Lung damage symptoms and conditions

I am a 49 year old female who started on 10 gm Lisinopril 2 weeks ago for high blood pressure. I've had a couple instances of light-headedness and headaches, nothing serious, but I have developed a real bad dry cough that I can't control. Sometimes it's bad enough I gag and almost vomit, and am loud enough I can be heard all through the office - very embarrassing. I've gotten up in the middle of the night to leave the bedroom so I won't disturb my husband. Other than the cough I have no complaints and actually feel better now than I did before I started. I read somewhere that iron supplements help the cough and I have started taking these to see if it's true; so far I think the cough is not as bad but still as frequent. It's only been a couple of weeks so I want to keep going for a few weeks longer to see if things get better or worse.

I am totally upset by reading the posts here. my son is just now 8 months old. he was put on singulair when he was just 6 months old. at first it seemed to be working...for maybe 2 weeks...then everything went crazy. he was started out on it when his pediatrician stated that he had asthma and apparently was on a very high dosage of it. they started him on 10 mg of the oral granules. before taking it he was a very happy baby, even with him being so young i never had any problems with him crying excessively or being massively irritated. since he started on the medication he has had massive irritability spells, constant fussing and crying and cant seem to fall asleep at night let alone stay asleep very long. i had taken him to the emergency room on christmas eve because a new problem showed up. he now was having a massive hard time breathing, he had a persistant cough, congestion in his chest and was almost always gasping for air. the staff at the hospital were in disbelief when they were informed that his pediatrician had put him on singulair at such a young age and at such a high dosage. i am now in the process of obtaining a lawyer and filing a lawsuit against the pediatrician for medical malpractice. this drug is very dangerous for anyone especially children. i would suggest anyone else having these problems with their child and this drug do the same. it can apparently cause long term lung damage, pulmonary disorders and even death. my son has been off of the medication since christmas eve and has already done a massive turn around. he sleeps well and through the night again, his breathing has improved and his cough is almost gone. they did say in the E.R that he has congestion in his chest due to the singulair but it should clear up over time with the help of zyrtec. please help make a stand and protect our children from the dangers our own pediatricians present to them.

My doctor failed to catch pneumonia in time when I was 13. It cause irreversible lung damage in left lung. I have had to take prednisone for 41 years now. I now have a cortisol insufficiency, hypothyroidism, and IGA, IGG immune deficiency. Although prednisone saved my life; it has now damaged master glands. I have heard it can kill you if taken over a long period of time because of it's immunosuppresive properties. People need to know this and the drug companies still push it as an anti inflammatory.
I use natural cortef for replacement of cortisol insufficiency.
Who makes prednisone? Be knowledgeable about alternatives and don't be afraid to ask the doctor for something that is more natural to what your body makes!!

Sincerely,

Nancy L.
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I just want to make another post about studying Singulair in premature babies. There is a person who is very dear to me that I remind practically every day that a scientist proves what is NOT true just the same as a scientist proves what is true. I have read hundreds of Merck studies on montelukast. Does anybody ever say - NO - not true? So with all those YES men behind them, Merck experiments on premature babies. Oh, my God. Where does this end?

I would like other people's opinion of Merck's study about using Singulair (montelukast) on neo-nates - premature babies. This absolutely freaks me out. http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00492102?intr=%22Montelukast%22&rank=7

I had been taking Advair 500/50 for several years, however, most of that time I only took it once a day (not the recommended 2X). My diagnosis is near fatal asthma/COPD. About a year and a half ago I began taking Spiriva in addition. I am stable, but with a low pulmonary function for the past year (peak flow remains around 200). I see an acupuncturist/herbalist and an currently trying Wei Labs products: Soup A and LC Balancer, that are supposed to reverse lung damage. I recently visited a new, conventional, pulmonary specialist who wanted me to retry Advair at its recommended dosage, which I did. I noticed a nagging headache (at my forehead), a tendency to be agitated very easily, and a diminished peak flow. His response was to continue and add another medication (Singulair, which I have tried years ago with no good result). I stopped the Advair (though I am continuing on the Spiriva, until I see more results from the herbs). Also, I am a thin person who exercises all the time, and I had noticed that my weight was about 10 lbs more than I would like it to be (this had been the case for a couple of years). I have yet to see if that will drop, I have only been off for a couple of days. Additionally, I have had the experience with conventional steroid sinus meds over the years; the meds would stop working after a month or two and I would end up with worse congestion. I ultimately had a surgery to clear polyps and extra tissue, and have been breathing well through my nose since 2004 without meds. I feel I need to get off the conventional meds for the asthma too, on them I appear to be in a slow decline.

