Mild asthma symptoms and conditions

I just turned 34 and I am a woman. I have struggled with mild asthma from early teens. I was always able to control my mild asthma with a rescue inhaler as my asthma was triggered primarily by cats/some dogs. However eventually that faded away and I was in control as long as I wasn't around cats. At age 31, I had my daughter (she is now 2 1/2), I rarely had asthma symptoms during my pregnancy and before. However about 1 week after my c-section I had to go to the ER because I couldn't breathe. They thought maybe I was having a pulmonary embolism from the previous c-section surgery. Fortunately I wasn't, but unfortunately for whatever reason, my asthma had been triggered (even if I wasn't around animals). My doctor put me on a Advair, another rescue inhaler, and ZPac. It helped right away.

I noticed a big difference in my ability to breathe. However 2 1/2 years later, I'm still on it. 250/50 once a day. I've tried going off of it several times but I'm unable to breathe. I don't want to be on a steroid long term, but I also have to be able to breathe after about 2 days being off of it. It's like gasping for every breathe. Not fun at all. The side effects I've had are hives to anything cold, itchy skin, stiffer feeling joints, occasional mouth sores, lots of phlegm (coughing up phlegm especially in the morning). I've never suffered from leg cramps or depression from Advair, in fact prior to having a child I was on Lexapro for anxiety and after being put on Advair my depression/anxiety has gone away. In fact, I've lost weight (30 Lbs) and am now down to the same size I was in college! I've asked two different doctors my OBGYN and Family Doctor if it's safe as we are planning for another child. They say yes. My OBGYN has said if I can't breathe I'm not going to be able to carry full-term. Which I guess makes sense. My Family Doctor said you can use Advair only as needed as it is not a bad drug to go off and on again (unlike antidepressants where you should never just stop them cold turkey). He said (he also suffers from asthma) that asthma can be triggered by stress (and my life has been extremely stressful over the last year).

Is there anyone who has had similar side-effects? Do you believe the benefit of Advair outweighs the negatives? I'm wondering if there is a better non-steroid drug that I can take that is SAFER for pregnancy and for my future. Open to suggestions...

Our 11 yr. old daughter was prescribed with Singulair. She started taking it today with much hesitation from her parents. She was on this medication years ago for her mild asthma, but her mood swings/depression were terrible. We have a new ENT now and he promises that the mood swings/depressions are NONSENSE and that these rumors were put to rest years ago. We will be watching her side effects closely, but my question is if Singulair helps so much, what other medication can someone take that does not have these side effects? What is the alternative? She is also going to see a pediatric pulmonologist in August.

My eight year old son was diagnosed with mild asthma by our GP and was taking Ventolin for a persistent cough. When this didn't relieve the cough the doctor prescribed Singulair. He started the Singulair in March 2009 and within 2 months we realized that his personality had dramatically changed. It has taken us a while to figure out what was going on because eight year old boys are starting to assert themselves more and I think the side effects have been escalating over the last month. He was angry most of the time, very hateful towards his siblings, saying very dark, nasty, hurtful things. He argued every time we asked him to do something and would snap into a screaming inconsolable emotional wreck at the drop of a hat many times a day over trivial or imagined problems. He was having nightmares and bursts of hyperactivity that were overwhelming. He told us he felt frustrated all the time and hated everything. When we tried to calm him he was unreachable. Just yesterday he had his fist clenched and pulled back ready to punch me when I was trying to help him with a computer problem. He was shaking and his face was contorted with rage and he just wasn't my little boy anymore.
It has been devastating for our family and we were ready to take him to a psychologist. He is normally an incredibly considerate, perceptive, loving child, highly intelligent, helpful and fun loving with a great sense of humor.
He has also complained of leg pains and has been wetting the bed again. It was only yesterday that I began reading about other people's side effects and have taken him off Singulair as of last night. Whilst he has still been argumentative today already the aggressive intensity seems to be easing.
I am absolutely mortified that I allowed this to happen to my son and my family and I am so grateful to others for sharing their experiences.
We still need to address his asthma and will make an appointment with a specialist next week, but given his asthma is so mild he should not have ever had to suffer these side effects.
I only hope now that he has not sustained any long term effects and that his younger brother has not been scarred by the truly horrible things that my son has said to him.

