Steroid Side Effects: How to Reduce Corticosteroid Side Effects

Oral prednisone is the most commonly prescribed systemic steroid in New Zealand. People who use and abuse anabolic steroids do so for the effects related to improved physical performance and muscle growth. Both topical and oral corticosteroids affect your body’s ability to produce collagen, the main structural protein in skin. This can lead to very thin skin as well as poor wound healing, easy bruising, broken blood vessels and stretch marks. The hormone cortisol helps regulate the balance of water, sodium and other electrolytes in your body. When you take corticosteroids, you may retain excess fluid leading to a corresponding spike in blood pressure.

This can happen in a number of joints, but the hip is the most common. If you develop signs suggesting heart problem, such as chest pain, get medical attention quickly. Work with your physician to address any heart risks that can be modified, such as exercise, weight and cholesterol level. Your blood sugar should be followed while you are on steroids, especially if you are a diabetic, since corticosteroids can raise blood sugar. And once users stop taking steroids, they can have withdrawal symptoms such as loss of appetite, tiredness, restlessness, insomnia, mood swings, and depression. Some steroidal hormones are economically obtained only by total synthesis from petrochemicals (e.g. 13-alkyl steroids).

An endocrinologist can help correct these imbalances if indicated. Steroids have been prescribed and taken in many doses and using many different schedules. In some countries, other dosing schedules (i.e, 10 days on, 10 days off, etc.) have been used. The impact that steroids have on the body depends on the dose of the steroid and how often the steroids are taken. People who are taking intermittent doses (i.e., not daily) may have fewer or less severe side effects.

Corticosteroids are man-made drugs that closely resemble cortisol, a hormone that your adrenal glands produce naturally. Corticosteroids are often referred to by the shortened term "steroids." Corticosteroids are different from the male hormone-related steroid compounds that some athletes abuse. Steroid biosynthesis is an anabolic pathway which produces steroids from simple precursors.

With severe episodes or emergencies, high-dose steroids are often given in an IV. As the symptoms improve, the medicine is changed from IV to oral forms and then slowly decreased. If steroid use is brief , it is possible that none of the listed side effects will occur.

For these patients, steroid therapy might eliminate the need for kidney dialysis or transplantation. Examples of local steroid treatments include joint injections, steroids eye drops, ear drops and skin creams. Systemic steroid treatments include oral medicines or medicine that is delivered directly into a vein or muscle .