Advair Diskus and hoarseness

My 71 year old mother was put on Advair approximately two years ago after she was diagnosed with COPD. She has always been a tiny, petit woman her entire life, and after being placed on Advair she has nearly doubled in weight. This week she has broken out in shingles (herpes zoster) on her back and left breast. For a year she has had psoriasis on her right hand. Never before has she had so many rashes and skin issues since being on Advair. She has also experienced joint pain and numbness since being placed on Advair and began having panic/anxiety attacks as well - something she has never had in her life. Also, the hoarseness, or "lump in her throat" she is always trying to clear is nearly always present. Monday she is suggesting to her GP that she be weaned off of Advair altogether and we'll see what other options are available. Maybe this is the "miracle drug" for some; but for others it has been a nightmare.

I can't believe that this drug is legal and that it has not been taken off the market. I have been on it for a year and couldn't understand why I was gaining weight, nothing helped to get those pounds off. I started at 160 and now at 195 and growing. Three years ago I had triple bypass, weight 150, some of the meds caused some weight gain, but nothing like this. My joints was so sore in the morning I couldn't hardly walk, I just knew I was going to be using a walker if this kept up. BTW I'm 65 female, always been active and busy, now I just do what I have to or can and that doesn't make me happy. I have recently been having crying spells and sore throat, voice lost, and enlarged tongue. The enlarged tongue caused me to do some searching on side effects.....I am so glad I found this page. I haven't taken any puffs of Advair since., that was 3 days ago. My tongue is starting to shrink, my joints aren't as sore, my crying is stopping. The weight is still with me and might never lose it, time will tell. I don't seem as hungry and eating less so maybe there is hope. This is a drug that should have Big warning all over it. Advair has taken a year of my life at this point. If there is ever a law suit I would be the 1st to sign. I didn't have that many breathing issues and really didn't understand why the Dr. put me on it.
I usually check up on drugs before I take them, this one slipped through the cracks, guess cause it wasn't a pill. At this point I just hope that others find this in time and stop using Advair before it ruins their lives.
God Bless
Barbie Kay

My dosage has been 250/50 and I have been using the medication for about 3 years. I have experienced increased mucus, hoarseness, and thrush. I now have the thrush under control by thoroughly rinsing my mouth after using the inhaler. The hoarseness was not caused directly by the Advair, rather it was caused by frequently clearing my throat due to the mucus. My wife is a speech language pathologist and noticed my frequent throat clearing and explained that throat clearing irritates the vocal chords and causes hoarseness. By avoiding harsh throat clearing the hoarseness has gone away. I still have issues with thick mucus but it is minor nuisance compared with the improvements to my breathing.

My doc assured me that it wasn't possible that my hoarseness was due to a residual build-up of the med on my vocal chords. I raised the question, "If there could not be any build up, why the need to rinse ones mouth after each use." I was told I needed to do that to prevent thrush. That's all well and good but still leaves my query a bit open. It stands to reason that if one could get thrush from the medication being in ones mouth, one could also have other problems from it being in ones system.

I've been doing research on asthma and other medical issues. If you want to do some good reading, look up Dr. Mercola. Also, look up MMS. Interesting stuff. I also found one woman's recommendation that at the start of a wheeze, let some sea salt dissolve in your mouth and then drino a glass of water. (Those with problems taking salt in should be careful about that.) And also, drink more water and check out your overall nutrition and fitness levels. Positively impacting those may make changes you'd be surprised by!

Jack Lalanne spoke against refined sugars and becoming fit way back in the 50's and not many listened. Look at a current photo of him today, a man in his 90's, and think about it. Look up sugars on Mercola's webpage as well. I had no idea the things sugar can do to ones body.

Blessings

I am a 36 year old male in very good physical condition (except for the asthma) and have been on advair 50/100 for 3 months.

I have since experienced:
Decreased asthma- from using my albuterol inhaler nightly to never.
Increased coughing, congestion, and hoarseness from rarely to daily.
Muscle tightness and joint pain from rarely to daily.
Two pulled muscles in my calf, one in my groin compared to zero in the past five years
One severe abdominal cramp resulting in fainting compared to never before in my life.

It appears that doctors are prescribing this without adequate understanding of the the side effects. Pay attention to your body's response to the medicine. Advair may not be for you.

