Asmtha symptoms and conditions

I'm 46 and have been taking Advair for 7 years and I'm amazed at all of the side effects I've noticed of Advair that I've never had before. Asthma aside, I've always been healthy, moderately active and eat healthy yet noticed over the last couple of years I constantly feel like a puff ball from water retention and bloating - it's awful. My eyesight is worse, blurry and dry eyes. Constant muscle and joint pain, occasional dizziness and lightheadness, mood swings, just about everything . I've also noticed a decrease in libido and an increase in blood pressure. Does anyone have experience with a better replacement for it that I can discuss with my physician that does not cause any additional side effects from switching from Advair to a different long-term inhaler?

Our 2 and half year old son was diagnosed with asmatha at the beginining of June and prescibed singulair. While we had no doubt that singulair dramatically improved his asmtha and breathing, within 2 weeks the side effects forced us to change his medication. He experienced terrible nightmares, restlessness, mood swings, and waking up every 2 hours. Two weeks after stopping the singulair he is sleeping through the night, no nightmares and back to being a regular loveable 2 year old boy.

I finally know what is wrong with me and I think I can help some other people also...so I felt compelled to post!

I have been on Advair for almost 5 years and have experienced weight gain (35 lbs), heart rate increase, anxiety and just over all restlessness. Now, my asmtha is under control, but I have had voice problems and continuous phlem in the back of my throat.

I have gone to a wonderful speech pathologist that told me that a lot of this was due to Advair. He asked me to cut down and once my pulmonary specialist heard that he was angry. The pathologist told me to drink a lot of water, but in small sips. Don't drink hot liquids, coffee, caffine and to constantly chew gum or have candy to keep your saliva glands working. Don't whisper! It's worse for your voice. Also, if you use albuterol use a dispenser chamber that will slow down the dosage...there you go...about 1000K of advice from a pro!

I am looking into other avenues to treat my asmtha after reading your posts. I am 27 and the symptoms are just not worth the pain they cause. Hopefully Advair will fix these symptoms, but it is pretty powerful stuff!

I posted on 1/13 about the terrible toll that advair had taken on me. I stopped using Advair that day and learned that my asmtha was far, far worse than when I had begun taking advair. Everyday it gets easier to breathe on my own but the first week was very rough, needing my rescue inhaler all the time. In the first 2 days that I stopped I lost 10 lbs in water weight and have dropped another 10 since that. Almost a month has gone by and my mood is better now. I no longer feel so depressed and angry all the time. I can see my hair starting to regrow and I'm not losing so much when I wash it in the morning. My skin has recovered to a healthy glow and I only break out during the PMS again.
I can't believe almost 4 months of my life were ruined by a drug that my doctor told me had no side effects. I'm now researching holistic health approaches to alleivating my asthma. I hope that any one else suffering from the numerable side effects of advair find solice in the countless posts on this site because I know it gave me hope and let me know i am not alone on this.