Wednesday, June 3, 2009

inhaler update and a bit more

So, the inhaler did it's job. I was tweeking a bit at the beginning- jittery, hands shaking, etc., but that wore off. Yay for inhalers! We ran a 5K route that was a little up hill, a little downhill. It was my favorite so far.... except for the bridge. I am deathly afraid of heights and this happens to be the bridge that is just past the museum on your way out of town headed towards Watkins Glen (414). Michael asked me why I looked down. I'm not sure why. Why do people look at fiery crashes then look away then look back? Suffice it to say it was way high up and traffic was headed in both directions. Scary.

My next ailment. I noticed a pattern a few weeks ago and that is that I get a headache a few hours after I run. Everytime. I chalked it up to sinuses, allergies, migraine, whatever. Then I googled 'headache after running' and it's an actual condition. People who are prone to migraines (raising my hand) are more apt to be at risk for these 'exercise induced headaches'. Are you f$#@%ing kidding me?!?! I like the running. Why have I been forsaken? I am going to push through this and run Thursday and Sunday and see what happens next.

4 comments:

  1. Please pass this info along to all of your friends and family.
    Ozone-friendly inhalers could face early demise
    http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20090330/BIZ/303309942/1031/BIZ

    Benefits vague, problems clear in inhaler ban
    http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20090330/BIZ/303309941

    Asthma Patients Outraged at Indifference to Problems with New Inhalers:
    http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2009/02/asthma_hfa02.html

    Olympian Jackie Joyner-Kersee: FDA "Insensitive" to Asthma Patients' Problems:
    http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2009/03/asthma_hfa04.html

    The number of patient complaints is skyrocketing:
    http://www.consumeraffairs.com/health/hfa_inhalers.html

    Read the thousands of complaints at this petition:
    http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/saveCFCinhalers/signatures.html

    Patients at askapatient.com are reporting HFA inhalers as "useless" with a rating of 1.2 on
    a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being the best and 1 being the worst:
    http://www.askapatient.com/viewrating.asp?drug=20503&name=PROVENTIL-HFA

    You can only wonder if the FDA is trying to kill asthmatics:
    http://www.opednews.com/populum/diarypage.php?did=11627

    Also worth mentioning from the FDA website is the fact that a manufacturer of one of the HFA

    inhalers admits in it's own new drug application to the FDA that it's HFA based albuterol is less

    safe and effective than it's CFC based albuterol:
    http://www.fda.gov/cder/foi/nda/2001/20-983_Ventolin-HFA_medr_P1.pdf

    These quotes taken directly from the new drug application for Ventolin HFA.

    "In the multiple dose adolescent and adult studies, albuterol HFA showed a numerically smaller

    improvement in FEV1 than was seen with albuterol CFC
    "

    "There was other evidence that the HFA formulation delivers a lower/less effective dose on a per

    acutation basis than the CFC product.
    In the single dose, dose ranging study in adults, and in

    the single dose methacholine challenge study in adults one and two acutations of albuterol CFC were

    statistically indistinguishable in terms of effect, whereas significant differences were seen

    between one and two acutations of albuterol HFA. Finally, the combined adolescent/adult studies

    showed that the HFA formulation had a longer median time to onset of effect
    (4.2-9.6 minutes

    versus 3.6-4.2 minutes), had a shorter duration of effect(1.55-3.30 hours versus 2.29 - 3.69

    hours), and was associated with more albuterol 'back up' use than the CFC formulation."

    "We note that in the two 12 week clinical trials in adolescents and adults, Ventolin HFA

    Inhalation Aerosol consistently showed a smaller effect size than Ventolin CFC Inhalation

    Aerosol
    "

    "Because it is expected that many physicians will prescribe Ventolin HFA Inhalation Aerosol for

    patients who have previously used the CFC formulation, it would be appropriate to include some

    description of the relative effectiveness of these two formulations in the product label."

    "Unfavorable changes in physical examinations were observed in the ears, nose, and throat category

    as follows: 8% placebo HFA; 13% albuterol HFA; and 5% albuterol CFC."

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  2. I was going to type "Oh my god I can't believe that you ran 5 miles!!" but then I thought a)why do I always have to put my valley girl spin on everything?! and b) yes, I CAN BELIEVE you ran 5 miles! Because - whoa - you're so motivated and determined and battling through every obstacle!

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  3. Not five miles, oh no. A 5K is 3.11 miles, so I'm still running the 3 miles. I'm not sure who typed the whole deal above you. Weird.

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  4. did you know blogspot has a filter feature where you can screen comments before they are published?

    ReplyDelete