Why won't doctors find a safer and natural alternative to prednisone?!

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It depends on what disease your mom had as to whether there were alternatives. Prednisone is used for a lot of different diseases, usually autoimmune in nature. The alternatives are sometimes more dangerous, though. If the doctors followed protocol, there isn't much you can do about it, sorry.

Are you concerned that the Prednisolone suppressed her immunity and that's why she developed a bacterial infection and/or was unable to fight an existing one?

It questionable how much Prednisolone would have suppressed immunity in just one week, tbh. Generally, short courses of prednisolone are pretty safe. I doubt that was a factor.

However, as always, It's a question of risks benefits. For something to be of any use it has to actually work, and that means there are risks. Alt.med does not work, thats why Doctors have no interest in it. Anything that suppresses the action of the immune system is going to carry risks- whatever it is.

The protocol for managing COPD exacerbations is corticosteroid therapy as well as antibiotic if needed. There is nothing unusual about the drug she was given.

Obviously, due to the nature of the disease, your mother was at risk from these sort of complications anyway. Without the prednisolone she may well have died sooner.

If you have any concerns about the care she received, discuss it with the Doctor who was looking after her. Not the quacks on this board.

Edit: Thenoseknows is medically illiterate.

Prednisolone has been well used corticosteroid, with high glucocorticoid activity, for some 50 years. It is safe and frequently life saving, though like all drugs it has potential side effects. You need to remember that the body is chock full of many types of steroids of its own. If mum was given prednisolone for only a week it is much more likely that her infection was unrelated to its use.

GP for more years than I care to remember

Those guys are *****. Ignore them.

Hey, I'm really sorry about your Mom. Really.
There ain't no way that they can predict this sort of thing happening, and surely no one wanted nothing like that to happen.

I've been on prednisone for a while, they wouldn't use it if they had other alternatives. Like they said, it shuts off the immune system. You don't really think about it, but your immune system causes swelling, and there are lots of conditions where your own body will swell until it kills itself. So, by the time they need prednisone, you are between the devil and the deep blue sea. Your back is against a wall.

No wonder you are angry. I'm gonna suggest you cry whenever you like, especially when no one is looking. If you wanna beat the **** out of something, join a gym. Helped keep me sane when I lost someone who meant the world to me.

the only difference between real medicine and "alternatives" is that real medicine is tested and required to label all observed side effects regardless of how likely a person is to experience them. your mothers death is a tragedy but the fact of the matter is that the makers of "alternative medicines" don't play by the same rules as regular medicine and because of that they are typically ignored by doctors because the products lack and scientific evidence backing their claims, when given the choice between something that has been demonstrated to work and something that hasn't a doctor will go for the former rather than the latter.

and there are numerous cases of drugs being pulled from the market and the makers even being sued for unforeseen medical problems as a result.

Very sad to know about your mother. May God give you strength to bear the loss.

What happened to your mother is happening day in and day out with these allopathic medicines which are crude drugs and never curative. They are only and always suppressive and palliative. If only you could have consulted an able Homoeopath in the beginning itself, I assure you she could have been cured rapidly, gently and permanently. Sorry, it is too late.

Profound and extensive knowledge with experience in Homoeopathy.

The book "Everyday Miracles of Homoeopathy" by Dr. Vijayalakshmi and a vast literature.

Anything that does what prednisone does will put you at risk for an infection. There can't be a safe alternative when the entire goal is to shut down the immune system.

the modern medical (disease maintenance) system owes it's existence to the drug industry, which set it up, and sustains it for their profit.

Prednisone is a dangerous drug with a lot of nasty toxic effects. It's prescribed because it's easy for conventional MD's to try a one size fits all solution to a lot of health problems. They willy-nilly prescribe it for any kind of inflammation, and for conditions like "fibromyalgia". They have no clue about what causes the problems (they guess or try to fit the problem into a theory) so they just treat symptoms. COPD used to be called emphysema.
The cop-out answers you get from apologists for conventional medicine are full of nonsense -- 80% of conventional medical treatments are not science or evidence based. People use it because they've been trained to have "faith" in it, not because they've read all the so-called scientific studies which are frequently stacked in the manufacturers favour.
The drug companies are running the medical industry for their own benefit, not the patients. That's why people are using other forms of medicine that don't rely on drugs and surgery.
Drug companies are not interested in curing people -- they're interested in profits. Your Mom was a victim. You can ask a lawyer to investigate whether there was a case of misdiagnosis or other faulty behaviour.
Sorry for your loss.