Posted on 01/26/2007 3:46:21 PM PST by blam
Salve for the Lungs: Aspirin might prevent asthma
Ben Harder
Regular use of aspirin may prevent healthy adults from developing asthma, according to a 5-year study of male doctors.
Inflammation in the lungs characterizes asthma. During an attack, inflamed airways constrict, obstructing air flow. The disease affects about 5 percent of men and more than 8 percent of women and children. It most frequently develops during childhood, and some kids outgrow it.
For the current study, epidemiologist Tobias Kurth of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston and his colleagues analyzed data on some 22,000 male physicians who had participated in a study between 1982 and 1988. Although the original trial was focused on heart disease, its records contained information on asthma.
None of the participants initially had asthma. Half of them received placebos during the study, while the others took 325 milligrams of aspirin every other day.
After an average of 4.9 years, 145 men in the placebo group had developed asthma, but only 113 aspirin takers had the disease. This finding suggests that aspirin use cuts asthma incidence by 22 percent, Kurth's team reports in the Jan. 15 American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
In a 2004 study conducted by a group including two of Kurth's collaborators, women who frequently took aspirin developed asthma only 60 percent as often as did women who never took aspirin.
Indirect evidence also suggests that aspirin reduces asthma incidence. Since about 1980, most doctors have considered aspirin too risky to give to children, even for such purposes as cold-symptom relief, because it increases risk of Reye's syndrome. Aspirin use in children fell dramatically in the early 1980s, and the use of the alternative painkiller acetaminophen rose.
The shift away from aspirin contributed to a subsequent rise in childhood asthma, allergist Arthur Varner, who practices at Allergy Diagnostic in Beachwood, Ohio, and two colleagues proposed in 1998.
Acetaminophen doesn't reduce inflammation as do aspirin, ibuprofen, and naproxen, which are called nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. These NSAIDs may reduce the risk that a viral respiratory infection will precipitate asthma in susceptible children and adults, Varner suggests.
He notes that a 2005 study linked acetaminophen, but not the NSAIDs aspirin or ibuprofen, to increased risk of adult-onset asthma.
"When a person first gets cold symptoms, if they reach for aspirin or ibuprofen, they may be protected against asthma," he speculates. "If they reach for acetaminophen, it enhances the chance that that virus will lead to asthma."
The finding of a protective effect of aspirin is "quite interesting," says American Lung Association spokesman Norman Edelman, a pulmonologist at the State University of New York at Stony Brook.
The evidence is too preliminary to encourage habitual aspirin use for asthma prevention, Kurth and Edelman caution.
"Aspirin is certainly not a treatment for asthma," Kurth adds. The drug triggers attacks in some people with existing asthma.
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ping
Acetomenaphen used to be the hottest thing going. For myself, I found it a very poor headache reliever. I quit using it, ever. Once my kids were beyond Reyes Syndrome age, I quit buying it.
Asthma is not being able to expel the air in your lungs so you can refill them. Which leads to coughing in the attempt to clear them.
I had Asthma from the age of 3 until I had my last episode when I was 28, I am now 66. There was no actual treatment for Asthma back then. I was frequently given shots of adrenalin which did not help, occasionally I had to be put on oxygen (tent). When I was 12 our family doctor discovered an inhaler medication that another doctor invented for his son, it was Asthma Nephrin. Three inhales and I could breath.
My daughter who is 50 this year was not born with Asthma but was give Aspirin as a child when she had a temp. has severe Asthma, she has been hospitalized many times with such low oxygen levels they feared she would not recover. They for some reason no longer use Asthma Nephrin, guess the pharmaceutical companies did not make enough money on it, the now treat Asthma now with Steroids. Steroids cause severe weight problems when given in large doses and Diabetes.
Thanks for the ping, pandy!
On the other hand, overuse can lead to bleeding in the stomach and reflux. (As I found out.)
Fish oil has anti inflammitory effects. I take that and have less of a problem with knee pain. I believe I read that it also helps with asthma.
Asthma nephrine was not dropped by drug companies because they could not make enough money, it was replaced by better medicine. The old medicines stimulated two different receptors, one speeds up the heart and raises the blood pressure while the other opens the airways. The olders medicines were available back when I was in training but weren't used because of cardiovascular effects. Newer medicines such provental stimulate the second receptor with minimal effect on heart rate and blood pressure. These medicines are still quite frequently used and are the "rescue inhalors" Their downside is that asthma is a complex chain of inflamatory reactions and these only treat the very end result of bronchiol constriction.
