Hiya guys -

I plan on taking this article to my doc when I see him next week.  My
question for any of you that know about these meds is this - What is the
difference between Enbrel and Mobic (which I take)?  My doc switched me
from Celebrex to Mobic a few months ago.  I'm thinking that if I have to
take arthritis drugs anyway, why not take the one that might help asthma
too?

Any info would be greatly appreciated.

Life is uncertain.........eat dessert first!!

Nancy
8=: )

Yes, but as I keep on protesting, all  this stuff looks like
pseudo-science to all but those with  extreme professional blindness.

Firstly take a look at
http://www.lrz-muenchen.de/~s3e0101/webserver/webdata/MantakChia030206.pdf
from "Tan Tien Chi Kung" by Mantak Chia, a prolific author.

Nobody seems to have called this oriental breath technique quackery, in
contrast to homeopathy, acupuncture.

Mantak Chia makes it clear that modifying or correcting breathing is an
art, not a science in the usual understanding of the term.  Significant
parameters such as cultivating a feeling for the perineum or the
"tanden" and feeling the air resistance in the nose, sensing chi
ebbing and flowing in the body etc. cannot be measured in the normal
sense.

In short, we have a higher order control mechanism relevant for asthma.
What is the use of ignoring it? Prudery? Regards, Richard Friedel

This research was just published in the NEJM. At least I think it is the
same work - there are some differences with what is quoted in this article
but they are probably the fault of some sloppy journalism. I can't imagine
there were two studies on this being done in England at the same time.

Anyway, there are a section of the study that has not been mentioned in the
media (at least not that I have seen). It seems that they also looked at the
the expression of TNF and its receptors in asthma patients of varying
severity and found that the severe asthmatics seemed to differ from the
others in how much they expressed. This would go nicely with their finding
that only the severe asthmatics seemed to benefit. An editorialist in the
same issue does mention that there was one small study of inhaled TNF
receptors that did show a benefit even for mild asthmatics.

Unless they can do some fine tuning of the molecule this will probably be a
reserved for severe asthmatics for the forseeable future for a few reasons.

1) Cost. As I said before the treatment studies is incredibly expensive.
Obvoously that might change as new drigs are developed. It would be nice to
get it to an inhaled or pill form (like I said before, there are already
some pills that affect TNF levels).

2) It is unclear that non-severe asthmatics will benefit. TNF may just not
be as much of an issue for them.

3) Side effects. Right now blocking TNF causes immunosupression that leads
to a ot ofproblems like increased infections. Unless they can get around
this problem hte risks will probably be too high for non-severe asthmatics.

It is interesting, though. Maybe one day they will get it so that the
delivery system, cost, effectiveness, and safety allow it to be commonly
used. It could happen. Just not soon.