I'm on corticosteroids because I'm an ulcerative colitis(an autoimmune disease which all about immune response & inflammation in colon) patient. Currently on 15 mg per day day. I'don't know whether I should do something to optimize my workout because of my meds.

 

My height is 1.78 meters(5'10'') and weight is 65 kg(141 lbs) last I was checked at gym, my body fat was less than 9 kgs. My age is 23. I'm very new at bodybuilding so I don't lknow what my goal should be exactly. I just want to have good stamina and above average strength. I've been using corticosteroids for a long time(around 4 years) and only recently learned how harmful they can be, so my body was very weak when I started around 3 months ago. I gained 3 kgs muscle mass on my first month but then my disease flared up and I had to increase my pred dosage to 40 mg which caused me to lose around half of my newbie gains. I have some questions, if it's against the rules that I discuss this, you can move or delete my post.

 

1) AFAIK, Prednisolone accelerates the muscle breakdown and slows down recovery. But I don't know much about the actual process. So, if I'm burning more proteins, for instance, would increasing my protein intake per day compensate this affect, even a little bit?

 

2) They told me prednisolone weakens my tendons and can cause them to snap if I do heavylifting, so I'm afraid to push myself too much. Are there any safe exercises I can do without worrying about that?

 

3) Would timing, or breaking my meds to smaller multiple dosages help me? I take all my daily pred on one go, before I go to bed. Does that halter my muscle recovery during sleep, if it's more than my waking hours? Would taking my med in 2x7,5 mg doses or 3x5 mg doses help optimize my performance? My performance during workouts are really inconsistent when I'm on higher doses.

Onur,

 

See my replies below:

 

1) Prednisone is a catabolic steroid and is the most potent anti-inflammatory available. It is not that it breaks down muscle tissue but rather it puts the body in a catabolic state meaning things are broken down rather than being built up - in this case it suppresses the immune system and the inflammation response associated with your condition. To build muscle, you need to be in an anabolic state. Prednisone also increases blood pressure and blood sugar levels and causes water retention. You probably are noticing your face is a bit puffy or people are commenting you look a bit puffy. This is normal as corticosteroids are also part of your "fight-or-flight" response. Here the body increases blood sugar to power your brain and muscles, hightens awareness and blood pressure, stops all muscle building and digestion, and lowers testosterone. This is so the body is ready to run or fight to preserve itself. Taking Prednisone is putting much more catabolic steroids in the body than it will normally produce thus exacerbating these events.

 

Contrary to what your physician may be telling you, most auto-immune diseases are caused by diet or something being eaten, drank, or exposed to that the body is overly sensitive. The body deals with this sensitivity by using the immune system to attack and destroy the offender(s). Sometimes it gets over-active and attacks healthy tissue at the site of the irritation. Your colon is responsible for removing all toxins as well as reclaiming water from the food you eat. Irritable bowels occur due to something being ingested that is causing local inflammation and causing an overreaction of the immune system. Until you find the offending substance, chronic inflammation occurs. Most modern gastroenterologists are not trained in nutrition and treat these disorders with drugs rather than try to find the root cause. Things like artificial colors and sweetners in processed food as well as typical culprits like gluten, dairy, nuts, and some forms of protein can cause irritable bowels. There are so many chemicals and additives in most processed foods and drinks that unless you are buying and cooking your own food from scratch it will be hard to find the offending chemical.

 

2) They are correct that Prednisone will have a negative impact on your connective tissues for the reasons I listed above. You will need to be careful with how heavy you lift and you will need to ensure you are eating enough sulphur containing foods like garlic and onions to help maintain and repair the collagen in your tendons and ligaments. You will need to progress slowly with how heavy you lift and may need to resort to more volume training with moderate to light weighs than heavy weight training. As your blood pressure is also increased on Prednisone, it would be adviseable not to strain too hard too long with heavy weights.

 

3) The only way to maximize muscle building and optimize your workouts is to get off the Prednisone completely. I am not a doctor and I can not recommend what you do in relation to your medications or the dosages or frequency of use. All I can impart is that training with weights will be challenging on any dose of corticosteroids like Prednisone - your body will be in a constant catabolic state.

 

John

Thanks for your reply John.

To be honest, I tried going on a diet. I can say that for a whole month, I may have eaten only chicken and bananas and that kind of food restriction didn't do shit. I was gluten-free the whole time as far as I know. Only thing I know for sure makes me ill is milk and not much. Cheese and yoghurt doesn't do much.

 

I also tried a nicotine patch because statistically, smoking seems to be quite related to my disease and I was a heavy passive smoker a couple of years before my diagnosis.

