Asthma medications?

Question:

Hey, I was wondering if anyone could recommend good non-steroid asthma medications. I was on flovent for a while but it caused me to have pretty terrible anxiety and I was forced to quit using it, though my breathing was a million times better. For several years I was using just albuterol and I was using less than 4 puffs a day. I went to a new doctor however, and she prescribed the flovent. After having trouble with that she tried azmacort and I was still having trouble (though, it's entirely possible that it was lingering side effects from the flovent that I had trouble getting over). Now I am trying singulair and it helps a little but not even close to as well as the flovent and I would really love to breath as well as I was when I was on the flovent again. I have been researching asthma medications and was just wondering if anyone is using a medication that they highly recommend so that I may talk about it with my doctor when I go on friday. Thanks!

Answers:
Xopenex is similar to Albuterol but significantly stronger. It has low incidence of side effects.

Atrovent can cause some shaking and increased heart rate sometimes, but it can boost Albuterol or Xopenex by using another site in your lungs to help open your airways. A similar drug called Spiriva is once a day and I haven't had any side effects from it.

I was on Asthmanex, a newer inhaled steroid than Flovent and stronger, for 4 months. I didn't have any side effects from it. I get an upset stomach from Advair (Serevent and Flovent) though.

With my asthma, I took Advair 250/50 for 6 days recently because I was having trouble breathing in the heat and humidity. Now that it's not as hot or humid, I'm back on Salbutamol (Albuterol) as needed, like I have been for months. Because of my profession, my doctor gives me a lot of lee-way, so I give myself up to 4 treatments a day (8 Inhalations) before being worried. That is the normal maximum. I don't like inhaled steroids for me because of the fungus (thrush) that develops on my tongue. Before I tried my Advair 250/50, I took Spiriva (like Atrovent but once a day) for about 2 weeks and it was mostly good. It wasn't quite enough though.

Inhaled steroids are great tools for asthma control. But if you can't tolerate them, long acting inhaled bronchodilators might help too. I think the best part of Advair for me was the Serevent. My cough seemed to come back after about 12 hours, when the drug wore off. Because it's long acting, Serevent might work better than Albuterol. In addition, you can still take Albuterol to top it off, if the Serevent isn't enough. Spiriva can also be used with Serevent for long acting asthma control. Using Xopenex as a rescue inhaler might also be a benefit.

Beclomethasone is the most common one in the UK. There are several combi-halers that good results. You should try the last one you where given and let it settle for 6 weeks. You might find that you are ok.

Good luck. My asthma keeps getting crap at the moment.

Look dear, i let you know some medications for asthma that really works in my case, but you have to talk with your doctor because every case is different.My asthma is extremely serious.
Ok im in Seretide diskus 500 mg twice a day,teofylin 200 mg a day and Singulair (montelukast sodic) 10 mg. a day at night.
I hope this helps, remember my case is very serious (near fathal asthma).
Good luck!!

Ask your doc about combivent. It has both a short acting component and a longer acting component.

ask about pulmicort, symbicort and ceretide
pulmicort is steroid bit it has worked really well for me since i've gone down from 5-6 attacks per day to none in the last 4 weeks

Theophylline is a bronchodilator that comes in both short-acting and controlled-release (long-acting) capsules and tablets as well as liquid forms.

U.S. National Library of Medicine - National Institutes of Health
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/drugi...

American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology
http://www.acaai.org/public/advice/theop...

National Jewish Medical and Research Center
http://www.nationaljewish.org/disease-in...

The downsides of taking this medication are when you first start taking it, it can make you feel a bit queasy and you will have to have a blood level done every 6 months to make sure the theophylline is staying within effective levels.

The upside, it helps controls your asthma everyday.

Asthma medications?

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