[April 2024] My most frequently asked question is "how do I get a prescription for multiple tablets a day of montelukast". If you live in the US, Canada or Europe, it is not easy. I myself don't have this problem since I live in Ghana where montelukast does not require a prescription. Here are some suggestions for getting a prescription.

1) You can go to a doctor and say you have taken montelukast for allergies or asthma in the past and it has worked well for you and you want to start again. There is no easy way to do lab tests to verify asthma or allergies and since montelukast is a common drug and very safe for adults, they will usually take your word and write a prescription for 10 mg per day with refills. You would have to see two doctors to take 10 mg two times a day, and three doctors to take 10mg three times a times a day. Once you get the prescriptions you can always renew them. Of course if the doctor has your medical history, he might ask some questions.

2) Have relatives and/or friends go to their doctor and tell the same story. It might be easier if your relatives or friends have a history of taking montelukast before.

3) If you know someone who goes to a low income country like Mexico, they may able to buy it from a pharmacy without a prescription or find out where a prescription could be easily obtained for 2 or 3 times a day and buy it there. A lot of low income countries don't require a prescription for montelukast. Make sure that it is only montelukast 10 mg and not montelukast in combination with another drug.

The benefits of taking montelukast twice or more times a day are great so don't give up and good luck.

[April 2024] Chronic inflammation plays a significant role in the aging process. It is an inevitable part of the aging process as our immune becomes overactive. It can also be increased by various factors such as an unhealthy diet, lack of exercise, stress, and environmental toxins. When inflammation persists over a long period, it can contribute to the development of age-related diseases like cardiovascular issues, diabetes, kidney diseases, Alzheimer's, certain types of cancer, and other diseases.

An effective way to prevent age-related diseases and increasing average lifespan would be to reduce chronic inflammation. A medication that reduces immune system over-activation and chronic inflammation would increase the average life span. Unfortunately no medication has been proven to safely reduce chronic inflammation to that extent.

Montelukast has been shown to reduce neuroinflammation in animal models. However there has been no human clinical studies that measure chronic inflammation when taking montelukast multiple times a day. Because montelukast has a half life of only about four hours, taking only one montelukast 10 mg tablet a day is not going to be enough to reduce chronic inflammation over a 24 hour period.

Montelukast, which is a leukotriene inhibitor, prevents leukotrienes from attaching to immune cell receptor sites. Immune cells therefore do not receive a signal from leukotrienes to produce inflammatory molecules called cytokines, which drive chronic inflammation and cellular damage.

A clinical study would be needed to determine if montelukast taken multiple times a day can reduce chronic inflammation, reduce the occurrence of age-related diseases and increase average life span. No drug maker is going to sponsor such a study because montelukast is a generic drug. Further it would go against their own interests because montelukast could reduce the need for their own patented drugs. Therefore it is up to governments and institutions to sponsor such study.

A clinical trial could be designed with a large group of participants to determine if montelukast reduces chronic inflammation when taken multiple times a day. The study could follow  participants over many years to determine the health effects of taken montelukast multiple times a day and determine if it has a significant effect on preventing various diseases and in increasing life span.

[May 2024] During the Covid pandemic in 2020, I found a video about using montelukast to treat Covid patients. Dr Caleb Hernandez had read about research led by Dr Tom Braciale at the University of Virginia. Dr Braciale's team found that laboratory mice that were infected with a flu virus that caused viral pneumonia fared much better when treated with montelukast than untreated mice. Unfortunately he was not able to get funding to start a clinical trial to treat patients with viral pneumonia with montelukast. This is a common problem when the drug to be trialed is a generic.

Dr Fernandez treated a large number  of Covid 19 patients at Coney Island Hospital and had some good results. Unfortunately Dr Fernandez and Dr Braciale were not able to get funding for clinical study for Covid 19. I emailed Dr Braciale a number of times, and he agreed that multiple doses of montelukast should be given each day, since it has a short half life. Unfortunately the trial was never approved and Dr Braciale passed away in 2023.

https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/newyork/news/coronavirus-covid-19-singulair-montelukast/

https://news.virginia.edu/content/asthma-drugs-could-prevent-deadly-form-pneumonia-research-suggests

Other trials were conducted around the world using montelukast to treat Covid 19, as listed in www.clinicaltrials.gov.

NCT04714515 was a study done in Pakistan. The study was started in February 2020 and completed in May 2020. One 10 mg was taken per day and no results were posted, indicating it probably was not successful with such a low dosage.

NCT04695704 was a study done in Spain. It was started in January 2021 and ended in June 2022. The dosage was also only 10mg once a day. No results were posted, also indicating that the study was unsuccessful.

NCT05894577 was a study done at Duke University and other locations which treated Covid 19 with montelukast and also with other drugs. The study started in January 2023 and was completed in January 2024. No results have been posted. Again the dosage was only 10 mg of montelukast per day, which is too small to be effective.

It is so sad that all this time and money was wasted treating patients with low dose montelukast. It really shows that the people in charge did not consider montelukast's short half life in making dosing decisions.