I am a 57 yr old female who has been taking lisinopril for about 4 years, after the Zestril became too expensive. I have had the cough and intermittent shortness of breath for several years, but really did not attribute the shortness of breath to the drug until it became quite severe recently. I stopped taking it three days ago, and of course, am concerned that my BP will be out of control. I exercise, eat pretty well, and am about 20 lbs overweight. I also experience abdominal bloat that by evening I look six months pregnant, but no ankle swelling. I hate that. It doesn't seem to matter what I eat, still the bloat. Anyone else bloating? My question, have any of you who stopped taking the drug finally experienced an end to the shortness of breath? I notice I can still exercise moderately, and have the shortness regardless of sitting or exercising. Anyone out there truly get relief for symptoms and how soon after stopping

I get bronchitis when I use this product. I have had to resort to illegal methods of getting the older inhalers. I can't afford to be down sick for 2 weeks at a time because a government decides for me that my medicine is bad. I'm sorry, me breathing is more important then ANYONE elses opinion. Especially those without asthma who say HFA is exactly the same. It's not. I haven't been able to tell a diffrence between it and primitine mist. Both INFERIOR products.

I developed shortness of breath after using lisinopril for 3 months. I quit lisinipril because of all of the other side effects it gave me (stomach pains, the hit by a truck feeling).

For me the cough didn't get serious until near the end when I quit because of the other problems. After I quit the cough kept getting worse as did the bouts of shortness of breath.

It took me a long long time to figure out what was happening, which as near as I can tell goes something like this: the cough irritates the lungs and causes direct damage. However, as the immune system kicks into overdrive trying to clear the lisinopril and associated toxins out of the lungs, liver & rest of the body, it uses up zinc and selenium reserves.

When the body runs low on selenium (from the immune system using it up) then it can no longer effectively clear the lungs, causing more lung damage. But even more is happening, since selenium is also used by other systems, and they begin to suffer too. One such system is the joint protection mechanism. Another is the thyroid system, both in the thyroid itself as well as the thyroid receptors in the various organs all over the body.

The thyroid receptor problems cause weight gain, energy problems, etc... Combine the thyriod system having problems with the lung damage and that resulted in my shortness of breath.

To combat this problem long term I found zinc & selenium helpful. In the short term I also used tyrosine & iodine & boron & cal/mag as needed to help stimulate the thyroid along with the zinc & selenium.

I also found that the traditional asthma support to be quit helpful in the short term, which are molybdenum and manganese.

I'd prefer to get my nutrition from food, but minerals are hard to absorb in the quantities needed after such a brutal, toxic chemical assault on the body, so I choose supplementation to help me.

Best of luck to all.

I love Levaquin. Because of some lung damage from an asthmatic childhood, I get recurrent bacterial respiratory infections about every 90 days, and the Levaquin is the only thing my doctor can find that knocks out the bugs. Sometimes he rotates in Bactrim, but it takes a lot longer to work. Not everyone has these bad side effects, I just get a little restless.

K.

Lisinopril seems to put a heavy detoxification load on the immune system. As a result, the body seems to use up zinc and selenium (and other things, of course, like vit-c, vit-e) at a high rate.

When the body runs out of zinc or selenium, additional problems happen. The immune system is not able to keep up with the detoxification needs, and I think this is a major factor with the cough.

In addition, other systems besides the immune system are also negatively effected when these nutrients run low. For example, selenium, is very important for joint health, and, it is also key in thyroid function (both at the receptor site as well is in the thyroid itself), among other things.

The combination of direct lung damage related to the cough, plus the lowered thyroid function from lack of selenium seem to me to be the major causes of the breathlessness or shortness of breath problems that I've had so much of.

Another problem is that taking selenium supplementation, even when deficient in selenium, further depresses the thyroid. So, I have found a number of things that help me counteract that, in order that I can take the necessary amount of supplemental selenium to feed my immune system. These other things are calcium, boron, iodine, tyrosine, zinc, magnesium. Also, I take the extra selenium only at night, when extra thyroid depression is more tolerable.

Also, for really damaged lungs, as mine were, I found that cysteine, msm, and horsetail (for silicia) also helpful.

And to help with the stomach problems that lisinopril caused me, I found glutamine helpful.

My problems persisted for a long time (2+ years) after quitting lisinopril, however, each time I discovered one of these helpful nutrients, my recovery took a leap forward. I'm pretty sure that if I'd known right away about the zinc & selenium, in particular, I'd have been able to get back on my feet in several months instead.

Depression is the least of the side effects.....it gave me two blood clots in my lungs and I almost died I was only on it for 2 weeks when the symptoms started. The hospital had reported the Yasmin 28 to the FDA as the cause of my blood clots and I followed up with the FDA and found out the hospital did in fact file a report. I was not warned about my age (38) and the consiquence of being over 35 by either the Doctor or the packets of the birth control pills. The FDA confirms that all Yasmin sample packets or prescribed packets need to have warnings on the labels ...mine did not. I was in the hospital for 4 days and was off work for 9 months and after a year later I am still having lung problems. In fact I just went in today and they told me I have lung damage in both of my lungs from the clots. I am only 39 years old and have the rest of my life to be concerned about sore lungs and worry about the weather and if my lungs will hurt that day or not.

For anyone out there....go off Yasmin right away and if your over 35 go off all birth control pills....at least your man will have you alive...I know I should be dead right now.