Long-term use of steroidal medicine can lead to a little known, rare condition called Cushing’s syndrome, experts have warned, after an American actress/comedian was recently diagnosed with it.
Cushing’s is a hormonal disorder caused by the body having too-high levels of cortisol, a stress hormone, for an extended period.
While this can result from the body’s adrenal glands producing too much cortisol, it may also be an effect of taking steroid medicines over an extended period – as was the case with Amy Schumer, reports Newsweek.
Schumer had been having steroid injection to help heal scars from her C-section and breast reduction at around the same time.
Symptoms generally can include weight gain, a round “moon" face, easy bruising, fat around the base of the neck and the shoulders, stretch marks around the abdomen, hips, breasts and underarms, and weak muscles.
Schumer said online bullying about her face, and people constantly commenting on her “swollen” looks, had eventually led to the diagnosis of Cushing’s.
This condition is most common in adults between 30 and 50, and three times more common in women than men. If caused by steroid injections, it can be fairly easily treated by reducing the intake of steroids.
However, for those who have “endogenous” Cushing’s syndrome, where the body itself produces too much cortisol – sometimes due to benign or cancerous tumours on the pituitary or adrenal glands – treatment is a bit more complicated, and may involve surgery, radiation or chemotherapy.
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