Mounjaro and asthma/allergies

[Ufsse]

I have been reading about the anti-inflammatory effects of mounjaro, mostly on joint pains and soft tissue inflammation, e.g. plantar fasciitis. I wondered how many of you have seen improvement with asthma symptoms and hayfever like symptoms?

I am overweight, BMI hovers around 27, just under at the moment. I have just seen that you can now get Mounjaro from some places at that BMI. I am interested in losing some weight, a stone would get me under BMI 25, two stone and I would be lighter than I have been my entire adult life.

But I don’t think I’d be half as keen if it weren’t for the talk of it helping with inflammatory issues. I have asthma, fairly mildly, but I have also always been stuffy nosed and lose my sense of smell easily. I use a nasal spray and take antihistamines year round. Tree pollen season suddenly hit me really badly this year and in desperation I got a steroid injection, and it has been amazing. Steroids are not a long term solution so wondered if I should try Mounjaro once the steroids wear off?

No improvement in hay fever and when I’ve had allergic reactions to foods they’ve been worse. It’s the one area that hasn’t improved for me.

I didn’t know about this link.

previously had mild asthma.

have used blue inhaler once since starting mj 18 months ago.

assumed I had grown out of it/ was generally a bit fitter that helped with breathing

I have chronic Inflammation that causes body pain and fatigue, and it has massively improved on mounjaro. I don't feel perfect but I feel considerably better

I don’t know that there is a link with asthma really. It would just make sense if generally reduces inflammation.

Small bump for the Sunday morning crowd.

I’ve been using MJ for 20 months and can say it’s not decreased my seasonal hay fever at all. Currently my hay fever is really bad (I have tree pollen allergy).
I do think it helps with inflammation, I’m post menopause and take HRT which I think works really well with MJ. I’m in maintenance and no plans to stop taking it.
If you are hoping taking MJ will help your hay fever you may be disappointed.

What symptoms are you getting with your hayfever? My main issues are not really sneezing and a runny nose, it’s more like my nose gets blocked by inflammation. I’m pretty sure before I had the steroid injection I had a nasal polyp developing.

I’m also on HRT so it’s interesting you say the MJ works well with that, what do you mean exactly?

I have asthma. I've not noticed any difference since being on mj for 18 months. It is definitely anti inflammatory though as my knee pain went away completely within a short time of taking it. But the nasal inflammation does appear to be much the same.
I thought my asthma would improve with losing weight - people always told me it would lol - but it hasn't. It's allergy triggered but mj doesn't appear to have any effect on that for me sadly.

I noticed an immediate effect on my moderate asthma - reduced salbutamol usage and if I forgot to take my steroid inhalers I didn't get asthma symptoms. This was early on before I actually lost weight, so I attribute it to anti inflammatory properties even though it's not a recognised effect. I'm now several stone down, so the effect has improved even more as my weight has gone down and I've become more active.

However, my allergies have got worse - I need to take an antihistamine every day year round as I have multiple allergies, and I've had to increase to taking two tablets a day. This is probably because mounjaro slows down the absorption of drugs - it would be interesting to see if people who don't depend on medication have found their allergies affected.

This is interesting. I’ve been on mj for a year and a bit and hrt since Christmas. Lots of my inflammatory symptoms (plantar fasciitis, very bad DOMS post even mild exercise, chronic knee issues) are a lot better. I have had less colds over a winter where my household has been inundated. Some of this will be weight loss related as I way over 5 stone less, some will be because of an improved diet and more movement.

but I do have a tree pollen allergy which manifests in itchy skin and stuffy nose. And red itchy eyes. Just yesterday dh asked how I had been as I hadn’t been moaning as much and I realised whilst still there, much less uncomfortable than in prior years and I don’t think the pollen has been any less.

i generally don’t need to medicate much for my allergies btw. Not like I know others do.

