Are you concerned about the dose of your Prednisone? If so, you aren't alone.

Prednisone can be prescribed for a lot of reasons. Also, it's not without it's share of side effects. Because of this, the dosing is all over the lot. The most common dose that you'll see is known as the "Prednisone Taper" or "Taper Dose".

That is, you'll start out at a higher dose and then drop off over time.

Why Dose That Way?

Of course, you ask a good question: why dose Prednisone that way?

Well, there's a couple of reasons and there is no pat answer for it because it depends on the disease that is being treated and also how severe that disease is. Secondly, it also depends on the doctor and what he or she believes and is comfortable with.

So, rather than dealing with all those variables let's talk about what Prednisone does in your body and that will likely help you understand better the dosing concerns with Prednisone.

Prednisone's Actions in Your Body

First and foremost, Prednisone is a corticosteroid (no, not that kind of steroid - different thing entirely) that can suppress your immune system and suppress inflammation in your body.

That's one of the reasons why you see Prednisone used a lot in asthma and arthritis - to help take down inflammation. Prednisone is also used in folks who've had organ transplants and who are at high risk of having their immune system attack the new organs.

When you take Prednisone it actually has to be activated by liver enzymes into it's active form. Once that happens Prednisone mimics the action of cortisol which is a hormone produced in your body by your adrenal glands. Cortisol is often referred to as the 'stress hormone'.

So, you take Prednisone when your doctor feels like your normally occurring steroids from your adrenal gland are insufficient or aren't doing their job.

My Example

A couple of years ago I had a condition called Stress Induced Urticaria. Essentially, I was breaking out in hives all over my body every few months. Especially when I had a lot of stress in my life. This had never happened before.

Long story short: my diet had a huge part to do with it. But, before I was getting things figured out I had to take Prednisone because one of the things that was going on is my immune system was basically attacking my own body.

Of course, when I took the Prednisone, it helped.

But, because Prednisone mimics the hormones naturally found in your body it can have some pretty wide-ranging effects. For example, Prednisone kept me up all night if I took it towards bed. I also found that it caused jitters. And taking it long term can really have a negative impact on a persons immune system.

Another reason for the short pulse dose.

Personally, Prednisone has a place and will likely help you. But the taper dose is not only common - but probably needed because most doctors want to avoid putting someone on long-term Prednisone if they can avoid it because of the effects on your body we discussed above.