Since I have full body muscle wasting I'm thinking maybe I should try low dose steroids? Any thoughts?

I respond well to them, and use them a few times per year for flares, or when I fly.

Hi --since neck surgery 2010 --I have taken them several times high dose--3 month on then off 6 months ---right now im having a horrible flare up in arm neck& mainly shoulder ---takes my breath away---and I cant go back on steroids till May due to side effects . I have tried every med for pain nothing works now im trying natural things for inflamation but nothing is kicking in yet.For me at least steroids helped the most between calming this down-- but there are health risks involved with steroids and each person reacts so differently. Hope this helps!!

The benefit of taking them is a reduction in swelling, which if left unchecked can prolong and/or worsen a flare. For muscle wasting? Small amounts of activity once every hour or two is likely your best bet. Even doing exercises in a bathtub can help.

I do exercises every day in the pool but my muscle continue to atrophy,,,I thought since athletes use them y can't I give it a go? I really don't have any swelling,,, I am deflating, not inflating..lol

Thanks for your responses

Debbie

Debbie
I don't know anything about your previous CRPS experience so i apologise if anything I post is irrelevant to you but I hope it's some help.

When you say that athletes use steroids and so you are considering them for atrophy, I don't know if you are meaning athletes using steroids legally or illegally. There are countless different types of steroid which have different effects. Illegal use involves intramuscular self-injection of steroids but it is completely useless without also doing significant physical training. The steroids themselves do nothing useful, its only when an athlete then trains that any benefits (over and above training without use of steroids) may be obtained. It allows athletes to recover faster, train longer and harder or develop greater muscle and bone mass than would otherwise be obtainable.

If you are talking about legal steroid use in athletes, this is very heavily controlled and regulated. Steroids are prohibited by all sports that subscribe to the world anti-doping provisions and any exceptions have to be medically justified in advance of administration (except in emergencies when approval must be obtained retrospectively). The kind of purpose for which you are considering steroids is very unlikely to be relevant to anyone who is an athlete operating legally.

Steroids have been used to treat people with HIV and MS who have muscle atrophy but the success depends on the reason for the atrophy occurring in the first place. It's not helpful with disuse atrophy and where neurogenic (nerve related) atrophy exists, it seems to depend very much on the exact type of underlying neurogenic atrophy at work. There is also some evidence that exercise is just as effective in many neurogenic atrophies.

I am guessing from your posts you dont yet have a known cause for your atrophy. It's possible that your atrophy is disuse related but the amount of exercise you are able to do in the pool just isn't enough to stop the atrophy, let alone to reverse it. It may be a neurogenic form but usually this can be determined because the two types don't present in the same way. Its always worth discussing the options with your doctor to see if steroids will help but the seriousness of the side effects can't be ignored and many of the causes of muscle atrophy, unfortunately, won't respond so the odds might be against you.

I had major atrophy at one point as well. I live by what I refer to as the Goldilocks method. I'll clean 5-10 minutes, do my stretching exercises, take my dog for a walk, etc. just long enough where my pain is edging up, then I go read or watch something mellow, and an hour or two later, I try again. Since you were working previously, you might want to try really breaking your activities up. I used to do more at one time, then crash and burn, and not want to move for days--this was when I was experiencing atrophy. Slow and steady works for me. This might not help you at all, but it might be worth a try.

My understanding of bodybuilders that use steroids, is that they won't get bigger if they don't increase their workouts. The steroids allow more intense training, since they help repair the damaged muscles faster.

fMichael has written about steroids in the past in relation to RSD, so you might want to search through his posts.

Thanks for your wealth of knowledge !,,I think I can say my atrophy is not from disuse, for example my neck muscles r now atrophying and I use them. No doc seems to know why this is happening but I did test pos for small fiber neuropathy in my rsd leg.i see my neurologist Thursday so I will talk to him then..we have to figure this out as I am losing my ability to get up...I don't think I could handle being bed bound but that's we're I m heading
Debbie