# Asthma sufferers, catch your breath and gather round **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 27, 2008, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/asthma-sufferers-catch-your-breath-and-gather-round/474666 "2008-11-27T05:57:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![HoneyBadgerDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honeybadgerdc/32/1033_2.png) [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2016, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/asthma-sufferers-catch-your-breath-and-gather-round/474666/21 "2016-01-22T18:28:48Z")
I am pretty sure I have copd from years of smoking. So far I have never needed a resue inhaler but do find when I get bronchitis about once a year it seems to get worse each time. I am also finding myself using mucinex more often. I still haven’t completely quit smoking and am kicking myself in th ass as we speak. 1 day off the cigs and I feel tons better, 2 days with no cigs and I feel pretty normal. I am convinced I have a mental illness that drives me back to smoking, the positive results of not smoking are very clear and quick. I simply have no tolerance left for smoking. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2016, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/asthma-sufferers-catch-your-breath-and-gather-round/474666/22 "2016-01-22T23:33:03Z")
It’s called “addiction”, and it’s a monster to get off your back. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2016, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/asthma-sufferers-catch-your-breath-and-gather-round/474666/23 "2016-01-23T00:55:52Z")
> [@Mama\_Zappa](#): > > I get Xopenex (I think there is a generic, now) for the nebulizer when I need it - fortunately rare. > > Regular albuterol inhalers shouldn’t have much in the way of side effects after the first few times you use the drug, unless you’re really hitting it hard in the middle of a flare. Nebulized albuterol, on the other hand, is misery-making. Xopenex isn’t that much better, but enough so that I definitely prefer it. Yeah, I can cope with occasional puffs of albuterol sort of okay. Two years ago, after I was in the ER that time, I was using nebulized albuterol at home several times a day for another week or two, and it made me jumpy but I managed to live with it. (Remember my thread on that?) Last month in the ER again, they gave me nebulized albuterol to breathe and by the second treatment I was jumping out of my skin and bouncing off the walls. Then they switched me to Xopenex, and also [del]gave[/del] sold me a Xopenex inhaler to take home. DAMN, it’s expensive! $83.00 for 200 puffs! And my plan doesn’t cover it! :mad: I’ve been using it almost every day for the last few weeks while I’m recovering. It definitely does NOT seem to make me jittery. **If you think you know of a generic, tell us!** My doctor is telling me that there’s no generic yet. If there was, I’m pretty sure my HMO would know, and be pushing it in their formulary. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2016, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/asthma-sufferers-catch-your-breath-and-gather-round/474666/24 "2016-01-23T14:16:21Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > Ditch your Aspirin. > It can aggravate asthma. > As can pills with Aspirin in them. > [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > **Bosda** , the vast majority of asthmatics can tolerate aspirin just fine. And many of them benefit from aspirin’s anti-platelet effects. > > So: Asthmatics, **don’t** ditch your aspirin if you’re taking it on your doctor’s recommendation, until you’ve discussed it with them. > [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > For further clarification, the incidence of aspirin-induced or aggravated asthma is 7% among people with asthma. Sorry. I carried my own issues a little far. My own asthma has greatly improved, without aspirin. But yes, it may not apply to everybody. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2016, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/asthma-sufferers-catch-your-breath-and-gather-round/474666/25 "2016-01-23T17:53:16Z")
When I was first diagnosed with asthma, my doc set me up for one-on-one “asthma school”, which the local hospital provides for free. The respiratory therapist there showed me the right way to use an inhaler for albuterol and other drugs. I’ll skip a lot of that here, but I’ll tell you the one **important question** he said solves more asthma problems than anything else he could say. **Do you have a cat?** If you have asthma, and you have a cat, chances are good there’s a link between the two. You might say, "I’ve had cats for years, why would it start bothering me now? Unlike some asthma triggers and allergies, sensitivity to cats will develop over the years. If you can bear to part with your fuzzy pal, find him another home. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2016, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/asthma-sufferers-catch-your-breath-and-gather-round/474666/26 "2016-02-09T03:56:27Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > … > > **If you think you know of a generic, tell us!** My doctor is telling me that there’s no generic yet. If there was, I’m pretty sure my HMO would know, and be pushing it in their formulary. It may just be the nebulizer solution, but it appears to be available per [drugs.com](http://www.drugs.com/availability/generic-xopenex.html). My stash is upstairs and I don’t feel like digging it out but I do seem to recall it was a generic - filled summer 2014. I just did a search on my mail-order pharmacy’s site and they listed Xopenex versus levalbuterol as separate items, with the generic about 100 dollars cheaper for a 3 month supply - 200 for generic versus 300 for the brand, or something like that. Of course, albuterol is **massively** cheaper, like 15 dollars for the same supply. It’s not clear whether those figures are what I’d pay after insurance paid anything, or that’s the full cost (I haven’t hit my deductible yet). I don’t know that the _inhaler_ version is generic yet. The mail order pharmacy didn’t offer it as an option when I did a search on levalbuterol, and the [drugs.com](http://drugs.com) page suggested only the neb solution as well. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2016, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/asthma-sufferers-catch-your-breath-and-gather-round/474666/27 "2016-02-09T04:19:15Z")
