Tiotropium, a life saver!

[CallysMum]

My asthma has been poorly controlled for about 11 years now. I've been referred 3 times to consultants, who have put me on all sort of combinations of drugs. Still poorly controlled.

I trained as a molecular biologist, so did some academic reading. Tiotropium is an inhaled drug designed for COPD, but has been noted to help some asthmatics. So armed with the papers, I met my GP who was happy to prescribe it.

It took a week or so to see a difference after starting, and about 2-3 weeks to be completley effective. But...Wow! I no longer wake in the night coughing myself silly. I no longer cough for hours, so to say it has changed my life is not hyperbole.

I did a bit more reading and it seems it is only effective for asthmatics with a certain genotype, which is Arg/Arg which is a type of polymorphism on the leptin receptor gene Gln223Arg . Asthmatics with this genotype have asthma which is poorly responsive to the normal drugs. Me.

I thought I'd share this, if there is anyone else who has tried everything the British National Formulary can offer, it might be worth trying Tiotropium for a month. One side effect was a dry mouth, but I've found if I wash my mouth out literally the second after I've inhaled it is better.

[Homely2 Administrator]

Really glad for you.

Thank you for giving me something to ask my medic about. I have poorly controlled asthma, that they have now got enough control on to keep me out of hospital, but have not stopped the regular exacerbations.

When I next see the consultant, I am going with a list of things I want to try like this, and see what he says.

[Poobah]

Tiotropium worked for me, unfortunately the side effects ended up being my achilles heal and had to give it up.

I had Spiriva first but developed hypertension, my BP went crazily high. Luckily, the asthma nurse took my BP before I started on the Spiriva, so we had a benchmark to work with.

So then I tried Eklira Genuair and that was fantastic. However, a delayed eye test (due to lockdowns) showed I had developed low angle canal drainage in the 3 years since starting Eklira, leading to glaucoma. It was only by chance that I re-read the Eklira patient leaflet a few weeks after my eye test to see that low angle drainage is a possible side effect. So I ditched it and my next eye test the following year saw much reduced eye pressure.

I hope you have a side effect free experience. And thank you for the info on the endotype, very interesting.

[CallysMum in reply to Poobah]

So sorry it hasn't worked for you. It looks like "asthma" is many different types and one size does not fit all. Hope you get a solution soon.

[Poobah in reply to CallysMum]

My solution turned out to be Azithromycin. Again, endotype knowledge helps target the right treatment! 😊

[CallysMum]

Good to hear!

[runcyclexcski]

Isn't T it a component of the Trimbow inhaler?

[CallysMum in reply to runcyclexcski]

No, Trimbow is ...

beclometasone dipropionate,

formoterol fumarate dihydrate,

glycopyrronium bromide

[runcyclexcski in reply to CallysMum]

OK, thank you! You are right, Tiotropium is Spiriva (which never worked for me... we all are different).

[Blue-Breeze]

Tiotropium (Spiriva Respimat). This was a real game changer for me. I've been on it years.

[Stoer]

I've been on Spiriva (18 micrograms) and Montelukast for the past 5 weeks and have noticed a huge improvement in my breathing: I can actually climb a flight of stairs to the first floor in a tenement without stopping 😊. I don't know which drug I'm getting side effects of: I didn't have a cough before, but I now have a productive cough. I don't see my consultant again until August but I think I will email him to let him know what's going on.

[Dogsbody2all]

I'm glad tiotroprium works for you. I tried it last November. It made me cough, gave me a dry mouth no matter what I did, and by mid December my sinuses were infected (a known possible side effect). I gave it 7 weeks and quit. Hope it doesn't affect you the same way.

[Evie3]

brilliant news….will make a note of that as I cant get mine under control 😞