Prednisone question

Hi all - I think most of you know my daughter is a swimmer. Three weeks out of the hospital on Remi and her highest doses of Prednisone she swam in a championship and turned in some awesome swims.

Since tapering Prednisone she has not been able to get those times again and is starting to get disappointed.

Is Prednisone a performance enhancing steroid or does it just take away their ills so they feel better and able to perform?

little swimmer here-
also off and on pred.
when his 6-mp wasn't working properly and he was on a lower dose of pred- It did not improve his times at all.

This time around on steroids he is "better" able to swim 4 laps with out rest (huge) for us. But hasn't had a meet since March so not sure on times.

So I think in our case it just helped him feel better so had more energy = faster swimming.

That is one of Prednisone's amazing side effects(the very few that exist). Prednisone can cause mania and increased energy. Some days I feel like I could run marathons because of all the increased energy I get with Prednisone.

As you taper off the steroids, people tend to get more lethargic and tired. It's part of the steroid withdrawls and is normal.

MLP: right...so my question now is if the REmi and EN are supposedly working why is she not getting close to those times?

Keeping the faith: Ah maybe you answer my question above. Maybe she will never get those times..maybe I will have coach stop seating her with those times. Maybe this is also why the WADA does not allow Prednisone use.

Thanks guys

Yes pred is banned in and out of competiton. But you can get a TUE allowing it use for crohn's. The information I have read says it is banned due,to side effects from use not its effect on performance.

hi there.
i can tell you by experience that prednisone will boost your energy and make u go faster and last longer. i have been doing agressive inline skating since i was a kid. and when i get put on pred i do not get tired and my perfomance is increased by alot. but you should just know that the less amount she takes of pred the more tired she will feel if she does not keep training / exercising. its practically a legal way of doping.

There are two types of steroids, anabolic and corticosteroids. Prednisone is a corticosteroid and is banned in ?many/?most sports. Because it's intended use is to treat inflammation in sporting circles it is often referred to as a performance enabler whereas anabolic's are deemed to be performance enhancers.

Having said that and as already mentioned it can increase alertness and energy levels as many members here can attest to. I think to be fair to O the times that were produced when on the highest doses of Pred should be discarded as a benchmark or as you are already seeing she will only become increasingly disappointed and disillusioned with her swimming.

I so hope that at some point in the not too distant future O will indeed reach those times again, bless her...she is such a champion as are you Mum!...:hug:

Dusty. xxx

You're confusing anabolic steroids with corticosteroids like Dusty said, there's no performance gain to be had from corticosteroids. Whatever you think you're getting from it is in your head.


"In a counterbalanced, double-blind design, 1 mg ACTH or placebo was injected into 16 professional cyclists. They cycled for 1 h on a bicycle ergometer at a submaximal level, defined as 60% of maximal performance on a pretest with a load increase of 50 W per minute. After 1 h, load was increased by 10 W per minute until exhaustion. No increase of maximal performance was observed with ACTH, either on the day of drug intake, or on the following day, although substantial increases were measured in physiological variables such as cortisol, glucose, and white corpuscle concentrations. Feelings of fatigue, which were continuously self-rated, were diminished only during submaximal performance. The present technique of systematically distinguishing between physiological, psychological, and performance measurements could help in explaining the persistent belief in the performance enhancing properties of ACTH and other doping substances."


What they are seeing is an increase in cortisol, and in theory that could increase energy since it will rise your blood sugar but in tests it doesn't increase performance at all. (I think this is the "energy" thing people are talking about, but feeling energetic doesn't mean it will increase performance, recreational drugs can make you feel energetic too, but they're not going to make you run any faster, they make you run slower).

In fact it has been shown to weaken performance because it can induce myopathy.

I have been on entocort, it did absolutely nothing performance wise, I have never heard of anyone doing sports who got a benefit out of it, it does nothing.

Something like creatine increases performance, anyone can get that if they want to, but I took it as an adult and not for some performance enhancement, it also has nowhere near the possible side effects as either corticosteroid or anabolic steroids, it's also not something that kids are supposed to take.

Well I guess it is banned for a reason even if not performance enhancing and just performance enabling. O's swimming is proof of it. I was just starting to get scared that the prednisone swims were indicative of her ability when healthy and thaht maybe her current swims meant she wasn't well.

I will have a chat with the coach and ask him to diregard those times for her sake and mine. Also, going foward I guess we are going to have to hope and pray that as she matures in the sport we are able to avoid the steroids or she won't be able to compete. Talk about getting ahead of yourself:ylol:

When I'm on high-dose steroids I can clean the whole house, keep up with work, and drive everyone nuts with non-stop talking. It's like that time in your 3rd trimester they call the "nesting" phase when suddenly you can do up a whole nursery in a week, right before you sit down and decide to not get up until after the baby's born. I suppose it's "performance-enhancing" if the clean house is an indicator, but not really. It's not your normal capabilities and you shouldn't expect it to last after the prednisone fades away. Beware of the opposite effect during the taper and for a while afterwards. You'll have less-than-normal energy, then eventually back to whatever energy level is normal for you.

Sporting rules and all that aside, I wonder if it is better not to compete whilst on steroids anyway. Because it can give a 'false' sense of wellbeing and energy is an athlete more likely to incur an injury under these circumstances??? The mind is willing and the body isn't quite ready type of thing...hmmmmm.

Dusty. xxx

Very good point, DustyKat. Prednisone can cause serious errors in judgment too. I refused it after I realized I was driving through red lights with my kids in the car. The brain just doesn't engage with the will. I won't allow my son to be on long-term prednisone so I don't have to deal with a teen in that situation. I would worry about their judgment in the face of peer pressure while under the influence of prednisone.

Wow! Thanks for the info. That's it no Prednisone during the teen driving years.

I would agree Dusty especially in dangerous sports. Who knew all that this one drug could cause????

Given the state of my house maybe I need to be getting myself a perscription for prednisone:ylol:

Thank you all for escorting me back into my sunny dreamworld as I am no longer worried that O's swim times are not matching her Prednisone times. Here's hoping results on Wednesday don't take me out of my happy place.