What to do when the immune system is severely depressed by prednisone use?

[Rawdietforhealth]

I have seen some amazing results on a raw diet to help improve my health but recently I have had to take large doses of prednisone (60mg/day) which immediately saved me from a more serious eye operation by dramatically reducing fluid build up that caused a tractional retinal detachment.  Within two days on prednisone my surgery was postponed and I may only need a minor operation to remove a membrane as long as the fluid does not build up again.  I can thank the fast working prednisone for helping so quickly to reduce inflammation and my strong immune system that was also, unfortunately, increasing the fluid build up.  The problem now is with the side-effects of the prednisone.  My blood sugar levels have jumped to 146 so I have to cut back a bit on fruit and certain juices but the worrying side effect is the almost complete drop in my white blood cell count to less than 50% of minimal levels. This was deemed necessary in the beginning but now I have a compromised immune system and have been warned about raw food. I am considering to temporarily switch to a cooked paleo diet until my immune system is back up as I gradually get off prednisone over the next month.  Any advice?

[Rawdietforhealth]

My plan is to only eat raw vegetables and some fruit that can be peeled. Steam other vegetables and sear all meat and fish to avoid bacteria.  I am still not sure how to deal with eating raw eggs as this now seems to be effecting my stomach due to my week immune system.

[goodsamaritan]

How about stop taking prednisone?

Then replace it with a cooked paleo diet?

Like in the cook books at http://paleodiet.co ?

It has meal plans so you know what a cooked paleo diet meal plan looks like.

[bharminder]

From my experience long term use of antibiotics is not healthy. I'm not sure what I would do if I were in your situation.


I would not hesitate to get off raw meats if I believed it would harm me. Consider alternative anti-inflammatories, turmeric, ginger,

Why did your have eye problems to begin with? What did your doctor tell you? And, why do You think you developed an eye issue?

[Rawdietforhealth]

Unfortunately getting off prednisone must be done gradually over two weeks to avoid more serious complications.  My doctor has agreed to starting me on a gradual step down process to reduce and stop prednisone over the next 15 days so, by the end of December, I should have normal WBC and blood sugar levels.  I only have to monitor the fluid build up in my eye so that it does not return.  Right now, the prednisone is helping to control this.  Hopefully, a week was long enough to reverse the fluid build up. In the meantime, I need to be careful about what I eat until WBC count is normal.  I do believe a raw diet is great and not risky for those who are healthy but raised this for those with compromised immune systems.  since I do not plan on staying for on a cooked paleo diet for very long, I was looking for something I could view online rather than buying a cook book.

For info about the history of my eye problems, you can check my blog at https://vitrectomydiary.wordpress.com/

[kurite]

Are you worried about infection from raw meat because AV started eating raw meat with an extremely compromised immune system.

[Rawdietforhealth]

Luckily my prednisone has been dropped to 10mg and my WBC and blood sugar levels have returned to normal.  As long as the inflammation under my retina does not increase over the next week, I will be able to drop the prednisone completely by next week Thursday. I have continued my raw food diet even though I did sear the meat and fish for 5 seconds on either side when my WBC count was down but I am now back to mostly raw. Just hoping that my eye heals enough to avoid another serious surgery but it looks like I will probably need one to two more surgeries - PVR membrane peeling and a cataract operation - over the next four months in order to get most of my eye sight back in my left eye.  Hoping and praying for the best and also continuing my raw food diet to strengthen my body and help my eye heal faster.  I thank GoodSamaritan for all his advice.  I never would have tried the raw food diet without him!

[RawZi]

    http://www.indium-xl.net/indium-xl/benefits/benefits.htm
    Indium helps lower eye pressure.  Marijuana does too.  I learned these by reading a long time ago, and have never seen anything that proved otherwise.  Keeping your blood pressure low may prove helpful with this.  Passion fruit can help keep blood pressure low, as can eating other exotic fruit like hagua
.

    I find, although I don't have a diagnosis of high blood pressure (never), that my pressure gets too high for my comfort by eating red meat.  I feel better with white meat (raw of course and chemical free source).  Also, I know people who lowered their diagnosed hbp by drinking raw fresh made celery juice.

    I think these things may help you.

    Before I started eating an RAF diet, my eyes felt like they were burning.  The high fat raw pure diet has releved that burning, and relaxed my eyes nicely, yet with a strong healthy feeling relaxed.

[Rawdietforhealth]

RawZi, thanks for the advice.  I have been drinking and eating 5-6 fresh young coconuts everyday for a month along with 2-3 fertilized organic duck eggs and my skin feels baby soft.  My eyes are also getting better.  This week I got the best news I could get.  Not only has my pressure remained low but now the scar tissue in my eye seems to be relaxing so I may be able to avoid a membrane peeling surgery altogether and only require a cataracts operation sometime next year to get my vision back.  I have been very happy with the raw food diet but have found it easier to get red meat both fresh organic beef and sashimi tuna.  White meat such as fresh chicken does not appeal to me yet although I see that goodsamaritan found some good quality chicken meat the other day.  One day I will have to try it.  What other types of white meat do you eat?

[RawZi]

RawZi, ... What other types of white meat do you eat?

    For getting rid of scarring, I think pineapple, coconut cream and cucumber may also be particularly helpful.  Coconut cream may be powerful stuff, so be careful.  Pineapple may be tolerated better eaten together with raw grassfed dairy cream or something else buffering.

    I eat any white meat.  I know tuna is usually red, but for I don't know what reason I think it can be considered white meat.  I eat raw pork, highpork, raw chicken, highchicken, raw quail, raw oysters, high oysters, etc etc really anything available.

[Rawdietforhealth]

I am in the US now for a few days and had some healthy portions of wild salmon this AM for breakfast.  Still not ready for raw chicken or pork though.  Especially nit high meat yet ;-)

Will eat more pineapple as you suggested.