I am so grateful for this website. I found it in early of 2008. At the age of 11 my son went on Singular for mild asthma. He started taking it in November of 2007. Slowly we noticed different complaints he was having. The first was that he couldn't sleep. He was having nightmares. This had never been a problem. He started losing weight. He was complaining about leg pains and headaches every day. By February 2008 he had lost 15 pounds. This is drastic for an average weight 11 year old. They did blood work and everything came back normal. He started bruising very easily and all the other complaints were still there. His mood was very irritable and he is the most quiet gentle child you will ever meet. With new aches, bruising and the weight loss we were getting very frightened. They did a cat scan and more blood work in early April. Still, thankfully, they found nothing. No terrible disease or cancer was found.

When I saw this website and the posts with similar side effects we took him off Singulair. The symptoms went away. He gained back the weight he had lost and each day the symptoms starting going away. Things have been great every since. I can't believe a medicine did all these terrible things to my child.

My entire life I've been very sickly many doctors thought thyroid but I guess my numbers always came back normal and test never lie right... My levels were finally abnormal at age 21 and I was diagnoised with Hashimoto's Thyroiditis last week. Just started Synthroid right away and my breathing is better then it has been in a few years. Doctors had no idea why my breathing was so horrible in the first place since I only have mild asthma. They just heard the wheezing in my throat and in my chest and knew something was wrong. They knew I needed an amount of breathing medication that was pretty much killing me and the E.R gave me even more then I'd take at home. Only a week of being on synthroid I'm now only taking what a severe asthmatic would take daily. Thats going to be like 100 vials less then what I was on by the end of the month!!! I don't know if I will stay on Synthroid because of the side effects I'm having that maybe I won't have on another type of medicine. We'll see I guess. But I Thank god for Synthroid without it I wouldn't be here right now. We had no idea it would even do anything for my breathing...I wasn't even prescribed it for that. I've learned now though to do my own research because doctors don't know it all especially General Doctors. Sometimes it's correct to raise the dose to get past the hyper swings of hypo sometimes it's an overdoes causing it....it's crazy. Anyway I wish all others with thyroid problems good luck your not alone.

I have had mild asthma for twenty some years but lately allergies made it worse and I was using my rescue inhaler every night. I went to the doctor and got Advair. My asthma cleared up right away but within a week I was having chest pains and pressure on my chest. My doctor diagnosed costochondritis, which is probably part of my problem. Still, I didn't feel right - bloated, jittery, coughing, dry mouth, constricted throat. I am prone to anxiety but in the past 24 hrs, I've had the worst panic attacks I've ever had in my life. I'm going off Advair. How long does it take for the effects to wear off?

I have been on Singulair longer than I can recall... at least 10 years, maybe longer. My 7 year old son has been on it since he was probably 12 months old. Neither one of us have had any problem reported here. No depression, no sleeplessness (until I weaned him from naps, he slept up to 13 hours a day), no leg cramps, nothing. We are two of the happiest, most well adjusted people you could know. And, best of all, we haven't had any asthma attacks. Bottom line, different drugs react differently in different people. Don't let the post here stop you from trying a medication that for some could mean the difference between life and death depending on how asthmatic they are. As with any drug recommended by your doctor, try it. If you experience adverse reactions, stop it ASAP. It's that simple.

I was on it for 2 weeks for an upper respiratory infection and I have mild asthma. I got to the point after the 2nd week I could not feel my legs, they felt detached. I cried. I thought I was water in car when I drove to a doctor appointment. I felt like I had the flu 24 hours a day. No headaches but it never touched my asthma. Two weeks of that junk then I went to a doctor who put me on my medication I took as a kid. One pill and it was over.
Sudafed in my opinion is a dangerous drug. Those side effects they list on tv are a joke. They are the tip of the ice berg.

Thank you so much for this site. My 3 year old son was prescribed Singulair this morning for some mild asthma. I am pretty conservative about giving meds so i was doing some research and am so thankful I found this site. I haven't picked up the prescription yet and I will not be.
God bless you all and I pray everything turns out okay for your little ones.

Wow! I can't believe how many of us suffers from the pill from hell, Yasmin. I stopped taking it September 17 after 5 years and I'm worried as hell as to what's going to happen to my body now. But first things first. I seem to have gotten pretty much every side effect in the book.

