why does asthma lead to more infections?

[ill13632]

I have asthma and noticed I would sometimes get more infections.
why does asthma lead to more infections?  asthma is an autoimmune disease so shouldn't your immune system be stronger or is your IS somehow messed up in asthma?
I was taking a lot of antibiotics, cipro, doxy, amoxicilin and isoprinosine
asthma seems to be allergic since after returning home after a while I had no symptoms for one month until I got sick and started having asthma/sleep apnea

[huni2]

dear ,i am also asthamatic and taking prednisones from three years ,the does starts from 5 mg and now i am taking 50 mg pills for 15 days after every 6 week  gap,it happens with asthama that your prednisone doeses will increase by time and your asthma will get worse but i think there is only the prednisones and nothing to treat asthma,because in severe asthma  steoroids in puffers dosent work,i am telling u because u should think that u r not alone in your case
hope you  will get better soon

[ill13632]

I was going to get xolair injections but this nasty pulmonologist office dropped me

I got allergy shots for 6 weeks and it didn't seem to do anything

[bsmsl]

Hi,

Asthma is a very complex disease.  It iassociated with an hyper-sensitive immune system, not stronger or better or even necesarily weaker.  You immune system reacts to things that normal people don't react to.  The reactions has complex consequences.  

Asthma is an inflamatory disease.  The inflamation in the lungs causes several things that promote infections.  First it constricts air flow limiting the expelling of germs that cause infection.  It also cause excess mucous to be produced which provides a good habitat for germs to grow.  Some asthmatics have/develop bronchiecstasis - folds or kinks in the airways - where mucous pools and traps germs encouraging more infections.  

The nature of asthma predisposes a person to have more infections.  It is not caused by taking "too many" anitbiotics.  You can cause "super'bugs" that are resistent to certain anitbiotics by not taking antibiotics exactly as prescribed for a long enough period of time.  Make sure that an infection is completely gone before the effective treatment time is over.  For most antibiotics, that means the day you stop taking the medicine.  For Z-packs, that is about 5 days after you take your last pill.  Follow-up with your doctor to be sure your infection is cleared may be necessary.  Many people think they have recurring infections when they are actually not clearing the original one.

Since you have taken Z-pack (azithromiacin) for so long without it helping, you probably have an infection that is resistant to that antibiotic. You may want to request Levaquin or Biaxin next time.  Biaxin taken long term can be very beneficial for some astmatics.  There are several threads about taking clarithromyacin (generic Biaxin) to "cure" asthma.  You may want to read those for more information on the type of asthma that treatment is very effective for.

There are several things that can be contributing to your difficult to control asthma.  You need a good doctor who will work with you and fight for you to get the treatment you need.  Some things you need to discuss with a good doctor are allergy control, Xolair, Aspirin Exacerbated Respiratory disease, and GERD.

I hope that gives you some hope that things can get better.  I have been where you are and I am doing much better after finding the root cause and treating it.  

God bless.

[ill13632]

why is this happening to me?  is it because I was overprescribed zpack and prednisone?

[ill13632]

this doc gave me 30mg of prednisone for 1 wk, 20mg for wk2, 10mg for wk 3 even though I wasn't having an asthma attack
he claimed that it would keep my baseline asthma level constant and keep it from deteriorating but it hasn't done anything
now my wheezing doesn't respond to prednisone

[ill13632]

I guess asthma and migraines are related-
http://www.merckmanuals.com/home/lung_and_airway_disorders/asthma/asthma.html