Q: I understand the steroids (e.g., prednisone) can sometimes be helpful in managing allergic reactions and asthma and that their use is part of your protocols for those conditions. If there was nothing else available, would ingestion of a steroid cream be a suitable and effective alternative for prednisone?
After spending some time and given the resources I have at hand, I cannot give you a satisfactorily accurate answer.
Hydrocortisone is available in a pill form and is used particularly by people whose adrenal glands are absent or not functioning properly. In this form it is rapidly absorbed in the gut. 4 mg of hydrocortisone equals 1 mg of prednisone.
Hydrocortisone is sold for topical use (on the skin) either as 0.5 or 1% creams or ointments. 1 gm of 1% topical hydrocortisone is equal to 10 mg of hydrocortisone. That would give you nearly 300 mg in a 1 ounce/30 gm tube or, theoretically, the equivalent of 75 mg of prednisone. What I don’t know and what I was unable to find out easily is what happens to hydrocortisone topicals on ingestion. The cream is water soluble so, at least theoretically, it is more easily absorbed in the gut than the ointment. In addition, I could not find any pharmacokinetic (movement of a drug through the body) data about rates of absorption from the gut or subsequent blood levels and I have no idea what happens with either when exposed to digestive enzymes. Aside from nausea and vomiting or diarrhea, the poison control literature suggests that a mouthful is not likely to be toxic.
So yes, theoretically, it could help but any potential effect would be unpredictable. By the way, a tube cost about 5$US; thirty 20 mg tablets of prednisone tablets are less than 10$US. I think you know what I would choose.