About a month after starting it I got gastroparesis- paralyzed stomach- and I also became lactose-intolerant after 30 years of drinking a lot of milk. Go figure! I get a huge bloated belly as soon as I drink a little water even now. I have gained about 6 lbs that I can't shake no matter how much I work out and that has never been a problem before.

I had migraines from hell and headaches nearly every day the last few years.

I got panic attacks and was very nervous, had anxiety and it felt like an elephant was sitting on my chest. And that is SO NOT me or anybody in my family. And I know it was the pill cuz I had no reason to feel that way.

I had blurry vision at times. Fainted once in the mall for no apparent reason, I had never fainted before in my life.

I had no interest in my own life or in doing anything whether that was working, going to school, exercising, going out with friends, traveling, whatever it was I was not interested. Again, so not me. I could have died and I wouldn't have cared. I could have gotten a Ferrari and I wouldn't have cared.

I could sleep 10 hours a night, take 1-2 hour naps in the afternoon and go to sleep again at 10 pm, no problem. And the nightmares! Holy crap. Awful dreams about plane crashes, robberies and murderers EVERY night. Thankfully they seem to have disappeared now.

I have high cholesterol, through the roof actually! -no family history there either- and blood pressure is a little high but not too bad. My thyroid was a little elevated last time and the doctor thought it was due to Yasmin.

I snap at everybody and think that I don't love my husband when I actually do love him a lot. He has put up with me being so unbelievably bitchy for 5 year. Bless his soul!

Since I started Yasmin we have had sex about 1-3 times a year. I'm NOT kidding. I haven't wanted anything to do with sex.

I have heart palpitations at times. Shortness of breath just walking up the stairs in my house.

Dry skin no matter what cream I use. Major hair loss.

I went off Yasmin once before and didn't get my period back for over 6 months so I just started taking it again like an idiot cuz I wasn't planning to have kids then anyway.

I was never happy, never sad. Mostly mad or irritated, no problems there.

What else? How many hours do you girls have to read my post? ;-)

To sum it up. Yasmin has destroyed my life for the past 5 years but I was to blind and scared to get pregnant before that I just didn't care. And not caring about my own health was surely caused by that rotten pill too.

What can I expect now that I'm off the pill since 2 weeks? How long before the hormones are gone from my body? What can I expect and when does it get better? Can I go to the ob/gyn after 2-3 months if I don't get my period and have them give me something to start it? Or would that be bad? What about the weight, should it go up or down? Acne? Hair loss? What else? Have you had any medical problems that you needed medicines for due to Yasmin? How long has it taken you to get your period back? And most importantly; can this pill make me infertile???

If there is a class action lawsuit I want to be in it!

for the people that have taken their children off singulair...
what are you using for a preventative med?
my daughter has really bad asthma and I don't know of any alternatives

My son has been taking Singular for a few years for mild asthma and recently in the past few months all of the sudden he has been having a hard time falling asleep,anxiety at bedtime taking hours to get to sleep with me having to stay in the room. We took him to his pediatrician who ran blood tests and referred me to a sleep specialist who suggested he may have OCD or Anxiety. I just thought it was just something that would pass after 4 months it still has not passed. I am removing him from Singular TODAY. After all these visits with these doctors who knew he was on the medication and never said anything to me about possible side effects . I cant believe it took an article my husband saw in the paper for this to come to my attention.

I just read an article dated 9/1/08 that stated that the American Lung Association just cleared Singulair as causing depression and suicide. They had researchers study the results from the original test trials because they are supposedly more accurate than after market reports. The article is at ******. I cried when I read this report. My now 8 year old daughter has been on this medication for mild asthma since she was 4. We have thought the stomach aches and tantrums were related to moving to a new town around the time she started taking singulair. But, 3 months ago, she all of a sudden started having depression, ocd about germs, afraid she might hurt herself and then depression and suicidal thoughts. She has been off meds for 8 weeks and still has some problems with thinking she wants to hurt herself and feeling down. She is normally very happy and our family is happy and normal, but dealing with this is difficult. How long does it take to get out of their system?

