My Prednisone Problem

I usually have my asthma problem well managed. I use Advair once a day and Albuterol once every other month – usually in hard fast workout situations. Then, in unusual [atypical] situations my asthma runs amok and I get a Prednisone “burst” involving 15 to 20 tablets of 40 milligrams. Twice this involved severe cold snaps and once it involved heavy pollen. I get 4 or 5 pills the first day tapering off for 6-8 days. I'm usually mostly recovered within the first 2 days. Like myself, most people don't have problems with this. Doctors recognize that this “shock therapy” is highly effective in the control of asthma and it reduces the use of “rescue inhalers” like Albuterol.

I delayed my Prednisone “burst” [the last one I needed was in 2005] for a few weeks and had to see a doctor when I got a position away from home. I had difficulty scheduling a doctor's appointment and had the bad karma of picking a doctor who was either totally ignorant of the “burst” therapy or had been indoctrinated by the pharmaceutical industry as to its “dangers”. Everyone I talked to about using Prednisone had “heard bad things” about how it could “mess you up”. I got the same spiel from my Portland doctor who recommended a switch from my Advair to a different medication that was “less problematic” and a newly patented rescue inhaler as an alternative to Prednisone. And yes, I also got a recommendation for low dose Aspirin to control my asthma. I did get Prednisone in the form of only five 20 milligram tablets to be used once daily [less than 10% of what was needed to clear up my asthma]. Of course when I checked on line with Web MD they not only recommended the Prednisone burst but also touted Advair as more effective.

I ordered my Prednisone from outside the country and it still hasn't arrived - delayed by governement intervention, no doubt. I've been miserable for the past 3 weeks without being able to run for longer than 4 minutes at a time due to breathing difficulty – that would have been gone if my doctor wasn't indoctrinated. It didn't make any sense until one takes into account recent events that had absolutely nothing to do with real safety issues. Less than 2 months prior to my asthma acting up, Albuterol was called off the market due to inert materials inside the canister [nothing to do with Asthma treatment]. It was being replaced by new patented medications including Xophenex. Albuterol – like Prednisone – is a generic medicine costing less than 10 dollars. Xophenex is considerably more expensive. My guess is that it runs close to 50 dollars or more. Advair – whose patents would be extended under Obama Care – runs over 100 dollars per month. Low dose Aspirin – promoted as a “regimen” for high blood pressure and preventing heart attacks – commands significantly higher prices [and profits] than regular Aspirin – whose patent has expired.

Of course the real problem with Prednisone is that it costs less than 10 dollars. The problems with use are very atypical but this would NOT be the first time a drug was trashed by those in authority to remove competition for a drug company. Needless to say, drug companies find it useful to highlight rare cases of Prednisone abuse and represent those cases as typical in the exact same manner they did with Cocaine and Marijuana. I'm certain that if they haven't already started trashing Prednisone, Web MD will be coerced into repeating atypical anecdotal evidence to scare their readers away from 10 dollar medications towards the more profitable treatments. And very few patients with Asthma have a lifestyle that involves hour long runs so they will be easily convinced that the more expensive treatment involving the use of newly patented rescue inhalers as a long term management device is a wonderful alternative to the use of “problematic” drugs like Prednisone that clear up the Asthma symptoms quickly to enable a bona fide regimen for controlling Asthma.

We have a serious problem with drugs. The United States has the most expensive drugs, the highest use of arbitrarily banned drugs controlled by criminals, and the highest per capita spending on health care. Despite all the hoopla about drugs from other countries being “less safe” than our own, we have never ever had any actual measurable standards for any drug restrictions in our country. It is way too profitable for drug sellers to maintain the status quo. And if anyone truly believes the FDA or the DEA is the friend of consumers and protects us against truly problematic drugs: where were you when I was trying to unload my long line of clunkers?

I seriously doubt that Web MD will maintain its objectivity with the onslaught of drug ads in its magazine. Any and all media outlets in this country are not reliable sources of information when their budgets have so many drug ad dollars. The idea that drug patents need to be extended to encourage “research and development” is totally absurd. The number of breakthroughs is minimal. The difference between Xophenex and Albuterol is cosmetic and marginal. All too often treatments are driven by costs and profit margins. Prednisone is too cheap to NOT be “problematic”. When they have patented a designer version of Prednisone that they can sell for 10x more, they will get doctors to recommend the patented version as treatment for flare ups of Asthma. As long as they have doctors and media outlets as corrupted gatekeepers of disinformation, we will continually be fed scare stories about problems with unprofitable drugs to steer people towards higher pharmaceutical profits. Anyone surprised about the lack of discussion about real drug reform and drug profiteering by pharmaceutical companies in our health care “debate? I wonder why...