Comment Re:Government fails again (Score 1) 267
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P...
Despite its accessibility, many doctors say the medication wasn't a good option for patients.
Although the CFC ban is what eventually drove Primatene Mist from the market, Pulmonologist have argued for years that it was at the very least, not the best medication for asthma control, and at worst, dangerous. The active ingredient in Primatene Mist is Epinephrine (also known as adrenaline, adrenalin), which can cause a dangerous increase in heart rate.
"Primatene Mist does not treat asthma -- it treats symptoms that can come from asthma," said Dr. Kyle Hogarth, an assistant professor of medicine and the medical director of the pulmonary rehabilitation program at the University of Chicago Medical Center.
The danger in treating only symptoms, he said, is that repeated asthma attacks can permanently damage the lungs. Poorly controlled asthma can progress to a point where, "in their 40s and 50s, [patients] have the lungs of someone who is 80 or 90 who has smoked."
For that reason, the goal of asthma care isn't to react just to attacks -- it's to prevent attacks in the first place. That's generally done with daily medications, such as inhaled corticosteroids, which keep the airways from becoming inflamed. Ideally, Hogarth said, rescue inhalers shouldn't be used more than twice a week, at most.
Sounds great, but one of the symptoms of asthma is not being able to BREATH. Primatene is good for dealing with that quickly and when you are having that issue you want to deal with it.
Thats because Epinephrine is used to stop anaphylactic shock. There are rescue inhalers that do the same now. You just need a prescription.