I have been reading all of these posts and have another question. I hope that someone can help. My daughter, 8 years old, has been on Singulair since she was 4. She is normally a very happy girl with a wonderful disposition. For the last year or so, she has been having trouble getting herself to sleep at night. She says that she hears things in her head such as ringing or "noises". A few hours before she knows it's bedtime, she cries and when we ask her why she's crying, she can't give us a reason. We initially thought that she was crying for no reason because she didn't want to go to sleep. I remember reading about the side effects of Singulair causing mood swings, etc., but her's are not violent mood swings. Just very emotional and has a hard time coming down from the "episode". I'm at a loss...I have not talked to her doctor yet about it, but have told her that we will make an appointment this week to discuss it with him. My husband suggested that maybe it sounded like she was having a panic attack or anxiety attack. I hate to label her as that at such a young age. My mind now goes back to the side effects of Singulair and maybe this is to blame. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you! Concerned Mom

I was prescribed advair for mild asthma. I only took it for a few months before hearing somewhere that it could actually make asthma worsen, I never checked to make sure it was a fact but I actually felt it did make my asthma worse. Needless to say, I got off of it right away and switched to singulair for it, I find that much better.

I have been on singulair for almost 2 years and i feel that it helps a lot actually when i don't have it my asthma acts up a lot, but it's only mild asthma so it's not too bad but it makes the difference. occasionally get a headache possibly attributed to it or more likely the zrytech however you spell that, but i like the singulair better than anything else and have had no thoughts of suicide or moodiness or anything weird.

I am a 26 year old female and was prescribed Advair some years ago by my Asthma & Allergy doctor. I took it off and on for several years. Honestly I was scared to take it because of the side effects I thought it might have. About 16 months ago I went off birth control because my husband and I wanted to have a baby. I continued to take Advair 150/50 twice a day. I got pregnant in July and had a miscarriage Sep 1. Then while still taking Advair I got pregnant again shortly after that. After my first OB appointment it was established that the fetus/egg sack had no heartbeat. I had a D & C done in December to clear out the unsuccessful pregnancy. I decided after reading all these comments and thinking about my own side effects of taking Advair that my miscarriage were the cause of taking Advair. I believe Advair may have decreased my body's ability to clot blood properly and that is what has caused my babies not to thrive. I decided in January of 08 to stop taking Advair. I asked my doctor about the Advair and being put on another medicine in Jan and he seemed to think that there was nothing wrong with me taking Advair. I stopped taking it anyways. I decided since mostly all of my mild Asthma symptoms were caused by exercising that I would just use Proventil/Albuterol inhaler before exercise. It worked great and in Jan, Feb, March of 08 I trained for a 5k, and ran it in March under 26 minutes. I have been off Advair ever since Jan and have been fine. I used a peak flow meter to be sure my breathing was normal. I only use the Albuterol occasionally now. Furthermore I am now almost 20 weeks pregnant and doing fine. Besides the miscarriages I also blame Advair on other side effects I experienced when taking it including leg cramps, increase in heart rate, restlessness after taking in evening, night sweat, hoarseness, dry throat, headaches, and whenever I would get a cut or something it would take forever for me to stop bleeding.
now my blood clots quickly no problem. I was taking no other meds besides Advair when I experienced all this. DON'T TAKE ADVAIR...unless you feel the benefits of the drug outweigh all of the horrible side effects. Demand another med. with fewer side effects.

Hi everyone, I just want to say thank you for all who shared on this site. I am a 47 year old woman. I have spent several hours reading posts last night and today, and discontinued my Singulair last night. I have been taking it for approximately 4-5 years for mild asthma. Since then my health has gotten worse and deteriorated rapidly in the past year. I have had chronic chest congestion leading to frequent infections. Have had pneumonia three times in the last three years and frequent bronchitis. In the last eight months I have been on antibiotics more often than not, along with Singulair and Advair and frequent rounds of prednisone. Still I continued to worsen. I have had a rash on both legs since March which clears up with a shot of prednisone, but comes back within a few weeks. I've been going to bed nights by 7:30 and still find it hard to get up and go to work. Energy levels would vary, but some days I literally felt as if I could not keep putting one foot in front of the other. I have always been the quiet, serious type and prone to depression, but this past year it has been getting progressively worse. I have become very antisocial and even missed my son's wedding because I was so stressed out about it. I have also had alarming hair loss and just feel that my body is in a very depleted state.
My doctor, an allergist, ran a number of tests, but could find nothing. He finally referred me to a specialist at a University. He did a bronchoscopy and tested for tuberculosis and sarcoidosis because I had very similar symptoms to both of those diseases. They were both negative, but they found a rare form of bacteria in my lungs that doesn't respond well to medication. They felt that it should run its course eventually. I'm sure all of the immune suppressing drugs I have been on have made it difficult to recover from this. Aside from a two week prescription for a form of sulfa which they felt the bacteria may respond to, I am off all other drugs. For congestion they have prescribed a therapy vest instead of medication. I am very anxious to see if being free of Singulair and Advair helps me to recover more quickly. Already on day one I feel a better outlook on life and even went on a shopping trip with my mother today :-) I can't say at this time what role Singulair has played in all of this, but am anticipating an improvement after reading all of your posts. Thank you.

