Asthma drug salbutamol amazingly helped teenager’s paralysis

Could the popular blue reliever inhaler Ventolin Evohaler also be used to relieve…paralysis?!
An 18-year-old suffering with congenital myasthenia, an inherited neuromuscular disorder, took salbutamol and after a week the teen stunned doctors by being able to walk unaided after being wheelchair-bound for seven years.

Jimmy Webster, from Cardiff, had been suffering to such an extent that he had required an oxygen mask to breathe on occasions.

On taking salbutamol, Mr Webster commented: “Within three days I could stand and within a week I could walk.” Next on the agenda for Jimmy is a camping trip. He said: “I wouldn’t have contemplated this last year.”

Salbutamol is a fast-acting medicine used in the treatment of asthma, bronchospasm and is also sometimes used for delaying the delivery in women going through a premature labour. The drug is a beta-2-agonist, and works by relaxing the muscles within air passages of the lungs. This means the airways are kept open and it is much easier to breathe.

However, Jimmy’s experience could pave the way for salbutamol being a main treatment option for more of the estimated 12,000 Brit’s with myasthenia.

Myasthenia can either be inherited, or caused by an autoimmune disorder. This means that the immune system – usually working to protect the body from infections – mistakenly attacks its own tissues.

Those with the autoimmune type of myasthenia have a fault in the transmission of nerve messages from the nerves to the muscles. This results in the muscles not being stimulated correctly and therefore do not tighten (contract) sufficiently, becoming easily tired and weak.

Muscle weakness is a particularly common symptom of the disease, but there are a range of symptoms – which may appear suddenly. Weakness in the eye muscles is often the first symptom, with one or both of the eyelids drooping, and there may also be blurred or double vision.

For some, the muscles around the mouth are affected first, resulting in problems with swallowing (dysphagia), chewing and even talking. Impaired speech and a nasal-sounding voice then usually follow.

Like in Jimmy’s case, some people with the condition can have breathing difficulties, especially during exercise or lying flat, and in some extreme scenarios, myasthenia can cause total paralysis.
Previous studies that shown a similar drug – ephedrine – contained in cold and flu remedies, could occasionally be effective for treating myasthenia. For example, there was another teenage patient who ended up being able to go out jogging and do sit-ups after previously having to rely on crutches to walk.

Therefore, Professor David Beeson at the Weatherall Institute, of Molecular Medicine, Oxford University, wanted to find other drugs that could be just as effective, if not better. Salbutamol was one of the medicines analysed.

Salbutamol may be used in conjunction with other drugs or standalone. Professor Beeson commented: “It is not yet licensed for use in the condition, but clinicians are happy to prescribe it.”
He advised Jimmy to try salbutamol together with pyridostigmine, a treatment he had been on since the age of four.

“I expected I’d get stronger, but had no idea I’d be able to walk again,” says Jimmy. “I still use my wheelchair out and about, but at home I walk around – just getting dressed, washing and cooking, it’s amazing to be able to normal things.”

Professor Beeson is delighted with Jimmy’s progress, adding: “It is incredibly rewarding to see results like this. Over the last couple of years we have seen patients rise from their wheelchairs within months, but Jimmy’s quite exceptional.”

Brits still have a poor perception of asthma

Considering there are a staggering 5.4 million asthmatics in Britain, it could be assumed that the majority of us are pretty clued-up on the serious lung condition asthma. Unfortunately, the results of a new survey suggest this could be far from the truth.

Research conducted by supermarket giant Asda showed that whilst 94% acknowledge asthma as a serious health condition, 1 in four respondents could not recognise key symptoms associated with asthma. In fact, 17% incorrectly believed blocked sinuses are a sign of the lung condition.

An additional 15% of those surveyed simply thought feeling dizzy was asthma-related and 13% bizarrely assumed having itchy eyes was somehow a key symptom of asthma. In reality, the primary common symptoms of asthma are having a shortness of breath, wheezing (accompanied by a whistling sound), chest tightness/pain/pressure, coughing (especially at night or early in the morning).
Sufferers usually find their symptoms to be particularly worse at night time, after exposure to cold air, exercise-induced, or brought-on by a reaction to an allergen – similar to hay fever sufferers.