 

After my last flare up, I had come back on steroids. I have no intention of continuing them, so first thing I'm gonna is to wait for another Immunosupressant(Imuran) that is suppose take effect after three months of continuous use and I'm a month and a half in at the moment. If that doesn't keep me in maintenance, I'll choose the biologic medications route, namely Remicade and Humira which are both TNF Alpha Inhibitors. I'll do everything I can to get rid of steroids, because they started affecting my mind much more than they did before; they make it really hard for me to concentrate, I get distracted with smallest things, I can't listen to class, I get a weird rage, depression and euphoria from time to time.

 

I'm in my summer holiday at the moment and I have to bear with prednisolone at least for another month and a half. That's okay, but I also want to use my free time during summer efficiently in bodybuilding, so any advice that might help me achieve this goal as best as I could will be much appreciated. Any supplements that might make it easier for my muscles to repair like L-Glutamine for instance.

 

@NoPainWithoutGain I can say I'm pretty good with managing stress. Only thing that observed, which makes my symptoms worse is heartbreak lol. I'm always unlucky with ladies I really like and that and my disease make each other worse. Other than that, I'm a pretty relaxed person. Actually I'm so relaxed, it annoys everyone around me haha. Pred rage isn't included of course.

Onur,

 

See my replies below:

 

1) Prednisone is a catabolic steroid and is the most potent anti-inflammatory available. It is not that it breaks down muscle tissue but rather it puts the body in a catabolic state meaning things are broken down rather than being built up - in this case it suppresses the immune system and the inflammation response associated with your condition. To build muscle, you need to be in an anabolic state. Prednisone also increases blood pressure and blood sugar levels and causes water retention. You probably are noticing your face is a bit puffy or people are commenting you look a bit puffy. This is normal as corticosteroids are also part of your "fight-or-flight" response. Here the body increases blood sugar to power your brain and muscles, hightens awareness and blood pressure, stops all muscle building and digestion, and lowers testosterone. This is so the body is ready to run or fight to preserve itself. Taking Prednisone is putting much more catabolic steroids in the body than it will normally produce thus exacerbating these events.

 

Contrary to what your physician may be telling you, most auto-immune diseases are caused by diet or something being eaten, drank, or exposed to that the body is overly sensitive. The body deals with this sensitivity by using the immune system to attack and destroy the offender(s). Sometimes it gets over-active and attacks healthy tissue at the site of the irritation. Your colon is responsible for removing all toxins as well as reclaiming water from the food you eat. Irritable bowels occur due to something being ingested that is causing local inflammation and causing an overreaction of the immune system. Until you find the offending substance, chronic inflammation occurs. Most modern gastroenterologists are not trained in nutrition and treat these disorders with drugs rather than try to find the root cause. Things like artificial colors and sweetners in processed food as well as typical culprits like gluten, dairy, nuts, and some forms of protein can cause irritable bowels. There are so many chemicals and additives in most processed foods and drinks that unless you are buying and cooking your own food from scratch it will be hard to find the offending chemical.

 

2) They are correct that Prednisone will have a negative impact on your connective tissues for the reasons I listed above. You will need to be careful with how heavy you lift and you will need to ensure you are eating enough sulphur containing foods like garlic and onions to help maintain and repair the collagen in your tendons and ligaments. You will need to progress slowly with how heavy you lift and may need to resort to more volume training with moderate to light weighs than heavy weight training. As your blood pressure is also increased on Prednisone, it would be adviseable not to strain too hard too long with heavy weights.

 

3) The only way to maximize muscle building and optimize your workouts is to get off the Prednisone completely. I am not a doctor and I can not recommend what you do in relation to your medications or the dosages or frequency of use. All I can impart is that training with weights will be challenging on any dose of corticosteroids like Prednisone - your body will be in a constant catabolic state.

 

John

Onur,

 

While I understand you are looking for anything that will help with your situation and reduce/eliminate flare-ups, immune suppressing and TNF Alpha inhibitors have there long term side effects as well. Sometimes the offending item may not be something you eat but something you drink or breathe. Have you tried going full vegetarian and eliminate all meats? The meat produced today, even fish, is full of all sorts of chemicals, hormones, and junk. Milk is a perfect example and may explain why you can tolerate cheese. Milk has Rbgh as well as the byproducts from the GMO feed they are given as well as all the hormones and antibiotics.