Anyone know of a class action suit? I was on Advair for 4 years for mild asthma (very occasional problems with exercise), at the advice of my allergist. While I was still on it, I was diagnosed with osteopenia, and episcleritis (occasional flare up, now gone since I quit). However, after 1 yr off Advair, I have just been diagnosed with a cataract at 54. I questioned my doctor about the osteoporosis, she poo pooed it. My cataract is advancing very rapidly. I would like to know if I can get some compensation to help with cataract surgery!!!!

I have been on advair for about 6 years. and im 18 years old. I am now just experiencing signs and symptoms of major ANXIETY!.... RESTLESSNESS, and MOOD SWINGS and im wondering what its from.. it just now started kicking in? I am a severe asthmatic and this is the best thing for me.. but now im starting to wonder???

This is my story. My daughter 14, the most precious child ever born. She has a wonderful disposition always happy, loving, and determined to succeed in whatever she does. She just brightens everyone’s world.
She suffers from severe seasonal allergies and mild asthma. She takes approximately seven allergy/asthma medicines a day during peak season. Over the past two years she has been taking Singular as one of her medicines. Being 14, sick of taking medicine she would not take the Singular on a regular basis. Approximately four months ago “MOM” says, if you take nothing else take your Singular it will work both for the seasonal allergies and your asthma. She has been taking this regularly four the past four months.
She became paranoid, she became a compulsive eater and bites the skin on her fingers. She would eat and chew on her fingers at the same time, until she choked. She had so much anger, she could not even go to the mall without temper tantrums.(As a child she never had any tantrums ) Always afraid. Severe depression set in. She would cry at a moments notice. She would say, I have a very sad life, sad very sad, nothing makes me like this, I’m just sad. She felt she should go live with the homeless people. I asked her why, she didn’t know, she felt maybe that’s where she belonged. Nightmares and sleepless nights.
She needs help quickly. Before calling the Doctor, I went on the internet and entered Singular and depression and I found 1900 entries, all people telling me what I was experiencing. Could this possibly be the answer for us? I called her Dr and told him what I thought, he said he has never had anyone that this has happened to. He hoped it was the answer, but really didn’t think is. He said if it wasn’t the answer she would need therapy, mood stabilizer and Prozac.

Its day four off Singular, she smiling, no tears today, no temper tantrums, looking forward to school next week, wants to play volleyball next year, singing in the car,
I hear that happy voice again.(Hi, Mommy!!!!!!) Every once in a while a glaze comes over her face. She isn’t a 100% back, but I know it is coming.

To all the people that don’t have the happy ending, I will pray for you and hold you in my heart forever.