Other wrong assumptions held by Brits include thinking there is a permanent cure for the lifelong condition; incredibly a third of us believe this to be true. Moreover, 15% merely think that asthma is something that only ‘unfit’ people have.

This is clearly untrue though and many are obviously forgetting the countless famous asthma sufferers who have reached the top of their field, such as the multimillionaire and recently retired footballer David Beckham and cyclist Laura Trott, who won gold at the London 2012 Summer Olympic Games in the Team Pursuit and Omnium events.

However, asthma attacks still cause around 1,140 deaths each year and a substantial number of those could have been avoided with more awareness about the condition and how to efficiently control it. Only 37% of Brits have a decent knowledge about asthma medication or can differentiate between the purpose of blue and brown inhalers.

Unfortunately, this perhaps demonstrate a worrying lack of awareness about the fact a person’s asthma can be better controlled with regular and correct utilisation of brown preventer inhalers such as the commonly used Qvar Beclometasone and Easi-Breathe inhalers. Over time, the brown preventers are effective at reducing the need for blue inhalers – which are taken immediately to relieve asthma symptoms and essential in treating asthma attacks.

Visit the ‘Asthma and Allergies’ area of the Medical Specialists Pharmacy website for a full list of all the preventer and reliever inhalers we provide for suitable patients.

If you have already been prescribed an inhaler, have lost your inhaler, or run out and cannot get a prescription immediately, we are able to supply you an inhaler to help your asthma symptoms. You can undergo a quick and easy confidential online consultation with one of our GMC-registered Doctors and if suitable, they will write you a prescription which is passed to our in-house RPSGB–registered Pharmacists and dispensed to a location of your choice, all within just 24 hours!*

*Allow extra time for overseas deliveries.

Ginger may spice up asthma medications

Ginger extract could prove a lot of more useful than simply tasting delicious and having a soothing effect on the stomach – it may also help to soothe the lungs for asthma sufferers.

According to the researchers of a new study, asthmatics could benefit from more effective medications after ginger is added to them as parts of the peppery root interact with medicines known as beta-agonists.

Laboratory tests showed how the ginger compound worked at accelerating the relaxation of airway smooth muscle (ASM) tissue samples, says lead researcher Dr Elizabeth Townsend, from Columbia University in the U.S.

Dr Townsend spoke on the study findings, commenting: “Asthma has become more prevalent in recent years, but despite an improved understanding of what causes asthma and how it develops, during the past 40 years few new treatment agents have been approved for targeting asthma symptoms. In our study, we demonstrated that purified components of ginger can work synergistically with beta-agonists to relax airway smooth muscle.”

In the laboratory, the researchers exposed human samples of ASM tissue to the nerve signalling compound acetylcholine, which they knew would cause bronchial tubes to contract, preventing air flow and resulting in breathing difficulty. This is known as ‘bronchoconstriction’.

Following this, the researchers they treated the samples using the beta-agonist isoproterenol in addition to either one of three different components of ginger (6-gingerol, 8-gingerol or 6-shogaol).
It was noted that the 6-shogaol component appeared to offer the biggest effectiveness at increasing the relaxing effect of the beta-agonist and managed to dissolve protein filaments that are believed to constrict bronchial tubes. Interestingly, all three ginger compounds worked at suppressed a key enzyme that induces asthma symptoms.

Beta-agonist medications primarily target the muscles around the airways – bronchi and bronchioles. After the lungs are irritated, the airways become narrower as muscles surrounding the airways tighten. Beta-agonists relax the muscles of the airways and thus widen them, making it a lot easier to breathe.

Asthma and COPD are common lung conditions that are treated through the use of beta-agonists, with Ventolin Evohaler and AirSalb Salbutamol being two popular choices.  Moreover, there are beta agonists that have other medical uses to treat conditions such as hypoglycaemia (low blood sugar), hypotension (low blood pressure), heart failure, and as an antidote to beta-blocking poisoning.

Fungi found in the lungs could offer clues about asthma

Welsh scientists could have made an important breakthrough in the development of affective asthma treatment after discovering hundreds of varying fungal particles within the lungs of both asthma sufferers, and healthy individuals who did not have the lung condition.

Previously, many would have assumed that our lungs were absent of life, so the new discovery that the lungs are host to organisms may now prove massively beneficial for the 5.4 million people across the UK who have asthma.