> [@HoneyBadgerDC](#): > > Originally Posted by HoneyBadgerDC View Post > …Qvar 80…What are the side effects if someone just uses it now and then like maybe 3 or 4 times a year? > [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > The side-effect of using it 3 or 4 times a year is that it’s a useless and expensive gesture, as it has no significant clinical effect when used that way. It needs regular twice a day dosing, every day, to significantly decrease lung inflammation. > > Inhaled steroids are **NOT** rescue medications, they are maintenance medications, to preserve lung health. They are recommended for _regular use_ in asthmatics who need to use their rescue inhaler more than once a week. > > If you are an asthmatic that needs to use a rescue inhaler, the use of such a maintenance inhaler should reduce your frequency of asthma attacks, reduce your need for your rescue inhaler, and reduce the overall inflammation in your small airways, and reduce the likelihood of developing COPD from chronically inflamed lungs. > > NOT using a steroid inhaler regularly could thus have the side-effect of more asthma attacks, increased risk of destruction of lung tissue over time, and increased risk of death from respiratory failure. To nitpick a little: If you’ve got someone whose asthma is so intermittent that they truly don’t need to use anything (rescue inhaler or whatever) most of the time, doesn’t it make sense that they might just have it around, and then start back on it during times of flareups? So, if you go months between times you need the rescue inhaler, why use the steroid regularly? Of course I got the sense that HoneyBadgerDC meant more like “I’m feeling bad today, I’ll take one puff of the QVar and be done with it” and yeah, that’s useless. On the other hand if he doesn’t need the inhalers at all most of the time, he needs to talk about a plan with the doctor. I am sure I’ve told this story here before, and I know you’ll cringe… back in 2002 when **Dweezil** was 7, we took his friend along with us when we went on vacation to California. The friend had been on nebulized Pulmicort - but his mom didn’t want us to have the hassle of lugging along a nebulizer. So she took him to the pediatrician and said “what can we do to avoid that?” and the pediatrician said “Oh, just have him use the albuterol more”. :eek::eek::eek::smack::smack::smack::mad::mad::mad: Bear in mind, in 2002, the really portable nebs either didn’t exist, or were not common, and certainly neither we nor they owned such - but we _did_ own a shoebox-sized one that we’d have happily brought along if we’d known of the need. And the mom _knew_ we owned one; they’d borrowed it once. So within 24 hours the poor kid was coughing. Within 48 he was coughing **a lot** and I was on the phone with his mom discussing what to do (including starting him on a steroid inhaler I had for myself to see if that helped). Within 72 hours, we were calling local friends finding where there was a good clinic to take the poor kid to. He wound up on oral steroids and antibiotics. All because of a truly _boneheaded_ piece of “advice” on the part of a pediatrician who should’ve been _shot_ for making a call like that. I mean, at the very least the ped should have given him a Beclovent (predecessor of QVar) or Flovent inhaler. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2016, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/asthma-sufferers-catch-your-breath-and-gather-round/474666/28 "2016-02-09T11:51:06Z")
> [@Mama\_Zappa](#): > > To nitpick a little: If you’ve got someone whose asthma is so intermittent that they truly don’t need to use anything (rescue inhaler or whatever) most of the time, doesn’t it make sense that they might just have it around, and then start back on it during times of flareups? > > So, if you go months between times you need the rescue inhaler, why use the steroid regularly? If you are TRULY so intermittant you go months without an inhaler, and you really _don’t_ have signs of inflammation, symptoms, etc. then no, you don’t need to take a steroid every day. But that has to be determined by a real examination, lung function tests, and so on. Even so - if such a person _starts_ to have problems, or experiences problems after an upper respiratory infection, or whatever, then they may need to take steroids for awhile. However, that’s not “oh, I still have this hanging around, I’ll use it”, that’s something a person needs to go to the doctor for. If you have a sudden flare up it’s a good idea to know WHY and not just treat the symptoms when you can potentially identify and eliminate the cause. I speak from experience on this - I am one of the fortunate ones that really can go months without medication or symptoms, but there have been times I have been on daily medication. If you’re compliant and take your daily meds then, if you’re lucky, the inflammation goes down and you can take less or even none for awhile - but while asthma might go into “remission” it never really goes away. You’re still an asthmatic even if you’re a really well controlled asthmatic. And yes, there are a bunch of MD’s out there who don’t know as much as they should about asthma or related issues like allergies. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2016, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/asthma-sufferers-catch-your-breath-and-gather-round/474666/29 "2016-02-09T13:42:39Z")
> [@GrumpyBunny](#): > > Ditto, and also with everything you’re saying, **Mama Zappa**. > > It is not uncommon for asthmatics to have more difficulty in the evening than in the daytime. This has many possible reasons, but I’d suggest putting dust-mite covers on your pillows and mattress as a start. And clean/change any air filters; depending on the type it can be as easy as taking them out in their frame, washing them with water (the shower or tub is a good place, as they tend to be too big for a sink), letting them dry completely and popping them back in. I’m a superb detector of air filters that haven’t been maintained for way too long. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/asthma-sufferers-catch-your-breath-and-gather-round/474666.md?page=1)