 

The other possible trigger is an inbalance of your microbiome - the billions of healthy bacteria living in your gut. There is losts of new research showing the negative effects like IC and Crohn's which are attributable to a build-up of non-symbiotic bacteria in the gut. Processed foods, food additives, artificial sweetners, colorings, hormones, man-made sugars, as well as a lack of sufficient dietary fiber exacerbate the situation. A diet of just chicken and bananas would not work as most chicken meat is polluted - especially for those who may be ultra-sensitive to this pollution.

 

It may be worth a try to remove all potential sources of irritation and try just eating only wholesome organic vegetables, fruits, and nuts and drinking only bottled water. You can eat beans and nuts to ensure you get enough protein. Soy is all GMO so it needs to be avoided and unfortunately all mass produced protein powders contain artificial sweetners which need to be avoided. You may have tried this already or may be contemplating it. I only offer it as additional things to try so you don't need to be constantly dependent on medications. You would be surprised how many toxins and chemicals we are exposed to on a daily basis in our food and drink. Some people's genetic profile make them more susceptible to irritation and inflammation that don't effect somone else. Unfortuntaley, outside of organic fruits and vegetables and bottled water, the remaining food supply is tainted to some degree. Unless you live on a farm and grow your own food and slaughter your own meat, there is not much you can eat in the general mass produced food supply.

 

John

 

Onur,

 

While I understand you are looking for anything that will help with your situation and reduce/eliminate flare-ups, immune suppressing and TNF Alpha inhibitors have there long term side effects as well. Sometimes the offending item may not be something you eat but something you drink or breathe. Have you tried going full vegetarian and eliminate all meats? The meat produced today, even fish, is full of all sorts of chemicals, hormones, and junk. Milk is a perfect example and may explain why you can tolerate cheese. Milk has Rbgh as well as the byproducts from the GMO feed they are given as well as all the hormones and antibiotics.

 

The other possible trigger is an inbalance of your microbiome - the billions of healthy bacteria living in your gut. There is losts of new research showing the negative effects like IC and Crohn's which are attributable to a build-up of non-symbiotic bacteria in the gut. Processed foods, food additives, artificial sweetners, colorings, hormones, man-made sugars, as well as a lack of sufficient dietary fiber exacerbate the situation. A diet of just chicken and bananas would not work as most chicken meat is polluted - especially for those who may be ultra-sensitive to this pollution.

 

It may be worth a try to remove all potential sources of irritation and try just eating only wholesome organic vegetables, fruits, and nuts and drinking only bottled water. You can eat beans and nuts to ensure you get enough protein. Soy is all GMO so it needs to be avoided and unfortunately all mass produced protein powders contain artificial sweetners which need to be avoided. You may have tried this already or may be contemplating it. I only offer it as additional things to try so you don't need to be constantly dependent on medications. You would be surprised how many toxins and chemicals we are exposed to on a daily basis in our food and drink. Some people's genetic profile make them more susceptible to irritation and inflammation that don't effect somone else. Unfortuntaley, outside of organic fruits and vegetables and bottled water, the remaining food supply is tainted to some degree. Unless you live on a farm and grow your own food and slaughter your own meat, there is not much you can eat in the general mass produced food supply.

 

John

 

Onur,

 

While I understand you are looking for anything that will help with your situation and reduce/eliminate flare-ups, immune suppressing and TNF Alpha inhibitors have there long term side effects as well. Sometimes the offending item may not be something you eat but something you drink or breathe. Have you tried going full vegetarian and eliminate all meats? The meat produced today, even fish, is full of all sorts of chemicals, hormones, and junk. Milk is a perfect example and may explain why you can tolerate cheese. Milk has Rbgh as well as the byproducts from the GMO feed they are given as well as all the hormones and antibiotics.

 

The other possible trigger is an inbalance of your microbiome - the billions of healthy bacteria living in your gut. There is losts of new research showing the negative effects like IC and Crohn's which are attributable to a build-up of non-symbiotic bacteria in the gut. Processed foods, food additives, artificial sweetners, colorings, hormones, man-made sugars, as well as a lack of sufficient dietary fiber exacerbate the situation. A diet of just chicken and bananas would not work as most chicken meat is polluted - especially for those who may be ultra-sensitive to this pollution.

 

It may be worth a try to remove all potential sources of irritation and try just eating only wholesome organic vegetables, fruits, and nuts and drinking only bottled water. You can eat beans and nuts to ensure you get enough protein. Soy is all GMO so it needs to be avoided and unfortunately all mass produced protein powders contain artificial sweetners which need to be avoided. You may have tried this already or may be contemplating it. I only offer it as additional things to try so you don't need to be constantly dependent on medications. You would be surprised how many toxins and chemicals we are exposed to on a daily basis in our food and drink. Some people's genetic profile make them more susceptible to irritation and inflammation that don't effect somone else. Unfortuntaley, outside of organic fruits and vegetables and bottled water, the remaining food supply is tainted to some degree. Unless you live on a farm and grow your own food and slaughter your own meat, there is not much you can eat in the general mass produced food supply.