The large study, which is the first of its kind, has been published in the journal BMC Infectious Disease. It shows how the team from Cardiff University’s School of Medicine have managed to detect high numbers of fungi existing in healthy lungs, whilst also finding other differing kinds of fungi in asthma patients.

“Historically, the lungs were thought to be sterile”, says Hugo van Woerden from Cardiff University’s Institute of Primary Care and Public Health, who led the research.

He continued: “Our analysis found that there are large numbers of fungi present in healthy human lungs. The study also demonstrates that asthma patients have a large number of fungi in their lungs and that the species of fungi are quite different to those present in the lungs of healthy individuals.”

Van Woerden and his colleagues analysed the mucus or sputum from a large collection of patients both with and without asthma and subsequently unearthed some 136 different fungal species from the induced sputum samples. Of this total, 90 fungal species more prevalent within the lungs of asthma patients and 46 were more common within the lungs of patients who did not suffer from asthma.

“Establishing the presence of fungi in the lungs of patients with asthma could potentially open up a new field of research which brings together molecular techniques for detecting fungi and developing treatments for asthma. In the future it is conceivable that individual patients may have their sputum tested for fungi and their treatment adjusted accordingly”, added van Woerden.

Cardiff researchers have previously established a link between fungi and asthma however and they have said in the past that by eradicating fungi from people’s homes, this could dramatically help life for those who suffer with asthma.

Medical Specialists Pharmacy is able to help you if you are suffering from asthma. We can provide any new or existing asthma patient with a wide range of medications. If you have already been prescribed an inhaler, have lost your inhaler, or run out and cannot get a prescription immediately, we are able to supply you an inhaler to help your asthma symptoms. You can undergo a quick and easy confidential online consultation with one of our GMC-registered Doctors and if suitable, they will write you a prescription which is passed to our in-house RPSGB–registered Pharmacists and dispensed to a location of your choice. We have both blue (relievers) inhalers such as Ventolin and Salbutamol, and brown (preventers) inhalers such as Qvar Beclomethasone and Qvar Easi-Breathe.

Genetic testing could lead to tailored asthma treatment

Scientists from Dundee University claim that a relatively simple and inexpensive ‘spit test’ could pave the way for creating bespoke asthma treatment for children suffering with the lung condition if a specific genetic mutation is detected and thus practically rendering their current treatment almost useless.

The Dundee University scientists collaborated with colleagues at Brighton University to analyse a total of 62 children who all had poorly controlled asthma and in many cases it was determined that their prescribed medication could be the source of the problem.

In particularly, a common culprit could be the inhaled ‘salmeterol’, found in both seretide and servent inhalers. Salmeterol is used by children with severe asthma that cannot be controlled with just their inhaled steroid medication such as the blue inhaler Ventolin – a popular inhaler prescribed to all children after they are formally diagnosed as having asthma.

The scientists believe that genetic code is the reason why some children fail to respond to the salmeterol. The drug is known as a ‘bronchodilator’ beta-2 agonist meaning it acts at stimulating beta-2 receptors on the muscle cells that line the airways. This results in these muscle cells being able to relax and open the airways.

Unfortunately however, an estimated one in seven people have a genetic mutation – the arginine-16 genotype of the beta-2 receptor- that causes their receptors to have a slightly altered shape than normal and the salmeterol does not acknowledge this difference.

All 62 children involved in the study had this genetic mutation and all had required periods of time off school, had hospital treatment or had visited a GP out of hours due to their asthma flaring up. During the study, the authors allowed the children to use their basic inhaler to control symptoms. In addition though, half were chosen at random to receive salmeterol and the other half were administered the anti-inflammatory medicine montelukast, used to prevent children from experiencing an asthma attack.

Within just three months it was discovered that those taking montelukast had significantly less coughing and wheezing, less likely to experience any deterioration of their asthma symptoms, as well as more likely to use their reliever inhaler less frequently than before.

At the beginning of the study, researchers calculated that 36% of the children had to use their reliever inhaler on a daily basis. After the year-long study had come to a conclusion, the total number of children using this inhaler every day had been slashed by half in the montelukast group. Interestingly, this trend was not seen within the salmeterol group.

