i’ve been surfing the sites and have come across several mentions of this insulin. i know nothing about it and when i mentioned it to my cde she said i needed to come into the office and that my lungs needed to be tested.
who out there knows anything about this insulin and what are yours and/or other peoples opinions about it?
it’s been well discussed here and on Twitter, no need to start a new discussion really:
Use it every day. Best thing ever. Changed my life.
The effect on bg is truly new truly instantaneous but Afrezza makes me cough. It doesn’t make everybody cough they say. But everybody I know that takes it, me, myself, and I get a bad cough that progresses to wheezing lungs. I’ve never had lung trouble before taking Afrezza. The cough goes away and I may in time build an immunity? It’s worth trying but the FDA requires because effect on lungs is questioned that to prescribe the patient must get a baseline spirometry test followed with a test after six months and then yearly. When I posted in the main thread people didn’t want to hear about my cough.
Because your posting took away from their fantasy land of the perfect diabetes treatment.
From the Afrezza web site:
WARNING: RISK OF SUDDEN LUNG PROBLEMS (BRONCHOSPASM) IN PATIENTS WITH LONG-TERM (CHRONIC) LUNG DISEASE
Why would you attempt to discredit something, that presumably you’ve never tried, that is making some other people’s life so much better? I don’t get it.
We all know that every prescription drug is required to disclose all warnings and counter indications— that’s why every commercial for a drug ends with a big list of nasty potential side effects. Just like with injected insulin.
What works for one person with diabetes, will probably not work the same way for the next person. Heck, over my many years with diabetes, what worked last year just doesn’t cut it right now. For most of the time I’ve had diabetes there was on,y insulin. That was it. We had no choices. Smylin was the first new medication that was type 1 diabetes.
I tried it and while it did help with my post meal rises, it brought on other problems. So it didn’t work for me but have talked with many that it works great. I’m now trying a type 2 medication that seems to be working well but I guess wasn’t for most.
I can’t stress enough that each one of us is a daily experiment. We need to keep adapting and changing.we need to keep an open mind and realize that what works for one, might not be the best for someone else. Only person who would know would be the person with the diabetes and their medical team.
I say keep trying new things and you may finally find something that works well for you. And remember clinical trials make all this new stuff happen.
I can find a boat load of replies and posts in the DOC where folks went to the doctor, asked for some Afrezza (after the affrezzauser went viral), their doc handed them samples, and no spirometry was done. All the buzz about this stuff is sort of old news now. This did not cause me to dis the product or it’s efficiency, it just concerned me that new drugs are handed out without following the prescription guidelines. That’s bad doctoring imo.
I am glad to read how it works so well for many folks. I hope it does not end up on that list of recall / warning of dangerous new drugs that is growing as fast as the new drugs come to market!
But that’s what samples are for… They can give out samples in limited quantities to see if a product is a fit for someone before actually prescribing it or requiring someone to go through tests, etc first… That’s exactly what my doctor did and does, “here try these samples and if you want a long term prescription I want you to do not just a simple spirometry but a full pulmonary function test with DLCO” (a much, much more elaborate lung exam than a simple spirometry).
A free sample would be a bit of a misnomer if you had to do a $1200 pulmonary function test to get it, wouldn’t it…
To me, that’s good medicine. @karen57
My docs have never said “here try these samples” and in fact they don’t even have samples in the cupboard to hand out. Before prescribing any medication they perform the necessary medical history and tests before even writing the RX. Getting the drug is done at the pharmacy. The only other times I have ever been given prescription medication is during hospital incarceration.
I’d love to see the inventory shelf of these sample providing docs and if the distribution of those samples is MIA like the necessary testing. When I worked in the procurement department for a big city clinic association, and then later at a well known children’s hospital, none of the doc offices had prescription medication samples to hand out to patients.
@karen57 don’t know what to tell you… I’ve been given many samples of prescription medications by many different doctors, without prescriptions, at many different places and times all over this country. Often times it’s done without even a diagnosis,
For example, “here try this anti anxiety medication, if it helps you feel better I’ll diagnose you with anxiety and write you a prescription”
Other times it can be, oh you have an ear infection and need an antibiotic— here is a free sample to save you a trip to the pharmacy.
Other times, " you have trouble sleeping, here try these samples of lunesta and if they work well for you call me and we can discuss a long term prescription plan" etc.
Doctors hand out samples of prescription medications all the time… I believe the quantity of samples is regulated by the FDA… That’s why sample packs of prescription drugs say right on them “sample, not for resale”. I just read that off a sample levemir flexpen that I have in my fridge… That a doctor gave me without writing a prescription… It’s standard practice… That’s why free samples exist. So that people can try something without incurring costs and headaches to see if it is worth incurring those costs and headaches for them to do it long term…
Obviously there are certain classes of drugs that they wouldn’t be handing out as free samples, powerful narcotics for example…
I would actually be interested in hearing any updated experiences with Afrezza as those posts and discussions are from awhile back. I’m honeymooning and controlling BG pretty well with a low carb diet after using novolog, which gave me trouble with it’s long tail since I still have 2nd phase insulin of my own. I need to replace my 1st phase and since afrezza does that I plan to give it a try.
