New Treatment for Asthma

There is some very good news on the horizon for asthma sufferers. The first grand scale tests of a brand new treatment for the disease have been concluded and the results are in. They are good! Using this treatment, some patients were able to reduce their dependence on standard medicines and therapy while others were able to toss away their old medications. Dramatic news indeed.

There should be a note of caution issued here. This is NOT a cure! The coming treatment does, however, offer far fewer side effects than the medications currently in use - medications that often carry baggage such as bone mass loss and stunted growth. Depending on the speed of the FDA (food and drug administration), this treatment should be available to the long suffering asthmatic population (approximately 17 million strong in the US alone) by the end of the next 6 months.

Based on a very recent report in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine, a new genetically engineered medication counteracts the immune system antibody known of as IgE or immunoglobin E. This product has few side effects. IgE is one of a family of antibodies that orchestrate numerous bodily responses to antigens.

According to research scientists, IgE is the culprit that becomes intractable in people suffering allergic conditions. For asthmatics, it is responsible for the disorder's most destructive reactions, i.e. inflamed bronchial passageways, wheezing and generalized lung inflammation.

According to Dr. Henry Milgrom, lead investigator and director of the pediatric asthma program at the National Jewish Medical and Research Center in Denver, Colorado: "This is a completely new approach to therapy. It's unlike any drug that's ever been used before."

Milgrom and his associates say the product can be used in many other allergic conditions with little or no side effects to upset the patient. People suffering allergic reactions from insect bites, food allergies. hay fever and many other conditions will be helped with this treatment.

This new product has no brand (market) name as yet, but is called by its generic (chemical) name, anti-IgE, or rhuMAb-E25. This new drug identifies IgE, zero's in on it and removes it from a patients system. So far, the drug has been tested on 317 patients ranging in age from 11 to 50.

IgE causes asthma's sometimes violent symptoms by attaching to lung cells and releasing histamines in an all out atack on the offending allergens (the causitive agents of allergy). Patients can be allergic to agents such as pet dander, cockroach debris, environmental poisons, and almost anything else that can provoke sensitivity in the patient. Rather than removing the allergen, IgE sickens the patient. An estimated 5500 people die yearly from severe asthmatic attacks.

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