Afrezza Blog Review by Russfit

[Deleted]

I mean damn, why did mannkind spend tens of millions of dollars on inhaler design, patents, upgrades, software, modeling, they coulda just handed out sippee straws and have been done with it.

I wonder if they can be the bendy straws or if they have to be straight? Do McDonald's straws work better since they are bigger? Or will you have to use them when the 12U cartridge is available

[spiro]

Hey Guys, I am going to stay out the straw and sniff inhalation discussion. But being a gadget guy, I am impressed with the inhaler and cartridge. It seems too simple to be true. I have used Afrezza 3 times in packed restaurants. The process is so discreet, I am not sure anyone noticed. My wife claims I need to work on my facial expression when I breathe out and inhale, before I scare some kids one day.

[fritz40]

Mar 8, 2015 8:31:46 GMT -5 gomnkd said:

Folks

Please cut fritz40 some slack. Not everyone is obsessed with every aspect of the inhaler and TI powder.

I've the inhaler and amazed by its simplicity. It is absolutely shocking to think that more than 2 billion has gone into this 2 cents plastic.

Over the years I've had email contact with quite a few trial participants. One of them saved up few cartridges and used a straw (one you use for soda) to inhale the powder stuff after the trials were over. The inhalers had to be returned once trial is over. When I saw the new inhaler and thought of FDA's stupid decision to make mannkind spend another 200MM for trials (not to mention the immense dilution to common), it was just maddening. If you see the inhaler, you'll understand.

yes the straw inhaler just worked as well.

PS: I ABSOLUTELY recommend patients to follow the Afrezza usage guidelines

Thanks for the support!! The effects of the insulin is the same, with or without an inhaler. Just inhale slower and it works fine. I do not plan to use Afrezza as a replacement for Humulin insulin because I'm concerned about the long-term safety. For now I will only use it to get a stubborn high down fast and if I run out of inhalers I will inhale the powder without one.

[fritz40]

Mar 8, 2015 4:41:53 GMT -5 fritz40 said:

I am the guy that posted the comment that everyone is taking about. I picked up a prescription of 90 cartridges and two inhalers today and yes I wanted to try the sample from my doctor and did inhale the powder without the inhaler. I also wrote an email to their customer service and did not get a reply. I still think that their Customer service sucks!! The inhalers has to be replaced every 15 days so they should keep extra inhalers ready for people that needs it. My endocrinologist is 3 hours away from me and didn't have the time to go get an inhaler from him.

Just to make things clear, there is nothing fancy about the inhaler. When you put the cartridge in and close it, the inhaler pushes the cup that holds the powder to the middle of the cartridge, lining it up with a small opening that is connected to a mouthpiece. The mouthpiece has an opening that lets air in while inhaling the powder. Inhaling the powder with their inhaler gives me the same feeling as inhaling the powder WITHOUT their inhaler. I have to open my mouth, inhale slower and let more air in when inhaling to get the powder to go deeper into my lungs. It also made me nauseous when i used it the first couple of times.

Ive been diagnosed in 1981 at age 16 and are using a pump. My A1C's are usually between 5.2 and 5.6 so i do know how to control my blood sugar. I usually have to wait 2 hours for Humalog/Novolog  to bring my blood sugars down. Afrezza  does work twice as fast and I.m not sure yet but Ive not seen my levels go lower than 80 with Afrezza.

[plytle]

I'm not buying it - sorry. I'm not expecting all reviews to be perfect but some of the things he's saying seem really far-fetched and haven't been reported (at least as far as I've read) by any other user.

[jpg]

I have no idea obviously if the story about inhaling with a straw is real but it wouldn't surprise me. The complexity of Afrezza is Technoshere not the inhaler. The efficiency of delivery probably isn't optimal with a McDonalds straw but being able to inhale it with a straw would show robustness of the product and certainly would, in my mind anyway, be a positive.


Again I have no idea if any of these specific examples are true but would tend to believing they could easily be true. The magic is Technosphere. Not some little piece of plastic. The beauty of the inhaler is more that it is cheap to make, easy to use, disposable and obviously that it works... If these stories are try the beauty of Technosphere is that it is good enough to work if you use McDonalds straw to inhale it and get reasonably good delivery!

[babaoriley]

I'd think a lot of the powder would get hung up in the length of the straw. Roll up a hundred dollar bill, it might work for this type of thing, too.