It’s still working very well for my lilli… My only frustration with it has been that it can wear off before your food is done digesting so after 2+ hours you can see an elevation in your blood sugar, particularly if you are eating slower digesting fatty foods. I stand by my theory all along that timing becomes more important than dosage with this. I’ve had no significant hypos with it, although I don’t really have hypo issues with injected bolus either… By significant I mean anything noteworthy enough to make me stop what I’m doing
Somebody on here suggested drinking water immediately before and after the dosing to reduce any throat irritation, which I did have a bit of, and I think that trick does help a bit. I do recommend trying it… For me, I don’t dose until a full 20 minutes after I start eating… Which is really nice for s lot of reasons…
[quote=“Sam19, post:11, topic:47626, full:true”]
@karen57 don’t know what to tell you… I’ve been given many samples of prescription medications by many different doctors, without prescriptions, at many different places and times all over this country. Often times it’s done without even a diagnosis,
For example, “here try this anti anxiety medication, if it helps you feel better I’ll diagnose you with anxiety and write you a prescription”
Other times it can be, oh you have an ear infection and need an antibiotic— here is a free sample to save you a trip to the pharmacy.
Other times, " you have trouble sleeping, here try these samples of lunesta and if they work well for you call me and we can discuss a long term prescription plan" etc.
Doctors hand out samples of prescription medications all the time… I believe the quantity of samples is regulated by the FDA… That’s why sample packs of prescription drugs say right on them “sample, not for resale”. I just read that off a sample levemir flexpen that I have in my fridge… That a doctor gave me without writing a prescription… It’s standard practice… That’s why free samples exist. So that people can try something without incurring costs and headaches to see if it is worth incurring those costs and headaches for them to do it long term…
Obviously there are certain classes of drugs that they wouldn’t be handing out as free samples, powerful narcotics for example…
[/quote]RX med samples being offered without a DX even? Wow!! It is not standard practice, at least not in my neck of the woods. And it’s not exactly ethical even, again imo, and experience. May I ask if you got the spirometry Sam? Looks like you got your Afrezza in March, and now it is 6 months (or more) since you started and according to the drug’s own IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION you will have a breathing test (called spirometry), and then your doctor will also want to test your breathing 6 months after starting Afrezza®, and then each year after that, even if you have no lung symptoms. More frequent testing should be done if you have symptoms such as wheezing or coughing.
Now I know you don’t have coughing, or wheezing and such. I understand the reluctance to testing regarding the cost associated and the hassle and all. The throat irritation is a known side effect, but I would let my own doc know if that were happening to me. Throat is the path the the lung after all 
I’m not reluctant to testing at all. I’m just telling you that none of that is necessary for a free limited quantity sample, only for a prescription… That’s common sense. Doctors do actually have the authority to use some judgement in practicing medicine-- that’s why they don’t just let anyone who has a computer and Internet access practice medicine.
Yes, after receiving a sample and determining that I wanted to actually use this medication, I not only did a spirometry but a full pulmonary function test with DLCO, which is about a million times more than a simple spirometry fev1 which can be done by a medical assistant with a handheld device that costs about $50 and takes literally 1 second (that’s what the 1 in FEV1 stands for) And I’ll happily redo whatever tests on whatever schedule my doctor wants me to…
The discussion of drug samples sparked my curiosity because my endo never has samples and I wondered why. It looks like providing samples of prescription drugs is a contested topic in the medical field. There’s a fairly comprehensive discussion of the pros and cons in this article in the AMA Journal of Ethics if anyone else is interested: http://journalofethics.ama-assn.org/2014/04/ecas2-1404.html
It is an amazing drug. One could of course get the same results by injecting novolog into a vein. But that just seems dangerous. A big Thank you to you who posted your research. And it’s okay to advocate for a new drug that works so great. I want to try it again. Maybe when I start working because a no spike carbohydrates meal gives me energy like nothing else. I used it multiple times daily for three months. But the cough and wheezing became too much. And I did have these cough fits at intake, like huge all body coughs of almost out of control convulsing occasionally. I was very eager to use the inhaled insulin. But insurance doesn’t cover it yet so it’s $385 for 60 4s and 30 8s. Equivalent to 60 8s, or 40 12s. And your standard 12 dose is $10.
Sorry it didn’t work out for you Aaron. I hope that if you try it again you have better results… Both my primary and secondary insurance coverage covered it so it doesn’t cost me a dime…
If you’re coughing that bad I’d certainly discuss that with your doctor before trying it again. It has never made me cough at all.
I’ll chime in as I was the one who started the first Afrezza thread here.
I think Afrezza is an excellent tool to have in the belt when treating diabetes. For me, it works very fast and exits very fast thus limiting my hypos post meal/correction. I had the coughing issue similar to what Aaron describes so I cut back on my Afrezza use for about a month. I started back up and the cough has not returned. Sometimes I take a sip of water after inhaling and that seems to help as well. I had Spirometry test done before starting on Afrezza.
Bottom line is that it’s not for everyone, but for some it works really, really well. I use it in conjunction with my OmniPod.
So there’s my update. Give it a try if you are interested and see how it works for you.
Thanks for sharing.
While not germane to this particular discussion, I have rarely been offered samples.
The article states, “Free drug samples constitute a large portion of pharmaceutical companies’ marketing budgets—between 1996 and 2000, slightly more than half of all dollars spent by the pharmaceutical industry went toward promotion.”
That’s pretty old data. I wonder what their marketing budgets have looked like since 2008?