Intal Inhalers - available anywhere ?

[JamesinDublin]

Many years ago Intal standard inhaler worked great for me, but is now unavailable for a long time, any known places it can be purchased.

[Wheezycat]

Our daughter had Intal for a while but I seem to remember that at some point it was changed as it was regarded as something that was good for a child, but less so for adults. Mind you, it was a long time ago, and I may misremember.

[Hidden]

I was on IntalCo until I was in my mid twenties when I moved to a different area of the country and it began to be less effective at controlling my asthma. I was on it for seventeen years and it was a life changer when I was first put on it, aged eight.

[risabel59]

I think you can still get an Intal equivalent inhaler. The drug is sodium cromyln. It was also my first inhaler! Aged 13. It wasn’t much good for me, but for some people it is brilliant. It works with mast cells and I think switches them off.

R

[Wheezycat in reply to risabel59]

It worked well for our daughter for some time. Except when camping in damp weather. She had a spinhaler (does anyone remember those?) which you loaded with a capsule, twisted the whole thing to allow a small pin thing to penetrate and release the powder. In damp weather the capsules were affected so they tended to just twist and bend. We got through, and I still have the spinhaler somewhere, as we quite liked the look of the design.

[Hidden in reply to Wheezycat]

I agree with what you say about the design of the spinhaler. It was much easier to use than the evohaler so favoured now.

[risabel59 in reply to Wheezycat]

The spinhaler was the one I had!

[Hidden in reply to risabel59]

There were two different types I think: Intal (white and yellow capsules to use in a spinhaler) and IntalCo (white and orange capsules to use in a spinhaler). The IntalCo also contained isoprenaline (I think). When I took IntalCo to relieve an asthma attack the effect was amazingly fast - much quicker than ventolin. The only downside was the minute or two of splitting headache it left me with.

[Minushabens]

Intal changed my life when I first got it (around 1972). I was 7 or 8 & had never had an inhaler before in spite of suffering fairly serious asthma. At that time, inhalers were a bit of an oddity & I think I was the only child at my school to have one. It was always a little bit embarrassing though when the spinhaler made a racket & everyone would look at me when I took it.

Like everything though, time & technology moves on. I remember when it was first changed, the reason the doctor gave me was that it wasn't a very accurate way of managing symptoms because the orange capsule was a combined reliever & preventer & meant that you had to take more or less of each than you might actually need.

[Kjm83]

I work in a pharmacy and only see one patient on intal but I’m in Scotland

[Lysistrata Administrator Community Ambassador]

I tried Intal a few years ago as I wasn't getting anywhere with other inhalers. I'm not even sure I can comment on how good the drug was because the inhaler was a terrible design! It dumped white powder everywhere except in my lungs (throat, clothes...) and didn't fit a standard spacer. Also the one I was on needed to be taken 4x a day. I do not miss it, even though I am a weird asthmatic who is probably partially steroid resistant.

[Hidden in reply to Lysistrata]

Sounds as though they ditched the spinhaler then, that was so easy to use that I had no problems using it on my own aged eight. All you had to do was insert the capsule, push down on the mechanism designed to pierce the capsule, close your lips around the end of the inhaler designed to go in your mouth and breathe in with a small amount of force. They didn’t come with spacers because spacers weren’t needed for them.

[JamesinDublin]

I was told it was an Ozone/CO2 issues, and was discontinued. You can by the powder but it a lot of trouble to figure out how to inhale proper and right amount.

[Hidden in reply to JamesinDublin]

The aforementioned spinhaler was a dry powder inhaler (the powder being contained in the capsules). I prefer dry powder inhalers (probably because that’s what I first experienced) and these days I use an accuhaler for my medication. Works well and is easy to use. Only problem is that I don’t know which meds are available in accuhaler form. Seretide and Flixotide are, as is ventolin, but I don’t know about any others.