Thanks all for sharing your experiences. Food for thought! Particularly with the possibility of allergies being worse because of slowing drug absorption.

Well this is a health journey for me, so addressing menopause and getting the right HRT took quite a few years to get right. It was only once I had that all working well that I decided to address my weight which had slowly increased over the years especially post menopausal.
Personally I haven’t lived a life of yo-yo dieting, or binge eating, I’d just slowly got fatter holding most of my weight around my middle and my overall health had slowly declined, most of my siblings are also type 2 diabetic or pre diabetic (I’m the youngest) so I could see the path I was on.
I was BMI 32 so obese, but didn’t realise how overweight I was.
If you follow endocrinologists like Dr Salas Whalen who has written the book ‘weightless’ or Dr Susan Brian they talk a lot about HRT and GLPs and how well they work together.
I wish I knew what I know now, 10 years ago, as I would have been weightlifting and taking HRT pre menopausal if I’d known, my journey now is on building strength and muscle, not on the scales or my size and taking a GLP is included in that journey as part of maintaining my weight loss and overall health.
As for my tree pollen allergy I find some years are better than others, this year is quite bad, runny eyes, runny nose, but it doesn’t last that long, it doesn’t stop me doing anything, just take antihistamines, nose spray and eye drops to keep it under control.

Ah that's interesting. I have put off going on hrt (47, not had period for a while, sleep issues, anxiety) as I wanted to reduce the weight first and ideally wanted to reduce the mounjaro.

I had immediate improvement in other inflammatory problems, but I haven’t noticed it helping with hayfever. My asthma is better, but I’ve put that down to being lighter and fitter. Don’t know if there’s also been a direct effect.

I’d suggest having a look at the Balance App which is by Louise Newson, it’s free and lots of good information about HRT.

I've no idea about GLPs but my experience with reducing systemic inflammation might help. I had high CRP levels due to rheumatoid arthritis, which I've managed to get into remission with non prescription drugs. I haven't touched my asthma inhaler for a month now and I'm not noticing any problems. I tried stopping it for the same reason as you, I thought if my systemic inflammation levels were reduced that it might stop the asthma. My weight has been constant throughout, so it's not that.

It wouldn't surprise me at all if GLPs helped reduce the need to take asthma drugs.

It doesn't sound as if they help much with actual allergies, though.

Please note my asthma was mild and never life threatening. Stopping an inhaler if you are seriously asthmatic isn't a good idea!

This is interesting OP I have been on Mounjaro for 3 weeks and mentioned to DH how well I felt and that even my asthma was better but I didn’t know it was recognised!

I have mild hayfever and am allergic to my cats and MJ hasn’t helped this. It’s no worse but no better.

What it has helped with is my psoriasis. I only suffer with this in the winter but this winter I haven’t had a single patch come up.

Hi there, I’m on Week 9 of MJ 2.5mg. I’ve got mild asthma and tree pollen triggered hay fever. I take a steroid inhaler daily for asthma and cetrizine daily for6 months of the year. Absolutely no change to either symptoms, I’m afraid.

I’m curious - how have you managed to reduce your systemic inflammation?

4 supplements that all contain active pharmaceuticals and have been tested for use with RA. MSM, pure curcumin, liquorice root and cats claw. I had to stop the glyccirizzin in liquorice because it affected my blood pressure, a common side effect. I'm tailing off now everything is under control and trying to stick with MSM and Curcumin, as Cats Claw can go for the kidneys and I don't want to take it unless I have to. All going well so far. Last flare was November, bloods look normal.

I was forced to try something because of months of delay getting access to prescribed drugs by my rheumatology department. I'm glad about those delays now or I'd be living with immune suppression.

My asthma has been much better since being on MJ. Hayfever not so good still.

I forgot to answer the main Q. My asthma this winter has been much better but im 8-9stome lighter at that point than last year which I imagine is the reason.

Inflammation wise though MJ meant I could wlak... Far before I lost significant weight.