Ah, you Joker! :)

Ok so I'm an idiot, and didnt realize you were being sarcastic joker ... wow I feel dumb.

On the prednisone thing, I like Pity have been on it. Twice actually. Just wanted to make clear that corticosteroids have nothing to do with anabolics. For cancer they are actually used as an adjunct for cancer treatment itself and to help with the chemotherapy symptoms. They can increase appetite (a lot) so that could help sometimes. Just want to make sure nobody tries to get prednisone on the street to use for bb'ing purposes, lol..that could kill you. Prednisone absolutely ravishes the body after a while. Muscle wasting can actually be a symptom of long term use although I think some people reported an effect against muscle wasting anecdotally but it doesn't stand up to the actual evidence. From what I've heard it slows down protein synthesis more than it protects from degradation.

You know what, I'm almost positive that someone will read you post and go Ohhhhhh thats what an I.u is

^^ good to know eric, I dont know much about it accept for what I've heard through friends who work at hospitols that use it. Does it not help with muscle wasting?

I don't think that is why they give it although I have heard people saying that. I know that it is given to AIDS patients for many reasons but for actual muscle wasting (a bigtime AIDS symptom) they use test. But you know, ime, prednisone is one of those things that is overused in medicine and I'm sure many times it is used for reasons outside it's actual effectiveness.

It is a corticosteroid and so it is related to the effects of cortisol in your body. In fact it causes adrenal suppression after a while. And also it is given in cases of adrenal insufficiency. Basically to replace a lack of cortisol in the body. So of course cortisol has to do with protein metabolism but we know what excess cortisol does to muscle. People on pred get fat, not muscular :)

I had someone say to me that they "request" pridnisone every year for their sinus problems and I was like WTF?!

I worked as a vet tech and it is used for dogs a bunch. They tend to handle it well compared to people. But how would we know? :)

It definitely does bloat your face, etc like you said. The second time I went on it the side effects were so bad I couldn't even continue taking it. Some people with really bad auto-immune conditions (I have had sarcoidosis) that can't be controlled any other way end up being on pred long-term and it's really a case where the drug itself is slowly killing them but there is no other choice. It causes adrenal shutdown so that is why it has to be tapered off at the end. And that depends on the length of time you've been on it. Going off pred abruptly can be deadly.

But when it is needed it can be a life saver.

i just got it when my asthma got really bad due to sinus infections...cleared up the inflammation in my lungs...i was not recommending it for use as a steroid :)

I know that Pity. I wasn't implying that you were. I was responding to what hrdgain said about the muscle wasting in cancer patients. Didn't want people to equate pred with muscles is all. I mean you never know what some people will do. Lot's of people may have unfinished pred lying around and give it to someone who thinks it will help with bodybuilding...shit like that.

werd....i wasn't implying that you were implying :)

after my bro's dog passed away...they still have some prednisone...and i was having asthma troubles...almost took it :) but i went to doc instead :) and yeah...it's not even anabolic....

That makes sense, the only times I've heard of it used for muslce wasting was in children, perhaps because of the adverse effects of test on prepubesant children ... but thats just speculation.

anyway, back to our regularly scheduled steroid discussion haha.