26/f on Advair for 1 year, 3 mos. Diagnosed with asthma when I was 17. Was overusing my albuterol and my symptoms got worse so pulmonologist prescribed Advair 250/50. After the first week of taking 2 puffs a day, I didn't need albuterol inhalor and was able to exercise for the first time in YEARS without needing emergency inhaler. Advair was my life saver. Also prescribed to me was Protonix- the doctor thought I had acid reflux which contributed to my asthma symptoms. I take that seasonally now, when I notice a hoarseness in speech. I do get headaches every so often, they have been occurring more frequently as with mood swings so I am researching medications. I have no idea if this is tied into my Advair use since I've been on it over a year now. I might try going off Advair to see if it is related. I've also had a weird muscle cramp in my left armpit area which I NEVER would have thought was related to Advair but several people here have reported it. In short, the headaches, mood swings, etc. do NOT outweigh my ability to exercise and breathe normal. I will most likely try to lower my dose of Advair or ween myself off to see how I do, but if my asthma worsens, I'd rather stay on Advair.

Maybe I'm not crazy after all. I'm a 55-year-old female who has been taking Advair for close to 5 years. I have adult onset asthma and was using Albuterol to control it until my allergist placed me on Advair. It does a great job on my asthma, but at what price? During that time I've gained weight regardless of my diet and exercise regimen. I feel like I haven't slept in years and I'm convinced that it will eventually kill me because that makes everything else so much more difficult to deal with. I'm having major hair loss, hoarseness (I really miss singing), heart palpitations, extreme fluctuating blood pressure, heartburn, lethargy, blurred vision, twitching muscles. I finally decided that I had to change something and I found this website last week. I quit Advair cold-turkey. Probably not the right thing to do, but I was really on the brink. It's been nearly a week and I'm having extreme dizziness, terrible vision problems and awful headaches, but I am persevering.

Ive only been on Advair for almost a month. I couldn't believe how quickly my asthma disappeared. I was using my inhaler daily and tried other things but nothing helped. I went to a pulmonary specialist and prescribed Advair for a month. I'm so glad i have to go back and see him this Saturday b/c I want to tell him I will no longer take this. I'm 26 years old and had developed asthma when I was 7 years old. It went away when I was 14 and just came back full force 3 years ago. I would have tried anything to be able to breathe normally again.
I've had the hoarseness in my voice and a bad cough where I'm spitting up mucus everyday since I've been on Advair. I figured if this was what I had to live with to have the chance to live a normal life asthma free that id take it, it wasn't so bad. But this past week I've had blinding headaches non-stop. Ive been nauseous, sweating, coughing, I've been sore like I just finished a long workout, chest pains, tightness in my chest and my legs have felt so weak. This morning I woke up with the worst cold too; which I know Advair weakens your immune system but this is crazy. I stopped taking Advair this morning & I'm going to tell my doctor I need to try something else.

I am 48 yrs old and have been on Advair 500/50 for a little over three years now and although it helped my asthma dramatically in the beginning, everyone around me has commented on the crazy mood swings I have been experiencing for the past two years. I have also developed a very persistent case of thrush in my mouth/throat that never seems to go away-the doctor keeps on asking me if I rinse my mouth and it's starting to get annoying because I'd be an idiot not to rinse out my mouth-I even gargle, but the thrush keeps coming back! Also,my throat always feel tight-I frequently feel like I'm choking and I get hoarseness that interferes with the important thing like reading a book to my son. Recently, I have started bruising very easily. Everytime I mention all these things to my doctor she says that I should stay on the Advair and disregards my complaints about the side-effects. I would really like to stop using it, but I stopped once for Three weeks and I had a really bad bout of tightness in my chest and shortness of breath-any suggestions on how to get off it and what I can do instead?? I forgot to mention that I have gained weight and even dieting won't get the weight off-I am very active and exercise, but the weight stays.

Sept. 4, 2007 I am now 55 yrs old and have been on ADVAIR for 2 1/2 years. I recently stopped taking it because my insurance co-pay was maxed out for the year. It was going to cost me $235 for a disk and I didn't want to pay it. So it's been two weeks now. OMG, the differences I am noticing. My weight is dropping and I'm not doing anything different. I have gained about 20 pounds. Then when I started reading some of the side effects of ADVAIR on line I realized I had almost all of them. Fuzzy thinking, bloating (especiallly right after eating), disturbing dreams, hoarseness and the constant need to clear my throat, digestive problems and heartburn all the time, foot cramps, feel tired and rundown, heart palpitations out of the blue like just sitting at the computer or watching TV, weight gain.

So already no more bloating, dropped 5 pounds, sleeping without the bad dreams, more energy. I'm feeling better on a daily basis. I have an Albuterol inhaler that I have used, but just drinking enough water helps. I plan on seeing a Naturopathic doctor soon to try a natural way to deal with my asthma.