Myra, Leukotrienes, angio, relief, singulair, Zyflo

[Guest guest]

Hi Myra and all,

Regarding a post I saw about Singulair and Leukotrienes. Last summer I tried

Singulair for my angioedema and it did not work for me. I have now been

taking Zyflo for two months and IT'S WORKING !!! The angioedema is almost

gone. Very, very minor swelling about 3 or 4 times, in a tiny spot, barely

noticable & gone quickly.

Here's the difference in the drugs: While some literature refers to all of

them as Leukotriene inhibitors, they are not. SINGULAIR AND ACCOLATE ARE

RECEPTOR BLOCKERS for only most of the A line of leukotrienes, similar to how

antihistamines don't stop production of histamine, but they block the

receptors to prevent a reaction. But, ZYFLO, actually stops production of

the enzyme that leads to production of ALL the leukotrienes, thereby also

stopping the B line, of which LTB4 is a major suspect in the sort of

inflammation we suffer from (in angioedema). I don't know about whether it

has an effect of hives. These drugs were all intended for the treatment of

Asthma. Please, if Singulair or Accolate don't work for you, don't stop

until you have tried Zyflo. It works by a totally different method and

addresses the complete line of Leukotriene's. My doctor did tell me that it

doesn't work for everyone, but if antihistamines don't help, or the only

thing that does help is prednisone, look into the Zyflo. You do have to

monitor liver enzymes when you take this. About 5% of people taking it have

trouble there. I finally was referred to this doctor after having the

angioedema for a year and a half. During that time I tried all the usual

stuff, had all the negative test results, and was close to giving in to just

taking 10 to 15 mg. of pred which seemed to be enough to control for me.

Thankfully, I found this doctor and solution. If anyone wants to talk to

their doctor about the Zyflo, perhaps it will help to tell your doctor who

prescribed this for me. This is the complete stuff from his business card:

D. Tharp, M.D.

Professor and Chairman

Department of Dermatology

Diseases of the Skin

Rush-Presbyterian-St.Lukes Medical Center . Rush University

1725 West on Suite 264

Chicago, Illinois 60612

Plus, he is seems to be a genuinely nice person. Since this is an " off

label " use for the drug, Zyflo, perhaps many docors arn't aware of this use,

or are reluctant to prescribe it; just as many doctors won't prescribe more

that 10 mg. of Zyrtec a day, and some will go up to 40 mg. They may be

afraid of malpractice or something like that. All I can say is IT WORKS FOR

ME AND I HAVE MY LIFE BACK.

Carole Garner

Garncarole@...