I have polymyalgia, take 10 mg of predisone aday,does the prednisone fight infection or just control pain?

my sed rate is 45,up from 8 a year ago,does the prednisone
only reduce the pain in my body,or does it help fight the infection,if not,what medications are there that will help to reduce the sed rate in my body,my doctor had no answer for me. i have had this for 2 years,my doctor first put me on 80mg
of prednisone,this was to much,my face blew up and i was sick
continually,my husband told the doctor to reduce the prednisone to 10 mg a day,since than i have had no pain,but my sed rate has esculated.i came down with this condition 2 years ago when i slipped on the ice and injured my head,my husband took me to our doctor,and he said,just a large bump on your head,it will go away,the bump was 3 inches in diameter and stuck out over an inch,it turned black and green
within 1 minute. 3 days later i was taken to emergency for
the worse overall body pain that i have ever experienced,that is when they told me i had polymyalgia.any meds that can reduce the sed rate,please let me know

I have RA and was put on Predisone..since I've been on predisone it has made me very depressed and i have bad mood swings not to mention...i have gained weight.. Predisone just controlls the pain. In my opinion I think Predisones side effects are much worse then my arthritis pains. I am currently trying to get off it.

Usually, Prednisone is prescribed to reduce swelling of some kind... which in turn can reduce pain.


Uh... what's a "sed rate"?

I've been on so many different amounts of prednisone so I hear ya! This is what I found out for the sed rates:

Sedimentation rate (sed rate) measures the speed at which red blood cells settle to the bottom of a test tube. The presence of certain abnormal proteins in the blood can cause red blood cells to stick together and sink to the bottom more quickly.
Sed rate is a screening test for many different diseases. A high sed rate is not specific to any one disease. Possible causes include:
Infection
Inflammatory diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis and lupus
Blood cancers, such as leukemia and lymphoma
Cancers that have spread (metastasized)
An elevated sed rate may indicate an underlying problem. But further testing is needed to identify the cause of the problem.

I'm sorry, that might not be too much help to you. BUT I am taking prednisone because of pain and inflamation. That is what prednisone is usually prescribed for.

This is what I found about prednisone:
Prednisone is used alone or with other medications to treat the symptoms of low corticosteroid levels (lack of certain substances that are usually produced by the body and are needed for normal body functioning). Prednisone is also used to treat other conditions in patients with normal corticosteroid levels. These conditions include certain types of arthritis; severe allergic reactions; multiple sclerosis (a disease in which the nerves do not function properly); lupus (a disease in which the body attacks many of its own organs); and certain conditions that affect the lungs, skin, eyes, kidneys blood, thyroid, stomach, and intestines. Prednisone is also sometimes used to treat the symptoms of certain types of cancer. Prednisone is in a class of medications called corticosteroids. It works to treat patients with low levels of corticosteroids by replacing steroids that are normally produced naturally by the body. It works to treat other conditions by reducing swelling and redness and by changing the way the immune system works.

Any other questions, feel free to e-mail me. Good Luck