New asthmatic

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gcsjr

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rockbysea-

You're welcome to post whatever you want to (within the guidelines of this site) but, for what it's worth, you're statements about prednisone are not completely accurate, and I don't want anyone else to misunderstand the benefits of prednisone when used correctly. Typically, immunosuppression requires dosages of at least 20 mg daily for 7 days, but most asthma treatments last only 7 days starting at a higher does and tapering to a much lower dose so that there is minimal risk.

While you may feel like "they" are trying to get you hooked on other drugs, for those of us who have been dealing with asthma for years, prednisone can quite literally be a life saver, and it would be tragic for anyone to suffer unnecessarily because they didn't take their medication without fully understanding both the potential benefits and risks. Prednisone has been widely prescribed since 1955 and is very safe and effective when used correctly.

You should also be aware of the dangers of asthma - it can be extremely difficult to manage without the proper treatment and is not something you should take lightly.
 
I was in ER this AM for severe attack. 2 doses of albuterol. Sent home with inhaler and prendisone. Can I consume alcohol? What are my exercise limitations?
 
First of all, you should make an appointment with a pulmonologist to have a lung function test and to get on an asthma treatment program (2 doses of albuterol is fairly common so your attack may not have been all that severe - truly severe attacks typically require steroid injections and the use of a nebulizer to control them - but any attack that is serious enough to send you to the hospital is something you should take seriously).

If you've never had an asthma attack before you should definitely see a pulmonologist before you start exercising again, the doc will probably want to get you on some kind of maintenance medication and, if your asthma is exercise-related, on a program to use your inhaler before you exercise.

Alcohol does trigger asthma attacks in some people so you might wait until you see the pulmonologist before you drink again.
 
gcsmithjr,

The doctor at the emergency ward prescribed me 8 doses of prednisone at 50mg a day and he was not a lung specialist. And even if he was a specialist it’s very important for my health and safety to research and then make a decision. I also think it’s important to share my views with others who are going through the same trial as myself.

I’m not throwing the baby out with the bath water. I am alive today because of modern medicine. But in the last few decades it’s becoming very clear that “they”, meaning “big pharma”, seem to never have cures for anything. Cancer cases have gone up, asthma cases have gone up (six fold in 30 years in Japan), high blood pressure, diabetes, all these diseases have increased and have been around for over 50 years and with all the billions of dollars they haven’t come up with a single cure for anything, not even the common cold. Is it because all these diseases have them perplexed or is it maybe because there is no profit in cures? Just look at all the advertisements from drug companies and not one single advertisement for a cure. All those billions of dollars and brilliant scientists with thousanRAB of years in corabined research experience and no cures, only very expensive treatments that have driven many people into financial ruin and dispair.

We as individuals have to take control of our health and research every recommendation especially to protect ourselves within a sick-care matrix that is driven by huge profits.
 
I agree with gcsmithjr. I developed asthma as an adult. It is important to have a personal asthma plan in place. A Pulmonologist is very helpful in assessing your asthma and discussing the approaches that would work best to get your asthma under control and to keep it under control. You will also need to identify your personal asthma triggers in order to avoid or be proactive in dealing with them.

rockbysea, Severe asthma attacks can be very very scary. Not being able to get a good breath can be scary. Having your lips and fingers begin to tingle and turn blue because you can't get a good breath and the emergency inhalers aren't working can be scary. Not being able to talk because you can't get enough air in is scary. For me, Prednisone has been a life saver...quite literally it has helped get my asthma back under control after serious attacks. When my asthma flares up, my doctor prescribes dosages that taper as I take them. It is your right to choose not to take the medicine, but if you truely have asthma that isn't under control, you are taking the risk of having a really serious attack. For me, the need to be able to breathe outweighs the potential side effects of taking a short dose of Prednisone.
 
Hi...I'm new to this asthma thing too but I'm gonna hold off with all the meRAB they want me to take and just use the one puffer and advil with pseudoephedrine (one pill containing 30 mg of pseudoephedrine keeps my chest clear for about 5 to 7 hours) until I can find the cause. I also checked into emergency on October 11th and was also prescribed prednisone but I refuse to take it because it suppresses the body's immune system making one vulnerable to catch other viruses. Also prednisone should not be stopped abruptly if taken for longer than seven days.

“Adrenal suppression occurs if prednisone is taken for longer than 7 days, a condition wherein the body is unable to synthesize natural corticosteroiRAB and becomes dependent on the prednisone taken by the patient.” wikipedia.

I don't want to just give up and say I'll be an asthmatic for the rest of my life because if I just start taking all the meRAB they want me to take I'll be one for sure. I'm not ready to become a new asthma customer without a fight. :cool:
 
MountainReader,

I'm glad the drug worked for you and I'm sure it has saved lives and I’m not surprised at all that you agree with gcsmithjr. You two, like many on this forum, are part of the modern medical matrix with it’s standardized, automatic systemic approach to illness which is designed not to cure or to assist the body’s natural healing abilities but to treat and to do so profitably.