 

John

 

John,

Thanks for all your suggestions. TNF blocker medications and Imuran has their own side effects yes but as far as I learned from people who take them, those side effects are pretty rare, especially lenfoma and they're a lot less annoying(not talking about lenfoma on this one of course) compared to pred side effects. Also, eventhough we still consumed processed foods as a family, I practically grew in a farm; playing in the mud, tending to chicken and cattle, getting cuts and bruises all the time. Eating fresh fruits and vegetables grown either in our own farm or other people's. We were making our own yoghurt, from the milk of our cattle. I didn't even eat store yoghurts and I still despise them. Before my 18th birthday homever, I started seeing blood in my stool and you can guess the rest. Local hospital couldn't diagnose me, so we had to go to bigger city with a bigger hospital. They managed to diagnose me put fucked up the treatment part so we went to an even bigger city with a better hospital. I had to postpone my college education for two years then I moved to biggest city in my country(Istanbul, I live in Turkey) to receive it. Changing where I live and who I live with, also changed my eating habits but disease stayed the same. It just doesn't go away and trying to live without meds distrupts my daily routine pretty badly due to the nature of my disease. Too many bowel movements, fatigue due to blood loss and all. Last time I tried to go without my meds, I slowly tapered my pred dose to 5 mg per day and had a flare up. Then I had raise the dose, to 40 mgs per day, I became so mentally unstable and depressed, I couldn't do anything for weeks. I can't go into full remission. Only thing I want to do at the moment is get rid of corticosteroids because it's limiting both my mental and physical progress, at the same time. To be honest, I'm tired of being a bad patient and fighting my doctor so I'm giving up. I'll do whatever he asks me to do, just to get rid of pred at this point. I'm even thinking of enduring the surgery if it comes to that.

 

@Scott_Herman I do 3 sets with 10 reps for most exercises and I try to increase my weight whenever I can. Had a workout plan prepped for me at gym but I don't know if they took my meds into consideration.(TBH, I don't think they did). I plan to do 4 sets when I can from now on, I'll also check out the 8 week program you linked me! I've been using the same program for almost 8 weeks so it needs to change anyway, Thanks! :)

Onur,

 

I sympathize with your situation. Again, my personal beliefs are that the majority of today's ills can be reversed with proper nutrition versus constant reliance on drugs of any kind - hence my comments to your posts. While what you say is true, the sad fact is all meds have on average 70 side effects - some serious some not, some frequent some infrequent. Unfortunately, everyone's body chemistry is different so you won't know the true side effects and intensity until you use the drug. You really can't go by what others have experienced or what was documented in the clinical trials. However, getting of Prednisone and getting yourself in a more productive mental and physical state is important as well.

 

The only other nutritional advice I can offer is to see if you have thought about increasing your healthy fat levels. Inflammatory diseases like UC can be reduced or corrected if the core inflammation is relieved. Healthy saturated fats like coconut oil and anti-inflammatory PUFAs like Omega 3s are very effective in helping in your situation. They also have the added benefit of stabilizing your moods and mental processes as the brain is made entirely of fat and cholesterol.

 

John

That is something I haven't tried yet. I'll look into that. Natural anti-inflammatory foods are something I'm interested in, yet I haven't had the chance to test any. I'm planning to try taking circumin extract to lessen inflammation as I'm told it's really effective for some people. Sadly, some things are hard to find or really expensive here. Coconut oil shouldn't be very expensive though. Thanks :)

Excellent. Also limit your Omega 6 intake as it is pro-inflammatory. Most people get way too much Omega 6 because they were led to believe that vegetable oils like corn, soy, sunflower, safflower, etc are good for you. To the contrary, these are not natural oils and highly destructive to health by promoting constant inflammation. Olive oil and coconut oil are the only oils outside of pure grass-fed butter people should be cooking with for health. Even Canola oil is not that great as you must use very hazadous chemicals to extract the oil.

 

John

One small question though. I was just watching Scott's video about getting enough sleep and wanted to ask again about timing my meds since it got lost in our conversation; I always have a hard time sleeping and hard time waking up. I go to gym at 8 or 9 PM. I sleep around 4 AM and wake up in different times because my sleep is quite irregular. I mostly sleep around 8 to 11 hours. I take my pred pills at night, before I sleep, would it be better if I take them at morning or would they damage my workout performance? Or is it just unimportant when I take my pills?