Ordering Medicine From The Us

[Hail the Tripod]

Well it's probably about time somebody did!

Here's Why Your Asthma Inhaler Costs So Damn Much

http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2013/10/heres-why-your-asthma-inhaler-costs-so-damn-much

' Here's the short version of the story: as Saunders says, albuterol is a cheap medication because it went off patent long ago. Then, a few years ago, as part of the campaign to eliminate CFCs and save the ozone layer, CFC-based inhalers were set to be banned. Pharmaceutical companies took advantage of this to design new delivery systems and surround them with a thicket of patents. As a result, even though albuterol itself might be off patent, only name-brand asthma inhalers are availableand since there's now no generic competition the big pharmaceutical companies are free to jack up prices to their heart's content. And they have. After all, as Rosenthal points out, this isn't like acne medicine that you can do without if it costs too much. If you have asthma, you need an inhaler, period. Is your blood boiling? Well, wait a bit. The story is actually even worse than this.

You're probably thinking that what happened here is (a) overzealous environmentalists insisted on banning CFC inhalers even though they don't really have much impact on the ozone layer, and ( pharmaceutical companies cleverly took advantage of this to suck some extra money out of asthma sufferers. Well, the ozone layer was the initial cause of all this, so feel free to place some of the blame on environmentalists if you like. But as it turns out, scientists raised some early concerns about the inhaler ban because the replacement for CFCs was a powerful greenhouse gas. So they suggested that maybe it was better just to make an exception for asthma inhalers and let well enough alone. At that point, the pharmaceutical companies that had been eagerly waiting for the old inhalers to be banned went on the offensive. Nick Baumann picks up the story from there:

The pharma consortium transformed from primarily an R&D outfit searching for substitutes for CFC-based inhalers into a lobbying group intent on eliminating the old inhalers. It set up shop in the K Street offices of Drinker Biddle, a major DC law firm. Between 2005 and 2010, it spent $520,000 on lobbying. (It probably spent even more; as a trade group, it's not required to disclose all of its advocacy spending.) Meanwhile, IPAC lobbied for other countries to enact similar bans, arguing that CFC-based inhalers should be eliminated for environmental reasons and replaced with the new, HFC-based inhalers.

The lobbying paid off. In 2005, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved an outright ban on many CFC-based inhalers starting in 2009. This June, the agency's ban on Aerobid, an inhaler used for acute asthma, took effect. Combivent, another popular treatment, will be phased out by the end of 2013.

In other words, pharmaceutical companies didn't just take advantage of this situation, they actively worked to create this situation. Given the minuscule impact of CFC-based inhalers on the ozone layer, it's likely that an exception could have been agreed to if pharmaceutical companies hadn't lobbied so hard to get rid of them. The result is lower-quality inhalers and fantastically higher profits for Big Pharma. '

I don't think that is current because after quite a few years of the dreadful new style inhalers you can now (thankfully) get the original style again.

[The Masked Tulip]

Ventolin is a reliever. Do you have a preventer? Do you want both a preventer and a reliever? Or just a reliever? Does it have to be ventolin?

I use dry powder Flixotide turbohaler as a steroid preventer - had 250 microgram ones when I was very bad but have managed to drop down to 100 micrograms.

I also have the 12 hour dry powder Serevent turbohaler and I have dry-powder Bricanyl turbohaler for emergencies. Apparently the Serevent has also been classed as an emergency inhaler today - they used to say it took 30 minutes to work - but I have seen conflicting information on whether it is for emergencies or not. I personally find it works as quicky as Bricanyl but affects different parts of my airways.

I have a stash of them - some of them a few years out of date, but I have them all in a box numbered A - Z in sequential order and I am working my way through my backlog of them. I personally have not found a problem with using ones that are a year or two past their use by date. I also have up to date ones.

PM me if you need some for emegency if you can't get hold of any and are happy with the above.

[the gardener]

Just tell the doctor that your asthma has worstened and you get through one inhaler every two or three weeks. You should be able to get 2 or 3 inhalers at a tine then. Then tell them you lost a couple and get another prescription. You should be able to stockpile quite a few this way.

[DTMark]

You lot are very helpful - TMT, thanks..

I picked up the two Ventolin and two Seretide inhalers earlier (two identical prescriptions - the one they lost last time and the one that was supposed to replace the one they lost).

£32.80.

Those two should probably last about four months. I only get through them quicker if I get a respiratory infection. I really ought to get back into using the Seretide regularly.

