When I was a kid I was allergic to lots of stuff-ragweed, cat dander, grass pollens, mold and fungi (Alternaria). I would sneeze continuously every morning in the spring and fall. When I caught a cold I would frequently develop a nasty wheeze that was eventually diagnosed as asthma. My mother dragged me off to an allergist and I was subjected to allergy shots for a couple of years.
Eventually, the allergies and the asthma disappeared. I don’t know if I grew out of both or if the shots eventually worked. I just stopped experiencing symptoms.
Cough and Wheeze
For decades I was symptom free. Then about 10 years ago I came down with a nasty upper respiratory tract infection in the middle of the winter. The cough was nasty and it lingered for many weeks.
Along with the cough I also developed a wheeze. The wheeze, especially at bedtime, finally got me to my doctor and eventually a specialist.
Reactive Airway Disease = Asthma
A pulmonary expert at a major medical center diagnosed “reactive airway disease.” He suggested that the old asthma was back, triggered by the bad cold and lung infection.
The solution: inhaled steroids (fluticasone in the form of Flovent) and a bronchodilator (Ventolin). [He wanted to prescribe Advair (fluticasone & salmeterol), but I had read too many things about the dangers of long-acting bronchodilators to go along with that plan.]
The lung specialist suggested that I use the two puffers liberally to get my lung function back into the normal range, especially if I ever caught another cold.
Roller Coaster Ride
Gradually, the cough disappeared and the wheeze along with it. My lungs seemed OK…for a while. I went back to playing tennis, hiking and doing all the normal exercise activities I love with no problem.
The next winter another cold and cough brought back the wheeze. The inhalers weren’t that helpful, but they seemed to calm things a bit. One downside to the steroid fluticasone was hoarseness. Since my voice is essential for what I do (live radio on over 120 stations around the country), this side effect of corticosteroids was quite troublesome.
Eventually, the cough and the asthma faded away and I once again was back on the courts playing tennis. This roller coaster ride seemed to repeat itself every winter.
You could track my lung function with the number of cough drops I consumed. During a day taping interviews, I could go through a dozen or more lozenges to keep from coughing and sounding hoarse.
Every year I would get a renewal on my Flovent and Ventolin inhalers, even though they weren’t very effective. I thought of them a bit like a crutch, just in case I developed a bad cough or wheeze, especially at night.
Another Way to Treat Asthma
Let’s take a detour. About four to five years ago, David Hahn, MD, MS, a physician in Madison, Wisconsin, contacted us about a book he was writing called A Cure for Asthma? What Your Doctor Isn’t Telling You-and Why.
We were intrigued by his idea that many hard-to-treat asthma patients have a chronic lung infection. The bacterial invader, Chlamydia pneumoniae, could lurk in the lungs for months or years and cause inflammation.
According to Dr. Hahn, treating the symptoms with steroids or bronchodilators would not solve the problem. He had a lot of research to back up his experience treating patients with antibiotics to actually cure the infection underlying the lung irritation and the asthma.
We were interested enough to interview Dr. Hahn on our radio show. He shared the program with Monica Kraft, MD. She is Professor of Medicine and founding director of the Duke Asthma, Allergy and Airway Center. She is Chief of Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care Medicine at Duke University Medical Center. She is also past President of the American Thoracic Society. Rather than discounting Dr. Hahn’s theory, Dr. Kraft related her own experience treating some infectious cases of asthma that responded to antibiotics.
We thought Dr. Hahn’s message was interesting enough that we encouraged him to contact mainstream book agents and publishers. None were willing to publish his manuscript, but we thought the work was important enough that we created People’s Pharmacy Press and published his book ourselves in 2013.
Taking My Own Advice
Initially, I didn’t think that Dr. Hahn’s book related to my lung situation. I didn’t consider myself asthmatic. For one thing, I was not in the “hard-to-treat” category.
Although inhalers never seemed to work very well, my wheezing was only related to a winter cold and cough. After a few weeks the wheezing generally disappeared by itself regardless of the prescribed medications. The wheeze didn’t interfere with my activities. I just never felt like a patient in need of treatment. I hadn’t been back to the lung expert in years.
Asthma That Would Not Quit
Everything changed in the early months of 2014. During the holidays I came down with a nasty cold that really settled in my lungs. The first couple of nights the cough was so bad that I couldn’t sleep.
I tried Vicks VapoRub on the soles of my feet and it did little to soothe my hacking. (Vicks usually calms my cough beautifully).
I was going through a bag of cough drops every few days. Eventually the cough was so bad I bought a bottle of codeine-containing cough medicine from a compounding pharmacy. It barely helped.
The wheeze was back with a vengeance and I was using the Flovent inhaler every night along with the albuterol puffer. My voice was hoarse from the corticosteroid and the radio interviews were a huge challenge.
I was short of breath. Just climbing a flight of stairs had me exhausted. In bed you could hear the wheeze even with the asthma medicine on board.
I felt like crap. I had no energy, my lungs were twitchy and my life was a mess. Tennis was out of the question.
After more than 10 weeks I had had enough. I went to see my family doctor in desperation. She heard the wheeze clear as day and observed the deep hacking cough first hand. She prescribed heavy-duty cough medicine (containing the narcotic hydrocodone) along with a week’s worth of azithromycin.
She considered the possibility that I might have a mycobacterial lung infection or even C. pneumoniae (a la Dr. Hahn). I had my doubts, but was willing to give this combo (cough medicine plus antibiotic) a try. After nearly three months of non-stop coughing and wheezing I was ready for just about anything. Within two days I started feeling better.
Azithromycin Success
After the course of antibiotics I almost felt like my old self. The cough and the wheeze were distinctly better, but within several days of stopping the antibiotic I started slipping back into the cough/wheeze cycle again. The inhalers weren’t helping and I was desperate.
I had seen such dramatic improvement so quickly that I began to think maybe I did have the very infection Dr. Hahn was writing about in his book, A Cure for Asthma? I sent a copy of the book to my doctor, who actually read it and after a little consideration decided to go ahead with Dr. Hahn’s 3-month program involving once-weekly dosing of azithromycin.
Again, after a few days on this antibiotic I was coughing less and the wheeze was disappearing. Within a week or two I felt pretty much back to normal. Within a month I was back playing tennis. The cough drops were gone and the inhalers were a memory.
Was it coincidence? Was I about to get over my cough and wheeze independently of the antibiotic? I don’t think so. After about six weeks I thought I was cured and decided to stop the azithromycin. Within about a week the cough and wheeze were back.
Within a few days of resuming the treatment I was back in good shape. Right now I am playing tennis regularly and yesterday I pushed myself on the elliptical trainer at the gym and didn’t experience any coughing or wheezing.
Is Azithromycin a Cure for Asthma?
Did azithromycin “cure” my asthma? Well, I can’t say for sure, but I am feeling much better than before the antibiotic. My experience is not that different from some of the other cases Dr. Hahn describes in his book.
If you would like to learn more about how I overcame asthma that would not quit, here is a link to Dr. Hahn’s book, A Cure for Asthma? What Your Doctor Isn’t Telling You-and Why. You may even want two copies, one for yourself (or someone you care about) and one for the doctor who is treating the asthma with steroids and bronchodilators.
Not everyone is a candidate for this this treatment, but information may help your health professional better understand other options for hard-to-treat asthma.
