Researchers say they have found the first new treatment for asthma attacks in 50 years.

The injection dampens part of the immune system that can go into overdrive in flare-ups of both asthma and a lung condition called chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Benralizumab is already used in the most severe cases, but the latest research suggests it could be used routinely for around two million attacks in the UK each year… More here.

An interesting development for a disease that causes so many problems and costs so much money around the world. I do believe, however, that developments have been made in recent years that makes asthma so much easier to deal with than in the past.

I developed asthma when I was 11 years old and distinctly remember the ‘spinhaler’. It looked like a modern inhaler, but basically it included a pin going into a tablet which then produced a chalk-like substance that you inhaled. It was awful!

At the age of 18 I had a massive asthma attack and had to be brought back from the brink. After a month in hospital I could then not walk up stairs for a few months after. I had given up but reached the point where I could go out and it was on one of these nights out that I decided to try a cigarette.

For 20 years while I smoked I never had another asthma attack, but I did continue to wheeze and was a regular taker of Ventolin. And then, after giving up smoking 10 years ago I was offered 2 new preventers in 2021; Fluticasone and Spiriva Respimat.

I have not used Ventolin since and would not know I have asthma anymore. So, developments have been made and for some of us the marvel of medication is real.

I did, however, read the other day that there will be a drive to reduce the use of gas inhalers due to environmental concerns. This seems ironic to me because it is the declining health of our environment that creates the need for more and more of these devices.

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