It works like magic at first but here’s why you should be wary of taking this drug over a long period

IT SEEMED like a simple solution to a difficult problem. After suffering from muscle and joint pain for years, Marie de Klerk went to see a rheumatologist who recommended cortisone injections – and just like that the pain was gone. Marie was delighted to have found a treatment for her rheumatoid arthritis that worked so well and over the next 25 years she had a cortisone injection every few months – 67 in all, in fact.

But today the 52-year-old from Bethal, a small farming town in Mpumalanga, is despondent.

“Cortisone injections are definitely not a long-term solution,” she says.

One of the primary side effects of the medication is weight gain and Marie quickly put on 13 kg, which she’s been unable to shed.

What’s more, the injections no longer control the pain as well as they used to.

“The only thing that’s lasted is the unwelcome weight I can’t shake off,” she says. “If I’d known then what I know now I’d never have had the injections. Cortisone is administered too readily.”

Soret Viljoen (37) from Springs in Gauteng agrees. She’s been on cortisone since childhood for asthma. In 2008 when she developed psoriasis – and the arthritis that often accompanies it – she started using even more cortisone.

Three years later she paid the price. “I began to suffer from high blood pressure – presumably because of the cortisone injections.”

High blood pressure is a known side effect of long-term cortisone use. Soret had another common side effect – swelling in her fingers and limbs. She believes it also gave her abdominal cramps and palpitations.

“Now I try not to take cortisone because it only helps for two days and then the psoriasis returns more aggressively.”

Many people who use cortisone agree it often feels like a life-saver. It helps for arthritis and other inflammatory conditions and can give quick relief after sport injuries. But is it worth the side effects? WHAT IS IT? Cortisone is a naturally occurring steroid manufactured by the body’s adrenal glands to fight inflammation in the body, says Dr Charl van den Berg, an orthopaedic surgeon from Somerset West in the Western Cape.

The class of medications known as corticosteroids are basically synthetic cortisone. They’re prescribed by doctors to supplement the body’s own supply when the immune system is under pressure.

A healthy adult manufactures about 10 to 20 mg of cortisone a day, says Professor Helmuth Reuter of the department of clinical pharmacology at Stellenbosch University. A sick person can produce up to 300 mg of cortisone a day.

When there’s severe inflammation, synthetic cortisone is sometimes administered to maintain a high level of cortisone in the body, he adds. “It can be obtained on prescription from doctors or pharmacists.”

‘If I’d known then what I know now I’d never have had the injections’