Webmd why steroids are bad for you

Cleveland Clinic is a non-profit academic medical center. Advertising on our site helps support our mission. We do not endorse non-Cleveland Clinic products or services. Prednisone is a strong anti-inflammatory steroid and jack-of-all-trades that is prescribed to treat conditions such as:. What you can do: Practice healthy lifestyle habits, including getting enough sleep and eating healthfully.

Ford says. Ford notes. While prednisone is not a stimulant, it can make you feel more alert or jittery. Call your doctor if you experience these or other unusual symptoms while you are taking decreasing doses of prednisone or after you stop taking the medication. Prednisone is also sometimes used with antibiotics to treat a certain type of pneumonia in patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome AIDS.

Talk to your doctor about the risks of using this drug for your condition. This medication may be prescribed for other uses; ask your doctor or pharmacist for more information. Your doctor may instruct you to follow a low-salt, high potassium, or high calcium diet.

Your doctor may also prescribe or recommend a calcium or potassium supplement. Follow these directions carefully. Talk to your doctor about eating grapefruit and drinking grapefruit juice while you are taking this medication. When you start to take prednisone, ask your doctor what to do if you forget to take a dose. Write down these instructions so that you can refer to them later.

Call your doctor or pharmacist if you miss a dose and do not know what to do. Do not take a double dose to make up for a missed dose. Prednisone may slow growth and development in children. Your child's doctor will watch his or her growth carefully. Talk to your child's doctor about the risks of giving prednisone to your child.

Prednisone may increase the risk that you will develop osteoporosis. Talk to your doctor about the risks of taking prednisone and about things that you can do to decrease the chance that you will develop osteoporosis. Some patients who took prednisone or similar medications developed a type of cancer called Kaposi's sarcoma.

Talk to your doctor about the risks of taking prednisone. Prednisone may cause other side effects. Call your doctor if you have any unusual problems while you are taking this medication. Keep this medication in the container it came in, tightly closed, and out of reach of children. Fueled by money and desire to excel, steroids dominated the world of sports. Abuse began shortly after creation of and the discovery of performance enhancement effects.

Confirmed steroid abuse began in the s during the World Weightlifting Championships where Soviet team doctors gave their athletes testosterone injections. In the s, East Germany began a doping program to win more gold medals. The main concern about using prednisone and alcohol is that alcohol can make the side effects of prednisone much worse. Prednisone can increase the risk of gastrointestinal disturbance.

Long-term use of alcohol causes inflammation of the stomach lining, which can lead to stomach ulcers, heartburn , and malnutrition. People with existing stomach issues, such as heartburn, should avoid using prednisone and alcohol together. Another side effect of prednisone is a weakened immune system, which can make people more vulnerable to infections. The body may have more trouble fighting off diseases than it usually would. Exposure to measles or chickenpox can cause more severe infection in people taking steroids.

Alcohol also weakens the immune system. Chronic alcohol use can make it easier for people to become ill with pneumonia or tuberculosis , for example. Anyone who takes prednisone and drinks alcohol regularly has a higher risk of developing an infection. While multiple factors are involved, research suggests that alcohol intake can lead to weight gain in some people. Weight gain is also a possible side effect of prednisone. Long-term prednisone use can make the bones weaker and more brittle, leading to osteoporosis.

Alcohol use is also a risk factor for osteoporosis, due to loss of nutrients. Having osteoporosis puts a person at risk of severe bone fractures.