Professor Somnath Mukhopadhyay said: “For almost every clinical outcome we were looking at we found that salmeterol either wasn’t working or was working very poorly. Montelukast was very much better. We’ve shown for the first time that personalised medicine can work in the field of childhood asthma.”

Prof Mukhopadhyay says the simple test would cost around £15 if it were to ever be introduced into GP surgeries, adding that it is unacceptable to prescribe drugs to children that are ineffective. He continued: “It’s a common disease affecting a million children in this country.  A common medicine is probably not working in a significant proportion of the population. I think we need to get some guidance from lead charities and from the Department of Health.”

Professor Stephen Holgate, MRC clinical professor of immunopharmacology at Southampton University, commented on the results of the study and said: “While genetic changes that determine bronchodilator responses in asthma have been known for some time, this is a wonderful example of stratified or personalised medicine working its way into practice. While still a small trial, the results in the asthmatic children’s response to the two treatments across a number of asthma outcomes are impressive.”

Olympian’s heavy training regimes could be causing asthma

With the London Summer Olympic Games now in full swing, an Australian study has been published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, investigating the impact of the training involved on the athletes and any connections to chronic lung conditions.

In a country such as Australia, whereby more than 2 million people suffer from the lung condition  asthma (about 1 in 10 adults and about 1 in 9 or 10 children),  clearly the study author based at the University of Western Australia realised it was a serious subject matter than warranted some analysis.

Sole author of the study, researcher Kenneth D. Fitch, underwent the painstaking task of pinpointing every single Olympic athlete suffering from asthma and airway hyper-responsiveness (AHR) who had competed during the previous five Olympic Games (2002 to 2010), and who had been using an inhaled beta-2 agonist (IBA) such as Ventolin Evohaler.

Hyper-responsiveness occurs usually between 15 to 30 minutes after exposure to an allergen and is the beginning stage of an asthma attack. Together, asthma and AHR are the most prevailing of chronic conditions seen in Olympians, with a prevalence rate of around 8%. Because of this, the researchers wondered if it was down to the intense, rigorous physical training the athletes undergo to get into peak condition for the events.

In both the summer and winter Olympics, it was noted there are a high number of athletes suffering from asthma and AHR in those who are involved in endurance events. These are usually aerobic sports that demand quite an extended period of output for the athlete and include events such as triathlon, decathlon, rowing, cross-country skiing, running and bicycle races. In addition, it was discovered that lung problems are quite late onset in a high number of older competitors. This led the study author to believe that the gruelling years of training have played a part.

Fitch offered his thoughts on the study he had carried out, saying, “Inhaling polluted or cold air is considered an important factor which might explain the cause in some sports, but not in all.”
Clearly with two Olympic events occurring in contrasting seasons such as the summer and winter games, Fitch then considered the prospect that the two differing temperatures, environments, etc, involved in both the training and games themselves, could affect the athletes.

He commented, “The quality of inhaled air could be harmful to the airways, but does not cause the same effect in all sports.” Fitch highlighted that the prevalence of asthma and AHR is greater in the summer Olympics in those athletes who are training for endurance events. He also said that if there are a larger total of winter athletes suffering with asthma in comparison to their summer counterparts, this could be due to the fact there are a lower number of individual medals available in the endurance events.
One interesting point touched upon in Fitch’s study, was the fact that there are a good proportion of asthmatic competitors who are routinely beating their ‘healthier’ counterparts to medals. There are currently no links to asthma inhalers being directly responsible for increased performance levels, but Fitch suggests that further studies could be done to further analyse a potential correlation. His point could be valid as the hugely successful and acclaimed Manchester United footballer Paul Scholes is a notorious asthmatic, and is regularly seen puffing on his Salbutamol inhaler on the Old Trafford pitch.

Asthma is not just a condition that affects athletes however; in the UK alone there are 5.4 million people currently receiving treatment for asthma. This equates to 1 in every 12 adults and 1 in every 11 children.

Medical Specialists Pharmacy is at hand to help you with your asthma. We have great prices on all asthma treatment, including blue reliever inhalers such as Ventolin Evohaler and Sandoz Salbutamol. These inhalers are taken immediately to relieve asthma symptoms. They quickly relax the muscles surrounding the narrowed airways. This allows the airways to open wider, making it easier to breathe again. Relievers are essential in treating asthma attacks.