June 2, 2008

In September of 2007 my then 13 year old daughter was put on Singular for mild asthma. At the time she was a straight A student, vice president of our school and a popular girl who's guidance counselor described as "the glue of her grade" because she was so well liked. In November she told me that she was struggling with advanced Latin and Science. She asked to drop down to on grade Latin so we did. In December her science teacher notified us that she had a C average. She told me that she thought she had ADD/ADHD and she couldn't keep up. At the same time she was having a lot of problems with friends at school and we just attributed it to being 14. 3 weeks ago we discovered that she is significantly behind in English and it was then that she told me that she is been having horrific night mares. She said that they usually involve someone killing her or her killing herself. She said that they were so graphic that she couldn't repeat it out loud. She also said that she would feel waves of anxiety that would come over her at school and she would act "witchy" to the kids in her class for no real reason. She said that sometimes when she is trying to do her homework she will read the same passage for 2 hours and still have no idea what it's about. She also said that the suicidal thoughts from her sleep happened during they day and that she had thoughts of her harming herself. Fortunately her pulminologist told us that this may be caused by singular and we immediately took her off of it which was 2 weeks ago. She has only had 1 "bad dream" not even a nightmare since. She had one anxiety attack 3 days after she was off it and she describes her moods as the "cloud lifting....slowly". Now, we have to pick up the pieces. Her grades have suffered, her friendships have suffered and most of all her self esteem is very low. I'm grateful that we found out the cause but I feel as if my daughter lost a year of her life and I worry that because Merck won't admit there are side effects we can't find out how long it remains in their system. Is anyone else concerned about the long term affect and has anyone pursued a class action suit to try to get this drug tested properly?

(A divorced father)
My son has been on Singulair now 5 years and I am in the middle of fighting to get him off. My son is now 7 years old and has been diagnosed with allergies (no test have been done which I find very odd), which leads to a case of mild asthma. This past weekend his mother forgot his Singular on Friday so I could not give him any till the next day, where we met at his soccer game. Saturday night I gave him his usual pill and thankfully due to his exhaustion from playing out side all day he went to sleep in 10 min. vs 3 hrs later which is the norm since Singulair seems to jack him up.
He also has red puffiness under his eyes - most likely allergies.
Seems depressed - just driving down the road and I look at him in the rear view mirror and he just sits and stares into space. When I ask what's wrong he either says nothing or I am tired.
He will try to tell a story or think for himself and just stops mid sentence and says " never mind I am just confused"
He will be having fun one moment and just starts crying or gets depressed.
He was throwing a ball in the house (yes I know) and accidentally knocked a glass over breaking it - he went running to his room, crawled under his bed and sobbed profusely for over 30 min.
He has a hard time doing / focusing on homework - becomes bored very easily.
Does not want to go outside. I will take him to allot of cultural events/ hands on or participation events - he will not try anything. He is unsure and will not come out of his box so to speak.
I spoke with his doctor who was reluctant to take him off, but then agreed that if it was OK with the ex, to take him off for a week to see what happens.
The fun part: My ex is convinced that since he has been on Singulair for 5 years he is fine and does not need to come off it.

1.) Son is diagnosed with mild asthma or allergy induced asthma.
He has never had an allergy test done and has not had a lung function test in over a year.

2.) It is documented that our son has four outbreaks a year. (sounds like the changing of the seasons) but is given Singulair all year round and the dosage has also been increased.

3.) Since the court order, ordered my ex to enroll our son in sports (she would not let him play anything) he does not wheeze or cough uncontrollably.

4.) Since I had to battle to get our son on my insurance I have cut her control issues off a little, but she is refusing to take him off Singular just for a week to see how he reacts. Although I do agree that he should have some form of allergies medicine.

5.) When I found out about the side effects of Singulair, I also found that his doctor was getting ready to add two other allergy medicines to his portfolio - totaling 3 different meds.

I see our sons behavior getting worse and I watch him turn into something he is not and with a controlling individual not believing anything about the side effects it looks like I will have to rely on the medical system to prove my point. I do believe he needs to be accurately tested for allergies and given a regularly lung function test but most of all since he is now on my insurance, a second opinion and a 3rd to narrow down what the situation is and an alternative medical procedure that is fit for the symptoms.

I have to say this after reviewing two major areas:

1. the brain
2. mast cell homeostasis

I desperately wanted to be POLITICALLY CORRECT and say that side effects can be confined to the minority. God, how do you fight Merck?

In this case, it would seem that the real benefit of this drug is to those with the extreme type immune responses whose body chemistry has been altered by being hyper-sensitive to some type of "invader. Extreme can be defined as just not the average or beyond that.

So, if the truth comes out that essentially normal immune systems don't need Singular at all, then I have come clean. I certainly have doubts whether essentially normal systems need this at all.

My son is 21 month old and he's been taking singulair for two months now, and I can notice that after he started taking it he is having nightmares. Every night he starts crying while sleeping without any reason. So I am wondering could it be possible that these happens because of singulair just in 2 months or there is something else. Doctor told us to continue giving singulair for 6 months, Shall I stop giving it or not?