Steroid inhalors use steroids with a very short half life. The ammount of active steroid in the blood stream is almost unmeasurable. For severe episodes, oral steroids may be used and can aggravate diabetes and can cause a whole host of side effects. Sometimes benefits outweigh the risks however.
There are also a whole host of newer meds and drugs coming to the market that affect the inflammatory process at various levels without steroids.
I don't know if they still sell Primatine Mist but that is basically the medicine you are describing.
I am not an asthma specialist but I know that the most effective treatment involves breaking the inflammatory cycle before the first wheeze and relying on the bronchodialators for breakthrough symptoms.
The interesting thing about this story is that in some asthmatics, aspirin will trigger a sever asthma attack. These people also tend to have nasal polyps, hows that for useless information?
The symptoms of a cold are actually a result of the immune system and not from the virus itself.
People who never get colds actually are infected with viruses just as often as the rest of us, they just don't suffer the symptoms. Before you non-cold sufferers feel to superior, this lack of symptoms is related to a less aggressive immune system and the lack of colds is bought at the price of a slightly elevated risk of cancer.
By the time you are suffering through the worst of your cold, the body has already significantly reduced the viral load. If you were actually stimulating your immune system, you would probably make your symptoms worse and not actually clear the virus any more quickly.
Personally, when I have a cold, I take ibuprofen and excercise. I don't know if there is any proof this is beneficial but it is the only thing I have found that makes me feel well with the sniffels.
interesting post-thanks
Aspirin actually makes me wheezy.
I am allergic to aspirin and shellfish.
That said, the ibuprofen and asprin compounds reduce prostaglandin production which causes the constriction of the airways. But it's double egded sword. It's allergenic and can cause sever allergic reactions in people.
health ping
That's true. For that reason the symptoms should not be reflexively viewed as 'bad' and therefore feared. Symptoms can be reliably used to guide a course of treatment. (We're talking simple cold or flu here not anything and everything.)
Stimulating the immune system with things like echinacea aren't going to make the symptoms worse or last longer. As there is always the potential of secondary infections a boost in WBC activity isn't a bad thing. The point in herbal medicine isn't necessarily instant relief which is one reason it isn't used properly all that often. It is often recommended that echinacea and other immune stimulants be used preemptively; taking them when flu season arrives or when one has reason to feel compromised.
In the course of treating the flu with herbs the formula changes from fever and immune stimulant to cooling and lymph flushing to soothing and kidney flushing. Not necessarily completely separated in treatments "#1," "#2" and "#3" but in phases that fit the stages. Ultimately the aim of an herbal approach is to urge the body to do the fighting and come out the other side stronger than before.
That said I haven't had a cold for 40 years and haven't had the flu for over 30. That stretch of good health began with luck, youthfulness and an attitude of non-compliance with illness. It was only in '93 that I had learned enough about herbs to use them and found one in particular with outstanding effects. I have had the initial assault stage of the flu manifest a half dozen times or so since '94 and with this herb knocked the symptoms completely out in twenty minutes with no further problem. Except for one time when I didn't recognize the symptoms and let the virus progress for about 8-10 hours. That time it took me another 24 hours to completely eliminate my symptoms and restore my full vitality and I had to use a variety of herbs not just the one.
I've found 1000 mg of vitamin C twice a day and 50 mg of generic Benadryl every 6 hours as needed does the trick for me with colds. I tried exercise too soon with the flu and relapsed.
IMHO, I wouldn't call it useless if there was a doubt about aspirin induced asthma. What if you wanted to start the patient on daily aspirin. The presense of nasal polyps would nail it for me.
I drank water till my kidneys about floated away during one cold once and was surpised at how much better I felt while I did it. Problem is, halfway into the second day, I wanted to puke just at the thought of another drink.
I live on a farm and haven't seen the inside of a gym in years. This sounds weird but if I feel like I'm on deaths door, I'll take a couple of advils, drink a quart of water and split wood for an hour or two then take a hot shower. I'll feel better for hours.
I'm not trying to sweat out a cold, I think it is an endorphin thing. Also vigorous excercise temporarilly suppresses the immune system which may also help.
Unfortunately I happen to have living proof that one works better with little or no side affects than the other. I am 66 years old and never experienced a side affect from using Asthma Nephrin other than immediate relief.
My daughter is living proof that the new meds help in one way but have side affects that are actually worse than the Asthma.
As for Aspirin, my daughter has not been able to use Aspirin since she became Asthmatic.
Primatine Mist is nothing like Asthma Nephrin.
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