Amy Myers

“For example, a common conventional treatment for many autoimmune conditions is steroids, perhaps in the form of prednisone. Steroids suppress the immune system, so the reasoning is that they will work to calm an overactive immune system and get it down to a normal level so that it will stop attacking your own tissue. There are two problems with this approach, however. First, prednisone has a number of problematic side effects, as you saw. Second, when the prednisone suppresses your immune system, it doesn’t necessarily get it down to a normal level—it might suppress it down to below a normal level, so that you are dangerously vulnerable to threats a healthy immune function would be able to shake off, even such seemingly minor threats as a cold virus or some bacteria clinging to poorly washed food. That’s why people on immunosuppressants often have to be unusually careful about contact with children, being in a crowd, flying, and other situations where they might be exposed to illness or infection.”
― Amy Myers, The Autoimmune Solution: A Comprehensive Guide to Preventing and Reversing Inflammatory Diseases Through Functional Medicine