Allergy DrugsThe most profitable drugs for allergies have historically been asthma inhalers with their continually rising prices (at least until 2016 when the price of the life-saving EpiPenTM for anaphylaxis was raised 600%!) There is a captive audience for inhalers because asthma can be life-threatening and the feeling of being unable to breathe is frightening. People will pay whatever the drug companies demand in order to be able to breathe. However, there are dark secrets about asthma inhalers which I learned the hard way. I had asthma when I was young but outgrew it and had no trouble with it for over 40 years until viral pneumonia and undetected mold in our house brought it back. I was treated with inhalers which helped for a few days and then became ineffective. Then I was put on a series of more and more potent inhalers, none of which really worked. When I took an LDA shot, I had to avoid inhalers as part of the protocol. The evening of my first day without them, I felt as if a tremendous allergy burden had been lifted. The only change I had made, and had not made with previous shots, was eliminating the inhalers. I Googled "allergy to asthma inhalers" and read the experiences of bloggers who had problems with inhalers. One mother wrote about her daughter being helped by AlbuterolTM administered by a nebulizer at home, but whenever she used an AlbuterolTM inhaler when they were out, she got much worse. They had to rush home to stop her reaction by using the same drug with a nebulizer. Another blog told of a man whose asthma had been getting worse and his inhalers were ineffective. Then he used an old inhaler that had been stored in an exercise bag in his hot car, and it worked like magic. See "Sources" section of Healing Basics for where online to read these and other stories of life-threatening reactions to asthma inhalers in the last several years. In January, 2009, the FDA banned the propellant which had been used in asthma inhalers for many years ostensibly because it might affect the ozone layer adversely. It was replaced with hydrofluroalkane (HFA) in all propellant activated asthma inhalers and nasal sprays. The well-kept secret of asthma inhalers is that HFA is made with corn-derived ethanol. The official position is that there is not enough corn or yeast residue in HFA to cause problems. This may be true for most people, but some corn and/or yeast sensitive patients do react to the propellant. Dry powder inhalers contain lactose and traces of milk protein, so milk-allergic patients cannot use them. The only safe way to administer inhaled medications to some asthma patients is with a nebulizer. A "side effect" of the FDA mandated change in propellants is that there likely will be no generic inhalers for twenty years after the 2009 propellant change which caused all asthma inhalers to be reclassified as new drugs. (Twenty years is how long some of the patents on the new inhalers will be in effect). An online Consumer Reports article found that the price of non-generic inhalers nearly doubled in the first three years after the propellant change. Although the inhaled steroid drug I used was generic (because it was taken with a nebulizer and did not contain the new propellant) and had been around for decades, its cost was over $500 for a month's supply without insurance, and it cost about $120 per month with insurance. In 2013, New York Times writer Elizabeth Rosenthal wrote about the massive hikes in the price of asthma inhalers. The fact that the FDA would not have been forced by the CFC regulations to change the propellant came to light. However, the drug companies spent a tremendous amount of money lobbying for the change so they could have new patents and a free hand in raising prices for a long time. Rather than becoming even more negative here, I will let you read the articles footnoted below online. [2] I am not advising anyone to discard their inhalers because that could create a potentially life threatening risk. However, I think everyone should know about the natural treatments for asthma that may reduce or eliminate dependence on inhalers. There are effective natural bronchodilators that are free. One is nitric oxide (NO) which is made in the paranasal sinuses and is in every breath taken through your nose. [3] A second and more important natural bronchodilator is carbon dioxide (CO2). Asthmatics lack these for two reasons: (1) many breathe mostly through their mouths, and (2) asthmatics breathe a much higher volume of air per minute, up to five or six times as much as normal people. [4] This lowers the CO2 level in their blood and the alveoli of their lungs which reduces the ability of hemoglobin to release oxygen into the tissues where it is needed. Over-breathing also resets the CO2 trigger that tells us when to breathe to a lower level, which perpetuates the vicious cycle of over-breathing, bronchoconstriction and asthma. [5] The cycle can be broken by practicing the Buteyko breathing method. It is not a quick fix and requires work, discipline, and commitment, but it is worth the effort to avoid the unpleasant side effects and expense of bronchodilator drugs, which you should need less as you make progress with the method. Studies in Australia and New Zealand found that after three months of using Buteyko breathing, patients used reliever inhalers 90% less often and used 50% less inhaled steroids. When patients using Buteyko breathing become symptom-free and the set-point of the CO2 trigger reaches a high enough level, under a doctor's supervision, the amount of inhaled steroids can slowly and gradually be reduced, possibly eliminating the need for all inhalers. [6] In The Allergy Solution, Dr. Leo Galland tells about a respiratory therapist who got asthma. When he told her about Buteyko breathing, it made wonderful sense to her, and she wondered why, as a respiratory therapist, she had never heard of it. [7] That is something we might wonder about every alternative to a Big Pharma high-profit-making drug and alternatives for other conventional treatments. An exhaustive discussion of the Buteyko breathing method is beyond the scope of this website. However, you can read more about it and the natural bronchodilator CO2 by clicking here. Also click here to get a books, a CD and a DVD that you can use to learn this technique and for sources of more information about the Buteyko breathing method. Footnotes
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