So that should give some breathing space (ho ho) while I investigate options.

What annoys me more is the cost of the antihistamines. You used to be able to get the "no brand" Cetirizine for £1 or less, most places have replaced the cheap option with Loratadine which serves no useful purpose whatsoever and has no effect at all.

The branded Cetirizine e.g. Piriton is monumentally expensive for some tiny pills which presumably cost next to nothing to make.

People reading this will probably think "You're mad, Just get rid of the cats" and that would be the right answer, but I'd rather have the cats and the asthma. One of those mad 'cat people'

[Mark Uttley]

You should still be able to get cetirizine for around £1, if you shop around. Try a small independent pharmacy, as opposed to a chain. Loratidine needs to be taken for a few days before it becomes effective, but I prefer cetirizine anyway.

[The Masked Tulip]

Look into adding magnesium supplements to your diet as its relaxes the airways - one of the options at A&E for asthmatics is giving someone a magnesium IV when they are having an asthma attack. Calcium constricts smooth muscle and magnessium relaxes it.

Also seriously look into wheat and 'bakers asthma'. I think wheat is a huge problem when it comes to asthma.

I also think that Vitamin D is a huge benefactor - especially when combined with correct balance of magnesium, calcium, etc.

Lastly, I discoverd that my vertaebrae had locked or seized up - as if my spine had fused into one piece. This, I believe, led to all sorts of problems related to spinal movement, chest movement, calciication of smooth muscle tissue, restricted blood supply, nervies not being able to transmit signals properly, etc, etc.

Seeing a chiropractor has, I believe, improved my breathing considerably. I think I had something nasty going on re lack of calcium absorption due to stress, lack of vit D, lack of magnesium, etc, which was calcifying my smooth muscles and causing my health to go down the drain. Googling online I appear to not be the only person who has come to the same conclusion about their health.

I mention the spine bit because, alas, the NHS does not appear to understand spinal health and how important it is for so much of our well-being.

Rant over - for now

[200p]

We have a cat - I am highly allergic to cats. The answer is to keep them out of the bedroom. Put a latch on the bedroom door, and never let them on the sheets/bed. Now I don't have a problem as the hairs stay on the ground. When you do put a latch on, the next step is to hoover everywhere, and change all the bed sheets.

[the gardener]

+1 with the hoovering. I'm also allergic to (most) cats. Recently I went to a cat owners house (they had two) and not only could I not smell them ( the cats not the humans) but I didn't get wheezy etc. Why? The wife was a bit ocd about cleaning and hoovered frequently.

I'll also offer up regular camomile tea consumption as an antidote to allergies. My own allergic asthma improved so much that I rarely take either the blue or brown inhalers now. I have to lie to the nurse and pretend i really do take the preventative inhaler year round but I just don't seem to need it much now.

[CunningPlan]

+1 with the hoovering. I'm also allergic to (most) cats. Recently I went to a cat owners house (they had two) and not only could I not smell them ( the cats not the humans) but I didn't get wheezy etc. Why? The wife was a bit ocd about cleaning and hoovered frequently.

I'll also offer up regular camomile tea consumption as an antidote to allergies. My own allergic asthma improved so much that I rarely take either the blue or brown inhalers now. I have to lie to the nurse and pretend i really do take the preventative inhaler year round but I just don't seem to need it much now.

I don't think you are as allergic as you think you are if you can actually be in a cat house. I can survive,at best, 10 minutes in any house that has had a cat in the last two years (this includes my in-laws so it is not all bad). My wife, before she was my wife, had cats and she had to keep changes of clothing at my place because, as a cat owner, if she wore the clothes she wore at her house I would be sneezing and wheezing in minutes of meeting up. Cats are truly the work of the devil himself.

[jay67]

I'm on Symbicort Turbohaler and Ventolin here. My Ventolin prescriptions came singly for years,until the nice Asthma Nurse at the surgery asked if I wanted 2 to be put on one prescription. She's allowed to prescribe certain items,so I send her an SAE for another prescription when I'm running low. Have hay fever too..Home Bargains sell Cetirizine Hydrochloride ("Zirtek") tablets at 79p for 14.

[the gardener]

I don't think you are as allergic as you think you are if you can actually be in a cat house. I can survive,at best, 10 minutes in any house that has had a cat in the last two years (this includes my in-laws so it is not all bad). My wife, before she was my wife, had cats and she had to keep changes of clothing at my place because, as a cat owner, if she wore the clothes she wore at her house I would be sneezing and wheezing in minutes of meeting up. Cats are truly the work of the devil himself.

