Guest guest Posted February 18, 2005 Report Share Posted February 18, 2005 In order not to put yourself at risk, it is much safer to taper off. However about a year ago I went cold turkey and got off it. I just planned on laying around for two weeks or more and avoiding all stress. I tried to taper off with going every other day on and off as is suggested by some doctors and it just seemed to be more miserable than just quitting all together. I was just taking 10 to 12 mg a day. Some doctors recommend taking cortisone every other day when trying to get off. The off day forces the pituitary to get back to work. Cortisone therapy is worse for the pituitary than the adrenal gland itself. It tends to make the pituitary lazy and it does not easily want to go back to work telling your adrenals to make hormones. for sure the adrenal gland becomes weak from it, too. But, the advice is that if tapering off slowly does not work, then they suggest the every other day scheme to force things back into action. When you are tapering off, you need to be very mindful of stress as you are vulnerable to overdoing and getting into a bad low cortisol situation. Anyway, I have read of some people taking 8 months to get off by dropping a tiny bit at a time and of others who were able to go down 1 mg a week. According to my reading in medical books, getting off cortisone is a highly individual thing. Some can do it easily, others have a very hard time getting their pituitary and adrenals to go back to work. Tish Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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