Remember hearing the stat of the amazing percentage of hundies that had traces of cocaine on them? Someday, it might just be another white powder!

[Deleted]

I just want to make sure I got this straight in my head. The guy who is popping blister packs of afrezza because he doesn't have an inhaler is concerned about safety impacts?

Ok.

[tripoley]

This is kind of ridiculous. The Dreamboat achieved a 30% reduction in Technosphere insulin (TI) over the Medtone with the same results. Dreamboat = 10 units of TI, Metone = 15 units of TI. Surely inhaling a blister pack without any sort of device would be considerably inefficient.

[esstan2001]

So whatever changes were made to the design, I suspect dreamboat had to ensure a more turbulent flow at the cartridge to help pick up more techno sphere out of the corners, to improve dose delivery. The other aspect is likely an even and continuous distribution of TS into the air flow drawn to the lungs. That way, at the lung surface, a rapid dissociation of all insulin occurs, and it is distributed over a large lung area.

The straw, while it is possible to ensure all the dose is vacuumed out of the cartridge, may deliver large hits in short moments and not very evenly distributed over a large area. I would not want a concentration or clump taking longer to be acted upon; the lung may treat it differently (as an irritant?) at least in the dosing long term / long run. Ok once or twice if stuck without an inhaler, and hundreds or straws burning holes in my pockets. 

If not all the insulin were to immediately dissociate, I suspect it works well enough precisely because dosing is not so critical anyway, as long as it is in excess as has been observed. 

[gomnkd]

Mar 9, 2015 7:26:31 GMT -5 @fugacity said:

I just want to make sure I got this straight in my head. The guy who is popping blister packs of afrezza because he doesn't have an inhaler is concerned about safety impacts?

Ok.

I don't know what your angle or goal is. We only have a handful of diabetics who are sharing their experiences. We've two choices. we can learn from them by not belittling or insulting them & educate them. I shared with him articles like www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2769873/pdf/dst-03-0545.pdf that addresses the lung concern.

Or we can talk all day about the past (Patents, fda, beauty of dreamboat fluid dynamics, FDKP, Minimed, Al Mann by googling endlessly) and distant future (how Afrezza will capture 30% of trillion dollar diabetes spending and will have a market cap more than Apple).

It is very easy to drive people away but hard to make them share their experience. It is these patients who can bridge the past and future.

[mnholdem]

Mar 9, 2015 1:46:21 GMT -5 babaoriley said:

I'd think a lot of the powder would get hung up in the length of the straw. Roll up a hundred dollar bill, it might work for this type of thing, too.

Remember hearing the stat of the amazing percentage of hundies that had traces of cocaine on them? Someday, it might just be another white powder!

CAUTION... this will NOT work for the hemorrhoids.

[Deleted]

Mar 9, 2015 8:48:18 GMT -5 gomnkd said:

Mar 9, 2015 7:26:31 GMT -5 @fugacity said:

I just want to make sure I got this straight in my head. The guy who is popping blister packs of afrezza because he doesn't have an inhaler is concerned about safety impacts?

Ok.

I don't know what your angle or goal is. We only have a handful of diabetics who are sharing their experiences. We've two choices. we can learn from them by not belittling or insulting them & educate them. I shared with him articles like www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2769873/pdf/dst-03-0545.pdf that addresses the lung concern.

Or we can talk all day about the past (Patents, fda, beauty of dreamboat fluid dynamics, FDKP, Minimed, Al Mann by googling endlessly) and distant future (how Afrezza will capture 30% of trillion dollar diabetes spending and will have a market cap more than Apple).

It is very easy to drive people away but hard to make them share their experience. It is these patients who can bridge the past and future.

With all due respect, if you choose not to read what I write, block me, but I'll have as much voice to express my opinions as you. My original post called out many deficiencies to the ridiciulous claims made that it "still works effectively."

Stop treating diabetics like you have to protect their precious view points or else, especially when they are wrong, not only with how its prescribed but against the very science of it.

[mnholdem]

I don't understand the debate on this thread, which seems to be centering itself around the merits of the product if not used as directed. If the package did not include the inhalers, it should have been immediately returned to the pharmacy for replacement.

I find the mere suggestion that a diabetic would post a review on the effectiveness of Afrezza if inhaled through a straw to be laughable and certainly NOT worth a serious debate.

[liane]

Time to lock the thread.