Advair HFA and blood tests

I've had all these same symptoms at one point during the two years I've been taking Advair. I've had exercise induced asthma since I was 18 but I can still work out at age 38 regularly with the help of Albuterol/Proventil. I stopped taking Advair after I completed my last disk in Sept, 08. It all makes sense now after the fact from reading here. Firstly, I cant tell you how severe the muscle cramps were. No words can describe upper body cramping in every muscle that I endured for weeks (it felt like knives all over)!!! The same happened with my legs...the muscles became so tight they contorted! My Dr. gave me an m.r.i. took x-rays and several blood tests...even gave me an h.i.v. test because he had no idea what would cause all these symptoms. He said it was "complicated". The test results found nothing. All lof my symptoms are gone now that I've stopped taking it (mouth sores, bleeding gums, strange skin lumps, hair loss, dry eyes, swollen tongue feeling, lump in throat feeling, severe cramping all over my body for 3 weeks). The Dr. noted that I had gained 10lbs since my last visit. I told him, "I've barely been able to MOVE with this cramping much less exercise with my regular weekly routine!" "It even hurts to breath deeply!" I still have a dry cough that hasn't gone away and normally I clear up after the seasonal rag weed season is over. We have had two hard frosts already...that usually clears my allergies.

I am very skeptical of all of the claims I have read here. I am no advocate of GSK or any other drug company for that matter, but I think people are getting carried away with attributing their symptoms to Advair. The known side-effects are readily available, anything else is purely based on assumption. I agree that Advair may in fact have many more possible adverse effects than they let the public know, but let us be careful about making ourselves little scientific researchers and concluding a causal relationship based upon a single case study (and an informal one at that). Talk to your doctor about trying something with less risk, such as Singulair, Azmacort, Intall, Fluticasone Propionate, etc. Please though, be careful not to be so quick to claim generalizable findings based on your specific case. I myself am going to work with my physician to attempt a gluten-free diet and a less invasive medication therapy. Advair is not habit-forming or addictive, so withdrawals are doubtful at best. Read up on the pharmacology of Advair (salmeterol in particular), and you can come to your own conclusions. Best wishes to all of you fellow asthmatics!

My 10-year old son was prescribed Advair in Nov 07, along with Singular for his asthma. Soon after taking Advair I noticed a change in his behavior, very moody, quick to anger and was unable to concentrate on tasks. His was having trouble with his grades at school, he went from being a A student to getting C's and D's and even one F on his schoolwork. He also was having trouble walking and could not even run without tripping, he also developed a shaking in his left arm, and he was unable to use his left arm at all, just like he had lost all strength in it. He had the symptoms of someone suffering from a mild stroke. After realizing these stomymns were not going to go away on their own, we took him to a peditriction and they ran blood tests and scheduled a MRI for him.

In the meantime, when the stomymns did first start he even told me that he did not feel like himself, so I immediatly took him off the Advair and Singular. He did go back to taking the Singular again,with the doctors ok. He had been on that the year before without any side effects, so I knew it was not causing the problems he was having.

He went off the Advair at the end of Nov. so he was basically only taking Advair for about 2 weeks. He had a scheduled MRI the first of January. Right before his MRI, we noticed that he was improving; his walk was getting better, he didnt get frustrated so easily, his grades were improving and he was beginning to use his left arm again. He was able to open bottles, no longer dropping things, was running again and was just back to his old self. We went ahead and did the MRI, just for a piece of mind, and everything came back fine. It is late March now and you would never of knew what he had went through. But it did take almost 2 months before the Advair was completely out of his system and all the side effects had stopped.

I would never recommend anyone taking Advair, if I would have left my son on that who knows what kind of permanent damage it could have caused. I am glad he was old enough to tell me that he was not feeling right and I went with my mother's intuition and took him of Advair then. I know have my bright, happy and physically fit son back. Stay away from Advair..

I started taking Advair 2 years and it has helped me tremendously. However, I did notice some side effects like the dryness of throat and the constant need to clear my throat which I can live with. My main concern is blood sugar levels. I have been told by my doctor over the last year that my blood tests shows I have hit the diabietes numbers on the fasting tests. Is this a side effect of Advair? Is there anyone out there that has experienced this?

I have night sweats that my Dr. has not found the cause of yet, even after numerous blood tests. I'm wondering if anyone else on Advair has experienced night sweats. I don't know if this is a side effect of Advair because I have not found it listed as so.

Like so many other people on this website - i too have traveled through the medical profession from one doctor to another and have had no success getting to the bottom of all of this. I am so sick of it. I started on Advair 250/50 about 8 months ago and my life has basically gone down hill from there. I have been to Neurologists, Gastro doctors, had MRI's, Upper & Lower GI's, ultersounds and many blood tests. I am happy to report that I went off of Advair about 3 weeks ago - but my symptoms have not gone away. I will say that they are getting better. There were many times that I thought I was dieing or would rather have died than lived the way I have been living. I know that I need to get another doctors opinion but I dont want to go through more testing.
I am 33 years old and would really like my life back. I have a husband and two children. We are a very active family and I need like I have lost control of my body. I want to be able to enjoy my family again without all the aches and pains.

I was basically not functioning for 3 - 4 months of my treatment during the worst of it. My legs would give out on me. I ended up in the emergency room because my whole left side went numb. They told me that it was all in my head and to check with my neurologists. What a joke. My whole body felt like I had the flu all the time.

I still have the bloated stomach - painful at times
fatigue
heartburn and reflux
weight gain across the abdomen
pain/aches across my upper chest area, shoulder and back

If anyone has had any success getting rid of there side effects I would love to hear from you. Also if anyone has had success with alternate medicine - please let us know.

I recently posted severe bloating in my stomach which I was very worried it was something else, but suspected Advair. Well I received all of the results back from blood tests and my pelvic ultrasound and they were all fine. I have discontinued using Advair and my stomach has gone down A LOT, it is nice and flat again although (of course) I am having trouble breathing again. My face is clearing up too, it gave me horrible rashes and breakouts and the dark circles under my eyes are gone too.
I did research on some natural alternatives to help asthma and some simple changes in diet and supplements can help as well as breathing exercises and yoga. I am going to try that for now and keep my albuterol handy for emergencies. I have had it with traditional medicine and inconsiderate doctors who are just too busy to really care about the root of the problem, they just give you a quick fix that can hurt you long term. this medicine has actually made my asthma WORSE since I stopped taking it.
A book I recommend is "Reversing Asthma" by Richard N. Firshein, D.O. he is an osteopathic doctor.
take care everyone.