We also have brown preventer inhalers such as Qvar beclometasone and Qvar Easi-Breathe, both at low prices. Brown inhalers are used for asthma prevention and should not be used to relief shortness of breath or sudden asthma attacks. These inhalers control the swelling and inflammation in the airways and reduce the risk of severe asthma attacks. The preventers need to be used daily (usually in the morning and at night) and even when you are feeling well. As the protective effect of the steroid builds up, you will be less likely to be breathless or have asthma attacks.

New drug Tudorza Pressair is given FDA backing for the treatment of COPD

This week has seen yet another new drug been given a clearance by The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), following the recent seal of approval for two new weight loss medications, Qsymia and Belviq, as we reported last week.

On this occasion, the drug to be given an authorisation for public use is a twice-daily inhaled medication named ‘Tudorza Pressair’, which is used to help treat symptoms of bronchospasm. This is associated with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), aka ‘smoker’s cough’.

COPD is a term used for numerous conditions, including chronic bronchitis and emphysema, and is similar in certain characteristics to asthma. Bronchitis and emphysema are commonly co-existing diseases of the lungs in which the airways become narrowed, thus making it difficult for air to get in or out of the lungs.  Obvious symptoms can include chronic cough, tightness in the chest, and excessive phlegm.

Asthma and COPD can exist in the same person. However, in contrast to asthma, the inflammation of the lungs with COPD is not triggered by allergies and does not respond well to anti-inflammatory medication. In 2005, there were over 3 million deaths worldwide linked to COPD, with the main cause being the damaging effects of cigarette smoking.

On Tuesday, Spain’s biggest pharmaceutical company Almirall, and US drugmaker Forest Laboratories, confirmed they had been given the coveted FDA green light for Tudorza Pressair. This followed a slight hiccup back in March when the FDA demanded that it wanted a three-month extended time period to analyse the review data supporting the New Drug Application for aclidinium bromide (the powder ingredient within Tudorza Pressair).

Despite entering into an already competitive market where highly popular effective medications such as Ventolin can alleviate COPD symptoms, analysts at Sanford Bernstein say that sales of the Forest/Almirall drug could hit $164 million by 2015.

A spokesperson at Forest commented saying, “As the first long-acting inhaled anticholinergic agent approved in over 8 years for COPD, Tudorza will be an important treatment option.”
Curtis Rosebraugh, MD, Office of Drug Evaluation II, FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, Rockville, Maryland, said, “COPD is a serious disease that gets worse over time. The availability of long-term maintenance drugs for COPD provides additional treatment options for the millions of people who suffer with this debilitating disease.”

However, the FDA have also warned that the drug may cause some serious side effects such as paradoxical bronchospasm, new or worsened urinary retention, or new or worsened pressure in the eyes (known as acute narrow-angle glaucoma). The FDA also says the medication is not fit to be used as a rescue therapy to help aid sudden breathing difficulties such as acute bronchospasm.

When Medical Specialists Pharmacy know more about this and other medications that are being approved by the FDA to help with asthma or COPD, we will update our patients immediately. In the meantime, Medical Specialists Pharmacy provides a huge range of medications to help asthma sufferers, all at great prices. If you have already been prescribed an inhaler, have lost your inhaler, or run out and cannot get a prescription immediately, we are able to supply you an inhaler to help your asthma symptoms.   After undergoing a private and confidential online consultation with one of our Doctors, if you are suitable they will then write you a prescription which is passed to our in-house Pharmacists and dispensed to a location of your choice. This is all done discretely and within just 24 hours. We offer both blue (relievers) inhalers such as Ventolin and Salbutamol, and brown (preventers) inhalers such as Qvar Beclomethasone, Qvar Easi-Breathe, and Pulvinal Beclomethasone.

The New York childhood asthma rate is more than US national average

Statistics released by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show that an average of one in eight New York City children have been diagnosed with asthma. This means that the prevalence rate is higher than the US national average for childhood asthma, which is currently about one in ten.

Thomas Matte, assistant commissioner for environmental surveillance and policy, commented on the findings and said, “New York City’s rate on average is higher, but then within the city we know the rate varies dramatically. Our rate is really pulled up by the high rates in poor neighbourhoods.”

