I was only on theophylline for about six weeks. I started out on 300 mg once a day. About a week later we took levels and found that I metabolized the medication too quickly to benefit my lungs. Upped the theophylline to 200 mgs in the morning and 200 mgs at night. A week later, still not enough. All this time I was having the side effects I described. Then we tried 250 mgs BID...still not enough...all the way up to 300 mgs BID and I was vomiting and shaking and headaches and ugg...I was on it a week of therapeutic doses at 600 mgs a day and suffering all these side effects and still saw virtually no benefit. I had it in capsule form. I did have levels drawn frequently and my liver is fine despite my six-week stint. We finally discontinued it.

Well its just that I (had) very mild asthma all my life and would only get 1 or 2 exacerbations a year (caused by viral/becterial infections in the winter). I was put on 400 mg theophylline daily (nightly actually) from age 5 or 6. I was at a regular check up at age 19 where the doctor was horrified to find out that I was still on theophylline. He said I should have been off that years ago. He took me off it and I felt just fine like when I was taking it. In the 2 years following that I also came off my steroid and reliever inhaler.

I am just worried now about the 15 or so years of theophylline use, especially as I used to drink a lot of other caffeine products ( up to 3 ltrs of cola daily!). I heard it interferes with the livers cytochrome system and can put undue stress on it with chronic use. I was also very rarely (if ever) blood tested for serum levels!

After you get within the therapeutic ranges for theophylline, the protocol to test your level is only once a year. I have heard that theo can have effects on your liver, but I'm not sure. I am sure that there are tests they can run if they are worried about it.

Here's some theo info:

[url]http://www.njc.org/medfacts/theo.html[/url]