Smokers with asthma: Just Quit!

Posted by in Health on 06 30th, 2006 | no responses

If you are a smoker with asthma, smoking cessation is better than prednisone

The results of a different new study done in Glasgow measured improvements in asthma control in adult smokers who decided to quit smoking. Lung function (FEV1) improved by an average of 15% and up to 36% in the ten patients with asthma who quit smoking. These improvements began within a week after smoking cessation and lasted all through the 8 weeks of the study. that was a much larger improvement than after a 2 week “burst” of prednisone (40mg per day). [see the summary Chaudhuri R in Am J Respir CCM April 2006]

Previous studies had already shown that 25-50% of adults with asthma are current smokers, and that these society have increasingly severe asthma symptoms, higher rates of emergency room visits

and hospitalizations for asthma, increasingly rapid loss of lung function by several years, and reply less well to inhaled corticosteroids (like Flovent, QVAR, and Pulmicort).

This report should immediate smokers with asthma to decide to quit. They will need less asthma medication to achieve better control of their asthma. Some smokers can quit “cold turkey” but others need help from counseling, nicotine replacement therapy, or bupropion (Zyban). that summer, Chantix (varenicline pills) will become available in the United States. Chantix eliminates nicotine cravings, helping approximately half of smokers to quit successfully. See my recent blog approximately Chantix.

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