Matte gives his opinions on why this is so, and says that households with lower income will probably have more possible asthma triggers such as mould, pest infestations, and the chemicals in cigarette smoke can irritate the lungs. The links between tobacco smoke and lung conditions such as asthma is a topic Medical Specialists Pharmacy previously reported earlier this year, and we advise that asthma suffers must have their reliever inhaler in their possession at all times, especially when there is a risk of being in the presence of somebody who smokes.

He further advises that written instructions for children and parents would be an effective method of managing their asthma.  According to the CDC survey, only one in three children using medication for asthma was actually doing this.

It is calculated that children residing in East Harlem are almost 13 times more likely to require asthma-related hospital treatment in comparison to counterparts living in the Upper East Side. The same report claims that 18% of Hispanic children and 17% of black children have been diagnosed with asthma, and just 5% of white children.

Dr Joshua Needleman, a paediatric pulmonologist at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, says Doctors are already aware of the trends that the report highlights, saying, “You find asthma all over the place, but the kids in the poor areas is where you see the most burden.”

With soaring temperatures currently gripping the US, child and adult asthma sufferers in both poor and wealthy areas will no doubt see their symptoms worsen, and this will apply to those who have hay fever too. Days with high humidity or pollution can especially cause problems for asthma sufferers and this can be dangerous if left untreated. The American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI) have said, “Although symptoms may not always be severe, summertime allergies and asthma are serious and, in some cases, deadly.”

At Medical Specialists Pharmacy we offer our patients a huge range of medications to help both asthma and allergy sufferers, all at great prices. If you have already been prescribed an inhaler, have lost your inhaler, or run out and cannot get a prescription immediately, we are able to supply you an inhaler to help your asthma symptoms. After undergoing a private and confidential online consultation with one of our Doctors, if you are suitable they will then write you a prescription which is passed to our in-house Pharmacists and dispensed to a location of your choice. We have both blue (relievers) inhalers such as Ventolin and Salbutamol cheaper than the NHS, and brown (preventers) inhalers such as Qvar Beclomethasone, Qvar Easi-Breathe and Pulvinal Beclomethasone.

An effective treatment for allergic rhinitis (hay fever) is Nasonex nasal spray. Available with or without a prescription, Nasonex is a medication used to help with congestion, sneezing, runny or stuffy nose, and nasal itching due to allergies. It is also prescribed for nasal polyps (small, non-cancerous growths on the lining inside the nose). Prices of this medication are from as little as £9.98 per pack. Our chemist shop has now been expanded to include products such Prevalin allergy nasal spray, Prevalin allergy kids nasal spray and Alomide allergy eye drops, which can all help to ease the symptoms of hay fever.

Asthma inhaler sensor given clearance by FDA

Asthma sufferers all around the world may soon have a revolutionary device in their possession after the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted a 510(k) clearance on Tuesday to a Madison based company to start rolling out its asthma inhaler sensor. This kind of clearance means it can be marketed based on the fact there is an existing comparable product in the market already.

Asthmapolis have announced they received the federal clearance required to start offering the sensors to the public, together with mobile and web application software. The sensors are named ‘the Spiroscout’, and will only be available on prescription.

The sensor can be attached to most reliever inhalers such as the widely used Ventolin, and preventive inhalers such as Qvar’s Beclometasone and Easi-Breathe inhalers. It works by transmitting data to the person’s smartphone upon each discharge of their inhaler and satellites can then pinpoint the user’s location and pass all information back to the company’s server.

Asthmapolis boast that their new device is ‘small and lightweight’ and ‘easy to mount securely on the end of most inhalers’. Some advantages to asthmatics will be the generation of weekly reports, providing information on how many times they have used their inhalers, locations of asthma attacks, and they can even receive text messages that remind them to use their asthma medications.
The chances are that not every single person who suffers from asthma or chronic pulmonary obstructive disease will also own a smartphone, so the makers have devised a plan to cater for this. Users can connect their sensor to an access point called ‘2net Hub’, created by the wireless health network company Qualcomm Life.

