. Try to get in extra rest, but at the same time, if you are able to do so and your doctor says its okay, try to get in a tiny bit of light to moderate exercise a few times a week. And you might benefit from a little moderate sunlight a few days a week as well. Can you sit by a window and read the morning paper, for example? When we don't feel well, the pain/discomfort and medications can sap the life force right out of us. Try to nuture yourself...this means rest, good food, plenty of water, light exercise as tolerated, and sunshine. I hope you will be feeling better soon and able to get off of this medication.

Thanks, i got out in the sunshine today it felt really good.......i have been taking b12 and b complex for years now. I have started to look into rhodiola, its suppossed to boost energy.