PredniSONE :: Suppressing the Immune System

What is your immune system?

This is the key part of your body’s defense against disease and the growth of tumor cells. It’s part of a sophisticated system for detecting bacteria, viruses, worms and other invading microorganisms likely to cause harm. The immune system either prevents infection or fights the problem once it has arrived.

What happens if your immune system slows down?

If your immune system is less active than usual, you are more likely to be infected or, of you already have an infection, it’s more likely to grow serious.

What happens if your immune system speeds up?

Speeding up is just as dangerous as your immune system slowing down. The most important diseases are diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis and lupus. In such cases, the immune system attacks healthy tissue as if it was an invading bacteria.

Why can suppressing the immune system be a “good” result?

If your body is being attacked by an overactive immune system, slowing it down gives the body a chance to recover. So, if you have arthritis or lupus, you will get immediate relief during the period your immune system slows down. Similarly, your immune system might treat a transplanted organ as invading enemy tissue and you would reject the new organ. But, as with all treatments, there is a balance to be struck. The more your immune system slows, the greater the risk you will be infected by another illness or disease. So you have to decide whether relief from arthritis is worth the risk of catching every passing bacterial or viral infection.

How does Prednisone affect the immune system?

The steroids produced by the adrenal gland are a basic building block in the maintenance of the immune system. One of the standard low dose Prednisone tablets is twice the usual amount of cortisol produced by the adrenal gland in one day. When the body detects so much cortisol in the bloodstream, it shuts down future production, i.e. the adrenal gland stops working and so the immune system slows.

What is inflammation?

This is one of the more important indications your immune system is working. If the body detects an invading cell, it attacks it and breaks down the surrounding tissues. This is usually acute inflammation, i.e. once the invader is destroyed, healing begins and the lost tissue regrows. But the inflammation can sometimes continue longer than is necessary, destroying more healthy tissue than it should. Prednisone is effective because, as the immune system slows, so the inflammation subsides. In the case of diseases such as arthritis, this produces immediate relief.