Ohio Woman Regains Active Lifestyle Thanks to Biologic Asthma Therapy

More than 24 million Americans have asthma and about 10 percent have a hard time controlling it despite treatment. But, one Ohio woman is finally finding relief from wheezing and coughing thanks to a newer type of therapy that’s allowing her to breathe easy.

Lynn Kocka struggled with severe asthma for years. Despite standard medicines, she had difficulty exercising and even working, until she tried biologic therapy.

Lynn is able to get back into a fitness routine now her asthma symptoms are under control. (Courtesy: Cleveland Clinic)

“Biologics actually target a specific pathway that’s causing the asthma to try and target it so that asthma can get controlled,” said Sumita Khatri, MD, Co-Director of the Asthma Center at Cleveland Clinic.

Biologic therapy is available for people with severe asthma that’s difficult to control despite standard medications. There are currently four biologic therapies that are FDA approved to treat asthma.

Kocka receives an injection of biologic therapy in the back of her arm every four weeks. It didn’t take long for her to see results.

“Within five days, I could tell, in my chest, that I was not coughing as much, so it was pretty amazing,” Kocka said.

Lynn is now able to live an active lifestyle, which includes traveling overseas. (Courtesy: Lynn Kocka)

Research shows biologic therapies effectively control severe asthma – resulting in fewer flare-ups and trips to the hospital – and may even reduce the need for some asthma medicines.

“Some patients with severe asthma, they can be on high dose oral steroids too, which has some significant side effects, so these biologics might actually reduce the need for those oral steroids,” Dr. Khatri said.

Kocka is active again; she’s able to run and exercise, and said she feels like she has her life back.

“I can absolutely do everything I could do before I became sick,” she said. “Going to the store; running here, there, everywhere; chasing the dogs - just every day normal life is totally 100 percent better.”