I don't know. Once I randomly started wheezing whilst sitting watching telly one night. No idea why. Went out to the kitchen for a beer, got to the bottom of the stairs to the kitchen and there was an almighty crash as a cat turned half my kitchen upside-down frantically trying to escape. Scared the life out of me. It must have got in through the upstairs bathroom window and made its way downstairs to the kitchen, passing the (closed) door to the living room. Merely having a cat pass by behind a closed door was enough to set me off wheezing.

Whenever I go to a cat owners house I can smell the filthy creatures and can't bear it for long before the itching in the back of the throat and wheezing starts.

[sPinwheel]

Get more cats.

[The Masked Tulip]

I don't know. Once I randomly started wheezing whilst sitting watching telly one night. No idea why. Went out to the kitchen for a beer, got to the bottom of the stairs to the kitchen and there was an almighty crash as a cat turned half my kitchen upside-down frantically trying to escape. Scared the life out of me. It must have got in through the upstairs bathroom window and made its way downstairs to the kitchen, passing the (closed) door to the living room. Merely having a cat pass by behind a closed door was enough to set me off wheezing.

Whenever I go to a cat owners house I can smell the filthy creatures and can't bear it for long before the itching in the back of the throat and wheezing starts.

There was a girl I was in school with who, if I went near her, would actually make me begin to feel very unwell. I would literally end up with a very sore throat simply from being near her. It was, and still sounds, weird. This was back in the 70s and little information was given to allergies and such-like but, today, I do wonder what on earth it was that was causing it. I had cats and dogs myself as pets as a child but I do wonder whether she had a particular type of cat and that its hairs were on her and her clothing.

Interesting girl as well - she was really nice up until about 15 years at which point she turned into one nasty piece of work.

[DTMark]

I think it used to be believed that allergies remain largely the same in a person over the years. However this is demonstrably not true:

When I was younger (maybe age 8) I was tested (pin-p rick test) and was highly allergic to grass pollen, cats and all the other major triggers.

When retested in the same way three years ago, this had all completely changed. All the allergies were very minor with the exception of house dust mite which was severe. That manifests itself when the weather is warm and wet, or especially when it's wet and the radiators are on. The solution involves special bed linen, hovering, ventilation etc. which we do. The cats aren't allowed in the bedroom, door is kept shut.

That test resulted in a recommendation for 1000mcg of Seratide per day. I did find after experimenting that around 750mcg a day was about right. Though like many I fail to keep to this. I must get back into using it regularly.

I would suspect that the cat allergy, severe when young, might have been beaten into submission by actually having cats for a long time - like a desensitisation programme. Before we had cats, I could last maybe an hour in a house with them before I'd lose my voice and struggle to breathe.

I may have lost some of my immunity in the months when we had no cats, and I am positive that I may regain some. So I'm not that hard done by compared with others.

We adopted three cats, not expecting all of them to be lap cats and around us all the time. Yet, they are all highly affectionate and two are lap cats to the extent they will climb on each other if need be to both get on my lap all the time. So my exposure is quite high - higher than with our old ones.

Two are long haired. It isn't the hair that we're allergic to but the saliva and urine. The saliva gets on the fur when they wash and I guess the longer the hair, the more washing, and the more dander - the allergen. And to top it all, allergy sufferers who have to have cats are recommended to have females. All three of ours are male.

Lesson learned too late. But, they're so lovely

Back to the prescriptions. I've found a couple of places in the UK which seem to be able to dispense these without a prescription supplied by you - they make their own one out based on data you supply. So I'll give that a go. If it works, then I can pop the "come and see the asthma nurse" letters in the bin and remove myself from the NHS. Fingers crossed

[Guest_northshore_*]

...What annoys me more is the cost of the antihistamines. You used to be able to get the "no brand" Cetirizine for £1 or less, most places have replaced the cheap option with Loratadine which serves no useful purpose whatsoever and has no effect at all.

The branded Cetirizine e.g. Piriton is monumentally expensive for some tiny pills which presumably cost next to nothing to make.

Wilko

[The Masked Tulip]

Wilko

Roger.

