Kickas.org Forums Ankylosing Spondylitis General Discussion #1 AS Web Support Group asthma & AS

I was hospitalized about 3 weeks ago for 4 days due to bronchitis and asthma. I never really had any issues with asthma prior to this, or atleast never this bad, normally one breathing treatment and I was fine. Well in the hospital I was so bad they were giving me breathing treatments every 4 hours along with predisone and antibotics in my iv.

My family dr has given me a nebulizer to use if I need it but really feels uneasy about prescribing advar disk with me taking methotrexate. I'm trying to deal with the asthma by taking ginger pills, ginger tea, ginger everything, but am finding I'm still having two or three eposodes a week were I am wheezing and my chest hurts.

I'm just wondering how others treat their asthma along with their AS. (When I left the hosptial I was on antibotics for about 3 weeks along with predisone for about the same) I finished both last week Monday.

Just hoping to get a control on my asthma and arthitis. Saw rhuemy a week prior to getting sick and my sed rate was 79, normally my rhuemy gets concerned if it's between 35-40. My ribs have been causing a lot of pain since November and have been inflamed. Part of my wonders if my arthitis had anything to do with my asthma.

Any advice is greatly appreciated!

Hello, pianoplayer:


About four years into my AS, I developed asthma. Most of the time is was not very severe, but it was just after a bout with pleurisy following pneumonia. A few years later, the seasonal pollen counts skyrocketed one spring and I was really out of it, requiring steroids and I drank plenty of KCl solution; probably dangerous levels.

Later I found out that I was able to trigger an attack by consuming even a small quantity of Brazil or Macadamia nuts.

After just under one year FINALLY "properly" treating my AS, I was casting about in a market for things to eat on my then highly restrictive diet.

Major jar of Macadamia nuts: Is the asthma related to AS?!! You bet--at least mine was and I say WAS because both AS and asthma are just bad memories now; indelible as always.

And antibiotics are the NEXT best thing for AS: DIET is first.

keep breathing up and down, I wish You HEALTH,
John

Hi Pianoplayer,

Like John, I can link my asthma to my spondyloarthropathy...

At 17 yo I had quite a severe bout of glandular fever... within a year I had developed moderate asthma, then soon after I developed inflammatory spinal pain - diagnosed at that time as Scheuermann's disease (and recent MRI evidence would support this...)

Fast forward to 2 years ago - Joint pain and stiffness was a daily feature of my life from that early age and the Scheuermann's disease never 'burnt itself out' as I was reassured it would. I chewed NSAIDs on and off as I needed all those years!

Chronic asthma, worse in spring and autumn, but I was always on a preventer med with Ventolin for breakthrough attacks. At least one severe exacerbation/year that required an emergency room visit with/without a brief hospitalisation and inevitably a short course of prednisone (oral steroids).

Coincidentally my joints felt AMAZING for the time I was taking the Pred and shortly after , then the pain and stiffness gradually came back...

2 years ago I was really struggling with worsening spinal pain, chronic SIJ pain etc and I started to revisit what was going on with me systemically..... I found this KA site and decided to start the No Starch Diet...

The rest, as they say is history! Not only did my pain and stiffness slowly settle but after 6 months I had not used my puffer *once* for a top-up, so I decided to stop my preventer and yes indeed, I didn't seem to have unstable asthma any more!

Over 2 years since I started the No Starch Diet, and I have needed to use my Ventolin repeatedly only once, a couple of weeks ago when I was also having a multiple joint flare of unknown origin (couldn't link it to a lapse in my dietary regime). I had another course of pred and both settled quickly.

Now, if that's not proof that 1. something is not right with my immune system and 2. that spondyloarthropathy and asthma can be linked I'll be a monkey's uncle!

If you haven't tried the NSD I would strongly urge you to give it a go! You have everything to gain and nothing (bar a few pounds of XS weight, if you have any...) to lose.

Be well,

I also strongly believe in a connection between spondyloarthropathy, asthma, and diet. My mother was always "sick", and so was her mother. With all their symptoms and ailments they were often taken for hypochondriacs. Lots of food sensitivities, severe asthma, back and neck problems, ALWAYS sick with a cold or bronchitis, the list went on and on...

I always tried not to pay too much attention to all the sick-talk, and it hasn't been until this past year that I'm now connecting the dots in our family tree of illness, as I'm presenting with classic spondy-symptoms myself at 37 yo.

My mother's asthma and IBS (severe asthma earlier in her life) has greatly diminished with dietary control (staying away from food that fall in the "starchy" category, hey, how about that!).

My own mild IBS and debilitating backpain is much improved after 3+ months on a modified diet...

So yes, if at all possible, consider a serious focus and change in diet - it's well worth a try, and SO possible for oneself to control and exeperiment with.

The toll cortisone and other meds have taken on my mother is a great push for me to stay away from them (meds) as much as possible...

Cheers,
Kristine

i don't have asthma but a research student of mine does. when she went through the list of allergy meds she is on, i ask why so many. she said it was to keep her asthma better under control. not sure if that could be an option for you? not sure if allergies is a part of it for you?

good luck!

I'm sorry to hear you've had such a bad time of it. But glad you're feeling more yourself.

We can have pulmonary problems with AS, so it sure could be the AS causing the breathing problems. I'm on Advair once a day before bed because of the chest infection last fall creating inflammation in my lungs. And I'm just getting over another chest infection (had to miss my second Enbrel shot this morning, grrr). Luckily, my lungs don't have that filling with fluid feeling that they had last fall, so I think I nipped this one in the bud fast enough. What you are experiencing might be similar, in which case, it should ease over time. Mine has and I'm starting to wonder if I actually need the Advair before bed every single night.

I used to have a friend who had very bad asthma. If an attack hit and the inhaler wasn't nearby or wouldn't work fast enough, she'd drink half a cup of coffee. That always helped her. Not sure how, tho.

Warm hugs,

One of the lesser known uses of caffeine is as a respiratory stimulant! We used to give the prem babies theophylline (a well known bronchodilator) but other NICUs used caffeine.