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Friday Links: Singulair & Suicide (Again), Fall Allergy Capitals, Obesity & Asthma Connection
American Lung Association: No Suicide, Singulair Link
Of course I’m starting with this one, since Singulair (montelukast) is a very, very popular asthma drug and has come under the gun for severe side effects lately. The ALA’s independent study found no connection between depression and/or suicide and the drug and even discovered a positive emotional effect in patients who took it. I’m guessing the good moods are linked to the reduction in flares and other asthma symptoms. A quote:
While the findings of this study are reassuring and produced no evidence to support the recent publicity regarding a link between montelukast and depression or suicide, the authors do not dismiss the possibility that there could be other unrecognized adverse reactions to montelukast.
Translation: Just because there’s no evidence of this side effect, doesn’t mean there are no side effects.
Moral of the Story: Medicine affects people differently, and there’s always a risk of side effects. My daughter, as I’ve repeated ad nauseum here, cannot take Singulair because of side effects unrelated to this study, but many, many other patients have no problems with it. Use your own (and your doctor’s) best judgment.
2008 Fall Allergy Capitals
The new list of 100 is out from the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America. Here are the worst 5 for fall allergies:
1. Greensboro, NC
2. Greenville, SC
3. Little Rock, AR
4. Raleigh-Durham, NC
5. Jackson, MS
I’m not surprised, really. All five are in the mid-South, which sees plenty of rain, a large variety of vegetation, and fairly mild season changes. Those factors make for lots of pollination.
Obesity Worsens Asthma. A lot.
This is one of those connections the medical community has known about for awhile, but a recent study in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology provides even more information. Asthma patients who were also obese were 5 times as likely to be hospitalized as their non-obese counterparts, even when controlling for other risk factors like smoking and use of maintenance meds. In fact, obese patients were also found to have higher rates of reflux and use oral steroids more frequently.
Slate’s Reading List on Health Care Policy
Timothy Noah reviews the books, articles, and websites that best explain the debate over health care.
And now for a fun link:
No Play Clothes Here: Neiman Marcus Catalog Channels Your (Young) Daughter’s Inner Fashionista
What’s *fun* about this link on couture clothing and bedding in the hundreds of dollars for babies, toddlers and little kids? Jezebel’s usual delicious snark, of course:
I did not know that there was Juicy Couture for infants. I thought it was just for pre-teens and the soccer moms who dress like them. You learn something new every day.
Filed under: Asthma Triggers, Lung Drugs, News & Research
[...] miss the Asthma and Allergy Foundation’s 2008 Fall Allergy Capitals in last Friday’s links. If you’re new to asthma or have no idea what the AAFA’s allergy capitals lists are, [...]
[...] Inhalers Less Effective in Obese Asthma Patients Remember this link about obesity worsening asthma? And how obesity also meant higher oral steroid use for most [...]
HI,
I saw your information about Singulair. I encourage you to read more about it, especially the real life stories on medications.com and also you can visit parentsforsafety.org if you’re interested in helping get the word out about the need for better labeling, like the Black box label that should have been on singulair when I recieved it for my son. Long story and you can read it on the website parentsforsafety.org. My son’s life will not be the same and I wish that I was informed because I would have never given my son meds that caused such side effects. We spent thousands of dollars trying to help him not knowing we were poisoning him. Needless to say the singulair worked for the allergies and he is a severe asthmatic, but we have found that asthmanex works fine and he doesn’t want to die anymore…. Imagine that. I wish you the best with your kiddos. Thanks for listening.