Inger Couture, Chief Regulatory Officer of Asthmapolis, commented on the new device via a written statement and said, “We are thrilled to have achieved this important milestone to support our mission of providing tools to help patients and their healthcare providers better understand and control their asthma symptoms. Despite all we know about asthma and how to treat it, the majority of patients still do not have the disease under control, and traditional approaches to self-management have been time-consuming and complicated. The Asthmapolis technology makes it much easier to track symptoms and use of metered dose inhalers, allowing patients, their families and their doctors to gain a valuable new perspective on the disease.”

The proportion of asthmatic individuals in the United States increased by nearly 15% from 2001 to 2010, at which point it was thought there were 25.7 million people were affected. So clearly the device will benefit many people. Also in the UK there are approximately 5.4 million people currently receiving treatment for asthma. The lung condition is a worldwide problem, and can be deadly if you are not keeping track of your symptoms and attacks through the use of an asthma diary, or do not have sufficient supplies of your asthma inhalers.

At Medical Specialists Pharmacy we offer a wide range of medications to help asthma sufferers, all at great prices. If you have already been prescribed an inhaler, have lost your inhaler, or run out and cannot get a prescription immediately, we are able to supply you an inhaler to help your asthma symptoms.   After undergoing a private and confidential online consultation with one of our Doctors, if you are suitable they will then write you a prescription which is passed to our in-house Pharmacists and dispensed to a location of your choice. This is all done discretely and within just 24 hours. We offer both blue (relievers) inhalers such as Ventolin and Salbutamol, and brown (preventers) inhalers such as Qvar Beclomethasone, Qvar Easi-Breathe, and Pulvinal Beclomethasone.

Hereford teen dies from suspected asthma attack

An 18-year old beauty student from Hereford has tragically passed away after speaking to her mother on the phone and complaining she was short of breath. Bianca Hart was enjoying a socialising drink with friends in Hereford on 27 June to celebrate the end of her exams at Hereford College of Beauty before her asthma symptoms began to develop. After phoning her mother to say ‘I can’t breathe’, she was immediately rushed to the County Hospital in the early hours of Thursday 28 June.

Bianca lost consciousness inside the hospital after suffering a huge asthma attack and whilst awaiting an assessment from doctors. Paramedics then tried their best to save her but unfortunately she died a few hours later. Police have spoken to immediately dispel any notion that her drink may have been spiked. Bianca’s sister released a statement and paid tribute to her sister, saying, “Bianca lived life to the full, loved to be around her friends and socialising around the town. She was a very caring person, trustworthy, lively, beautiful, angelic by nature, fashionable and a confident person.”

Bianca is the third person to die from a suspected asthma attack in Herefordshire in the last two months, following the death of a 14-year old Ross-on-Wye schoolgirl Lauren Hughes and 48-year old Linda Robinson.

These deaths have stressed just how serious asthma can be if not properly treated and managed. Attacks can occur at any time but certain things can trigger an attack such as:

. Smoke from cigarettes. We would advise you stop smoking immediately if you smoke and have asthma, or avoid inhaling the smoke from those around you.
. Pollen from trees and grass.
. Paint fumes.
. House dust mites.
. Changes in air temperature. For example going from a warm room into cold air outside can sometimes trigger an attack.
. Some asthmatics experience an asthma attack during exercise and may need to use their reliever inhaler such as Ventolin prior to beginning the exercise. You can obtain this from Medical Specialists Pharmacy cheaper than on the NHS.

The problems of Asthma are a global issue that Medical Specialists are determined to do something about by offering patients a wide range of asthma reliever and preventer inhalers to best suit your needs. Indeed across the Atlantic, North America is currently experiencing soaring temperatures in the grip of a torturing heat wave. The heat will affect everybody, but those with asthma a lot more.

Lafayette asthma and allergy physician Dr. Ketan Sheth spoke last month about how the heat will have impact on asthmatics and said, “Hot weather increases a lot of pollution that is outside so air pollution is going to cause people with asthma to have trouble and just the heat and the humidity itself is really going to trigger problems.” Americans suffering from asthma have been warned to take the following precautions to stay safe during the heat wave:

. Stay indoors with the windows close. This can help to avoid smoke, dirt and other things that could trigger an attack.
. Keep hydrated.
. Keep up to date with the weather forecast.
. Limit outdoor activity if possible.
. Be careful using fans – These can blow allergens around the air.
. Finally, plan what action to take in case of an attack. Use your asthma medications often and always have rescue medication in your possession.