It is very easy to use, and measures the PEF and the FEV1: you blow in the tube as hard as you can (the first second is what counts), keep on blowing for 3 seconds, and the meter gives you a result. Do that three times on a row, then press a button and the meter gives you the best result of the test, which you can store in the memory if you want (since you have to compare it ever 6 months).
Once I have the whole procedure down in enough detail, I’ll write a wiki.
Mannkind, manufacturer of Afrezza, has a page where they discuss these tests. They have a program where they lend meters to endocrinology clinics. I bought the same model they lend: I figured it must have enough credibility
I had asthma as a baby, and I passed the spirometry test and was approved for Afrezza. I haven’t started it yet, but my FEV1 results came back a little higher than the expected values for my age/height/weight.
You may or may not be comfortable with using it, but I haven’t read anywhere that it’s contraindicated for people who grew out of asthma.
I have been using a NuvoAir Airsmart. It’s not FDA approved (it is CE approved in Europe) so it is “for entertainment only” in the US. I like that it does the results on the iPhone or Android phone.
I use it with my internist, since she is anti-Afrezza, to “prove” my lung function is stable. However, my endocrinologist doesn’t care about the results. He says my physiology gives me a lower lung function than these or the professional results indicate.
"You can breath, and your diabetes numbers are lower than I have ever seen in a T1D. That is all that matters. "
Yeah the whole thing is hogwash really… I understand that there was a concern about acute bronchospams, which have never materialized, and there was a concern about long term lung issues, which certainly haven’t been materializing either… at this point all the talk we see about the spirometry is mostly either troll driven or a product of the troll driven hysteria
My endo doesn’t even retest anymore either… it’s a waste of time…
Just think worldwide of all the suffering that could have been reduced, complications avoided, sleepless nights avoided, etc if people weren’t caught up in this silliness and were just being readily prescribed it instead. Thanks lobbyists. Thanks FDA.
@Sam If you’ve never had an acute bronchospasm, then I wouldn’t call the contraindications hogwash. I’ve experienced a few that just about permanently made it so I’d never have to take insulin ever again.
Yes, I’m not discounting the seriousness of them… or the counterindication… but how many of those worldwide have ever been caused by afrezza?
I’m not saying people who have those issues should take afrezza… but that is completely irrelevant to the people who don’t have those issues… yet because of an army of short selling trolls swarming the internet singing the alarm bells of “acute bronchospasm and COPD” we have all kinds of people for whom that’s not even remotely relevant all worried about using afrezza
My wife had a patient diagnosed with T2 diabetes 2 years ago and he was really afraid of needles. Because of the lung warnings, the endo refused to prescribe Afrezza, and instead prescribed injected insulin.
The patient died a few months ago because he refused to inject. Afrezza could have saved his life.
Is this thing much different from a peak flow meter that people with asthma use at home to monitor their asthma control? Kinda like the asthma equivilent of a home BG monitor.
I have mild-moderate asthma and if I were to start afrezza, I would get a peak flow meter to make sure it didn’t make my asthma control worse. But if I didn’t already have asthma, I don’t think I would worry about it beyond any monitoring my doctor might do.
It is really a peak flow meter. The only difference is that this one also measures the FEV1. So you get both the PEF, Peak Expiratory Flow, and the Forced Expiratory Volume in the first second, FEV1.