Every case is different. I don’t think I have asthma although I have asthma like symptoms. I don’t get a sudden attack; the air passages just slowly start to contract and clog up and sometimes they produces a lot of plenum. When I was younger, I would get this on occasion when I’d get a bad cold but it would clear up in a few days and I would sparingly use the puffer. Now it’s persistent. Most importantly for me are the correct diagnoses, especially if symptoms are asthma like but may be an allergic reaction, infection, chronic bronchitis etc…. It’s not wise to just go down the beaten asthma treatment path just because someone says so.

I have no doubt, as with many other ailments, that many asthmatics were created by the treatment. Treatments are not designed to cure underlying causes but to alleviate the symptoms. Treatments also create dependency which is a form of slavery. And we all know who become the masters.

I am totally convinced, although this is not something that should be done on humans, that if you took healthy individuals with no asthma symptoms and as an experiment put them all on an asthma treatment regime for 6 months and then suddenly took away all their medications many, if not all those people, would be dependent on those medications to breathe.

This is why I will do everything in my power to try alternative treatments, to look for causes and most importantly, assist my body’s immune system and give my body the chance to do what it was designed to do: heal itself.

I beat many other diagnosed ailments in the past this way.
 
I don't think you know what you're talking about. I've seen more than a half dozen alternative healers and have tried more than a dozen natural remedies for asthma, none of which were even remotely effective. I hope you find one but I think you'll find a lot more quackery than help, and when you're dealing with a condition that can be life-threatening, the quackery can, literally, be deadly.

By the way, your "profitably" comment is also way off the mark. The total cost of my daily asthma medications is less than $1 day, which includes a single annual visit to the doctor. It's a lot less than most of the natural treatments I was prescribed, some of which cost more than $100 a month.



Again, I'm not sure you really understand how good pulmonologists operate. In essence they are doing this every day with exactly the opposite outcome you predict. Most pulmonologists are constantly whittling away the medications their patients are taking to get them to a point where their asthma is well controlled with the bare minimum of medications.

They typically try to treat the conditions that are the underlying causes of asthma in many people - allergies and acid reflux - so that asthma attacks don't happen. Many asthma patients dramatically cut back their asthma meRAB when they get their allergies or acid reflux under control, and only have symptoms when some external trigger causes their asthma to flare up.



I hope you're successful.
 
rockbysea-

Obviously it's your choice not to take the medication but you're making your decision based on incomplete information. First of all, there is absolutely no evidence that taking asthma medication will cause you to be an asthmatic or to continue to need the medication. You're much more likely to end up back in the hospital if you don't take the medication, and asthma is a serious disease (nearly 4,000 people die from asthma attacks each year in the U.S.).

Second, if you take prednisone as prescribed, adrenal suppression is rarely an issue. The dosages typically prescribed for an asthma attack are relatively low, and after just a few days the amount will be tapered off so that your body will return to normal. Adrenal suppression is only an issue for people who prednisone daily for a long period of time.

You really should see a pulmonologist and get some better information about the medications you're taking before making your decision (or encouraging other people to make such a decision).
 
They tried to get me dependent on high blood pressure medication: I beat them on that.
They tried to get me dependent on cortisone creams: I beat them on that.
They tried to get me dependent on cholesterol lowering drugs: I beat them on that.
Now they're gonna try to make me dependent on expensive asthma medications (a $17billion industry) well I'm gonna do my best to beat them on that as well.

Are people not allowed to discuss what they want or not want to put into their bodies? If a doctor prescribes me a medication should I not research the side effects and decide for myself if this is what I want to put into my body and freely discuss this in an open forum?

I do not want to be encouraged to take a drug that suppresses my immune system by inhibiting my liver
 
I have to agree with the other posters. I've had adult onset asthma for over 13 years. In the bginning, I was on 2 puRAB of Flovent, twice per day. In no time my asthma was under control and I gradually lowered my does to where I have been at 1 puff once per day for about 10 years. I also typically use my albuterol only before jogging. I did have to use it a couple of times in summer of 2007 when we had 12 straight days of over 100 degree temps here. I also upped my Flovent to 2 puRAB per day during that period. Once the heat broke, I went back to my regular regimen of 1 puff per day and haven't had to use the albuterol since. It's a matter of getting a regimen in place and a plan for when there are problems. Mine works very well for me. I;m glad we took the time to work thru it and get to this point.
 
Really? Show me your statistics and I'll show you the statistics of thousanRAB upon thousanRAB of cases of deaths every year in the US alone related to big pharma.

That is the reason why factual source references are deleted when posted on this forum. This is a pro big pharma forum.
 
I'm not sure what that has to do with the treatment of asthma. Just because there are "big pharma" deaths in the US every year doesn't make asthma any less deadly.

There are lots of other websites where you can go argue about the evils of big pharmaceutical companies but the point of this website is to provide a support group and community for people dealing with medical conditions like asthma.

I'm not interested in arguing about the evils of the pharmaceutical industry, but I am interested in helping people with asthma get accurate information about how to manage their condition and stay healthy.



That's not the case if you follow the posting policy. By the way, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control's National Surveillance for Asthma "For the 3-year period 2001--2003, an average annual 4,210 deaths from asthma occurred".

As I said earlier, I wish you the best in trying to control your asthma using non-pharmaceutical approaches.
 
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