Scare-oids?

Corticosteroids, or steroids, have become increasingly popular in medicine and illness-treatment over the years, especially with autoimmune disease, which we all know includes Sjogren’s syndrome.
In 1948, at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota a group of arthritis patients were given daily injections of a corticosteroid. The results were impeccable! The patients could not believe how well this drug worked- it was a miracle. Because of the great results, this medication was thought to be the cure for arthritis. As corticosteroids became more popular, the side effects started to be realized. More and more people were taking more that they should have been. Sure, the medicine completely fixed the symptoms originally, but were they causing more trouble than they were curing? Soon, patients started to become afraid of taking corticosteroids, and the drug because more conservative and often declined. Understanding how this particular drug works and how it can be safely taken is very important.
So what are corticosteroids, you ask? Corticosteroids are closely related to cortisol, a hormone that is naturally produced in the adrenal cortex, or the outer layer of the adrenal gland. Cortisol helps to control the salt and water balance in the body, and to regulate carbohydrate, fat, and protein metabolism. When the body becomes stressed, the pituitary gland in your brain releases the adrenocorticotropic hormone which stimulates adrenals to produce cortisol (it usually produces up to 20 mg a day). The extra cortisol allows the body to cope with infection, trauma, surgery, or emotional problems.
Overall, corticosteroids are used to control inflammation of the joints and organs. They act on the immune system by stopping the production of substances that trigger inflammation in your body parts. They are usually doctor prescribed, but may also be found in many over the counter drugs (but in very small doses) such as nose drops, inhalers, ointments, and eyedrops. They can be administered orally, injected into the specific inflamed joints that are in pain, the veins, or the muscles, or applied as a lotion.
Consequences for taking this drug over longer-than-recommended periods of time include fat and protein retention, pancreatic exhaustion, diabetes, heart palpitations, hot flashes, sweating, and insomnia. For patients taking it even longer than that, effects are mch more serious. These side effects include bone deformities, increased blood pressure, mental changes, or glucose intolerance. The high possiblity of long-term usage to be dangerous is the reason for the rule that corticosteroids must be tampered with 10% every ten days for any given patient.