Prednisone is very important in the management of inflammatory conditions asthma in my case. The number of days in the taper is based on two factors. The Starting dose in milligrams, and the number of days that dose is to be taken. For me the normal course is a starting daily dose of 40 mg for 3 days, decreasing by 10 mg every 3 days. So the total number of days is (StartingDoseMg/TaperMg)DaysPerTaper, e.g. (40/10)3 Which for me is the 12 days for my normal course. If for example I started at 50 mg with a 10 mg per 4 day taper then total number of days would be (50/10)*3 or 15.