[gilf]

When I moved house a few years ago we decided to get a cat. Over the course of the next few months my asthma which had virtually disappeared came back with a vengeance. I hadn't used an inhaler for years (either reliever or preventer) but had to go back on to Seretide to keep things under control.

It wasn't until about 3 months after than I noticed a feather poking out of the sofa cushion. It wasn't the cat after all but the feather pillow that came with the cheap DFS sofa we got when we moved in. I do get a reaction from cats, tend to get really sore eyes and itchy but the asthma symptoms are minimal, for me feathers are a real nightmare, they always have been but I just hadn't put two and two together and would have thought the last thing you would get from a cheap sofa is plush feather pillows.

[CunningPlan]

I think it used to be believed that allergies remain largely the same in a person over the years. However this is demonstrably not true:

When I was younger (maybe age 8) I was tested (pin-p rick test) and was highly allergic to grass pollen, cats and all the other major triggers.

When retested in the same way three years ago, this had all completely changed. All the allergies were very minor with the exception of house dust mite which was severe. That manifests itself when the weather is warm and wet, or especially when it's wet and the radiators are on. The solution involves special bed linen, hovering, ventilation etc. which we do. The cats aren't allowed in the bedroom, door is kept shut.

That test resulted in a recommendation for 1000mcg of Seratide per day. I did find after experimenting that around 750mcg a day was about right. Though like many I fail to keep to this. I must get back into using it regularly.

I would suspect that the cat allergy, severe when young, might have been beaten into submission by actually having cats for a long time - like a desensitisation programme. Before we had cats, I could last maybe an hour in a house with them before I'd lose my voice and struggle to breathe.

I may have lost some of my immunity in the months when we had no cats, and I am positive that I may regain some. So I'm not that hard done by compared with others.

We adopted three cats, not expecting all of them to be lap cats and around us all the time. Yet, they are all highly affectionate and two are lap cats to the extent they will climb on each other if need be to both get on my lap all the time. So my exposure is quite high - higher than with our old ones.

Two are long haired. It isn't the hair that we're allergic to but the saliva and urine. The saliva gets on the fur when they wash and I guess the longer the hair, the more washing, and the more dander - the allergen. And to top it all, allergy sufferers who have to have cats are recommended to have females. All three of ours are male.

Lesson learned too late. But, they're so lovely

Back to the prescriptions. I've found a couple of places in the UK which seem to be able to dispense these without a prescription supplied by you - they make their own one out based on data you supply. So I'll give that a go. If it works, then I can pop the "come and see the asthma nurse" letters in the bin and remove myself from the NHS. Fingers crossed

Thanks for that picture. Started sneezing and wheezing already I am now allergic to my bloody laptop!.

[SarahBell]

Thanks for that picture. Started sneezing and wheezing already I am now allergic to my bloody laptop!.

I have the added advantage of actually having a cat on my desk most of the day.

[ccc]

I have the added advantage of actually having a cat on my desk most of the day.

I have a mouse - but each to their own I suppose.

[Deft]

Pointing out the obvious, Seretide is not a rescue medicine so you do need to stick with it however you feel symptomatically.

[Solitaire]

Those cats really lucked out with you - they look so happy

I have the same problems with allergy but around dogs, not cats.

Unbeknown to my family we had a dog when I was aged 15 - 17 (45 years ago now) and I literally spent 3 years, mostly in hospital, with life threatening asthma having no idea that the dog was the problem (doctors in those days didn't really recognise allergies as a cause for asthma). I'd get better go home for about a week then be taken back to hospital. Doctors thought it was because of stressful home life

My consultant was so afraid for my life he drove up to Oxford, I think it was, and begged for a medicine that was being developed and I was one of the first people in the country (maybe the world) to use a steroid inhaler. It saved my life.

Up until that time the treatment for severe asthma was intravenous hydrocortisone or aminophylline pretty awful potent drugs, we didn't have the luxury of life support in those days either for the most severe cases. Bloody awful times so I'm very pleased that treatments have moved on for those of you who get asthma these days. The steroid inhaler was miracle worker for me.

[ccc]

Any of you with Asthma tried diet changes ?

[DTMark]

Any of you with Asthma tried diet changes ?

I did keep a food diary for quite a while when investigating what my allergies were, and could find no correlation between what I ate and when it happened.

That said, alcohol can trigger or worsen it in certain circumstances. IIRC lime juice used to do it too.

[Hail the Tripod]

Any of you with Asthma tried diet changes ?

Do you know any good cat recipes?