weight gain due to steroids

Vaila

hi, a few months ago my gran became v ill and lost a good few stones, when she recoverd she felt great but recently a change in medication has caused her to regain the weight that she had lost and now its became a cycle of depression and chocolate ... she will be seeing the doctor soon if she can alter her meds but in the mean time im wondering if anyone else has been in the same situation and how they dealt with it

thankyou:)

jenniewb

I have not been in this situation, but I did do some reading into steriods when I freaked myself out not long ago over a condition which if it had turned worse would have resulted in me needing to take steroids orally (I had to apply alot of the stuff topically as the condition was still spreading). Luckily for me things worked out OK after some months but didn't pass without me worrying myself and so reading up on things.

What I could work out is alot of the gain in weight would be due to water retention and this is a main factor. Its partly a reason why when you come off steroids, the weight does go down with little if any changes to the diet.

I did read that it can affect mood levels and so as a result, steriods can affect hormone leves which in turn affect mood and so thought processes, comfort eating is common as a result. I don't remember reading anything about a slowed or impaired metabolism - I could have missed something as I just took to sites like netdoctor and nhs direct which may not have had enough info. Does your friend have any info on this?

It is a vicious cycle though as the more you eat, the worse you feel, so you then eat more, then you gain weight and you eat more.... its a hard cycle to break but from what I understood from my reading, breaking it is really the only way out of gaining weight (aside from the water weight) that you really have. I strongly believe it can be done but that it will feel like a battle- I have had friends on medication which makes them want to eat and its not easy by any means but its not impossible if weight is really something major to your friend. Get some medical advice on that though, she may be able to get referred to a nutritionalist or dietition give some specific advice for her.

Exercise was not something I read into when combined with steriods as I already do this and there was no need for me to read about boosting or starting any but maybe could be worth some research? Either way it can improve mood levels so may help with any mood based eating.

Hope your friend gets on OK when she sees the doctor, I would have thought they have better ideas then my reasearch does any how. Good luck!

Vaila

thankyou , my gran will be seeing her doctor this week, so hopefully he will look at her medication again.
it has definetly affected her mood levels for the worse, this combined with other factors including the up and down of weight , swollen cheeks,legs etc has led to a bit of comfort eating too. i was wondering if something more natural like st johns wart might help, but will see what the nhs says first

jenniewb

arran_m wrote: »

thankyou , my gran will be seeing her doctor this week, so hopefully he will look at her medication again.
it has definetly affected her mood levels for the worse, this combined with other factors including the up and down of weight , swollen cheeks,legs etc has led to a bit of comfort eating too. i was wondering if something more natural like st johns wart might help, but will see what the nhs says first

Could help, but could also not help- its natural but then so is Penicillin, and Venom, unfortunately just because its natural it doesn't automatically make it safe so def. worth checking it out with a doctor first.

You can get pills to help with water retention, but they could lead to dehydration so again advice would be best on how much to take from a medical point of view. Having said that if she is able to come off the steroids and onto something else it may be she doesn't need anything like that- nothing worse then making more problems with electrolyte imbalance- one problem is bad enough!

Its worth bearing in mind that few doctors will issue out steriods for any long duration due to the side effects so it could be she just needs to finish a course and go back to normal.

Hope she gets some help though, being ill is bad enough without medication making things worse!