Advair HFA and heart rate

Holy crikey. The docs put me on Advair Diskus for my shortness of breath , and although I've had minor anxiety my entire life, this sent it through the roof. When my girlfriend and I thought she might be pregnant, I flipped out and my mind raced for the week or so before we found out it was a false alarm. I've had that scare before, and wondered why I flipped out so much more this time around. Toward the beginning of April, I noticed my heart racing much more than ever, so I stopped taking it abruptly (nobody told me not to do that, and the doctors later on said it was fine to do so!). Later on that week, I had some trouble at work (big but not anything I haven't conquered before), and was in the doctor's office on the EKG because my heart rate was twice what it should've been! They put me on Xanax, which helped (but threw me up and down emotionally and physically), but for the past 4 months I've experienced all sorts of paranoia, psychoses, and phobia. Luckily it's almost gone, so for those of you experiencing it, don't worry, it gets better!

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.

i heard something on the television about a lawsuit involving advair and came across this site looking for information. i have been on advair for aprox 8 years. when i read some of these comments i began to cry. it so said exately what i have been feeling right down to being diagnosed with rhumetoid arthritis and fibro. i spent 6 hours in the er last week with a heart rate of 112. i went to my doctor as recommended after my visit and he blew me off because he was mad i went to the er and told me to go see a surgeon to cut into my collar bone, go down to my lungs and biopsy them. i see a different doctor next Thursday for a second opinion. i am so tired of being sick and to think, it could all be from this one thing. i am going to talk to the doctor about this on Thursday.

Perhaps you should read a little further on the Advair paperwork. I started having all sorts of problems while taking Advair for 4 months, first thing I told Drs. that I was taking Advair, all just ignored that and tried coming up with a reason for problems. I finally did my own research and if you look at the fine print at the end of Advair paperwork you will find your info about heart problems and withdrawal symptoms that you possibly be on another medication while withdrawing from Advair and the Symptoms of withdrawal.
It has been over a year now since I stopped taking Advair and am having lingering heart problems do to Advair, slowly getting over them, but went to the ER two weeks ago due to rapid and irregular heartbeat. Advair has thrown my electrical system out of whack, not to mention the mental stuff.
Ask a Heart Dr. about Advair, I had two pages of problems when I saw the Heart Dr., no surprise, he said all are related to Advair. There are a few of us that are sensitive to this drug and most doctors. have never seen these symptoms and think you are nuts. So be skeptical but don't dismiss these people. Oh by the way after doing a breathing test with the top guy at Pomona Valley Med Center, guess what, I don't have Asthma, so why did My Dr. put me on it in the first place without first getting tested? I am now so sensitive to anything with caffeine or other things that can increase your heart rate that any of them can trigger Palpitations and such. Yes it can help people, but it can also ruin a life, so beware. Oh, My breathing was great while i was on it, but not worth a heart attack or stroke
If I keep having problems I will soon be on Beta Blockers, so you take all the Advair you want, but you've been warned.

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!

I am glad to see I am not crazy!! I started on advair a week and a 1/2 ago. My blood pressure went up and after 6 days of taking advair my bp was 140/99. Heart rate increased from 60's-low 70's up to mid 80's. I have always had really good bp before this and a good heart rate. I also had weird sensation in my arms and legs and a tightness in my chest that would come and go. I had a headache pretty much the whole time I was taking advair. I had horrible cramps in my feet and legs. I also had something strange happen to my face. I got a strange pain in my cheek that went up to my eye feeling like there was severe pressure behind it and then after making my eye water it went back down to my cheek for a minute and then disappeared. I was starting to get really creeped out by all these things happening so I bought a bp machine and monitored my bp. 48 hours after stopping advair my bp was excellent (106/66), heart rate back to the 60's, no more weird sensations, headache is gone, no cramps in my legs/feet, and my crappy mood has improved. All these strange symptoms are gone! I will never take that crap again!! It may work for some but it didn't work for me.

On Advair for 3 weeks for bronchitis/wheezing. Right away started having itching for an hour or so 2-3x a day. It has continued and expanded to many areas and is a temporary rash in some areas.
Benadryl stops it. Don't know if related, but heart rate accelerates from 80 to 160 in a few minutes of climbing stairs to do laundry for example and I've had chest pains.

I have been taking Advair for several years with no apparent side effects at all. For me it seems to work great. I take one inhalation of Advair in the morning and one at night along with two inhalations of Intal. I work out vigorously five times a week and have plenty of energy throughout the day at work. My heart rate and blood pressure are normal and I am rarely sick.

I have been on Advair since nov02. The advair was a great benefit to me and improved my breathing ability alot. Shortly after nov02, I developed urinary problems: slow urination, dribbles, constantly getting up at night to urinate,etc. I went to a urologist who checked me for an enlarged prostate but mine was normal, PSA was normal and DRE exam showed that prostate size was normal. I was also given antibiotis for 10 days as treatment in case it was an infection but that didn't help. Since that time, I've been taking Hytrin to control the urinary problems and it seems to work except at night when I must get up 3-5 times each night to urinate. As an experiment, I did not take the evening dose of Advair on three separate occassions and I was able to sleep 6-7 hours straight (without having to urinate)! Now I'm wondering if all my urinary problems are related to Advair???? I have asked my doctor about this and did not really get any response other than "I never heard of Advair causing urinary problems".
I also have most other symptoms others have described here like sore throat, horseness, fast heart rate,etc.

I would like to know if others have also experienced urinary problems since they started using Advair and what they are doing about it.

I have been on Advair for 3 years and it was a God send. Finally a drug that practically cured my adult asthma. Recently though, I have been very dizzy, nauseated and my heart rate is WAY up (over 100 bpm)--usually after I eat. I have not been able to sleep due to my heart racing all night long. Since you can't get off Advair cold turkey--I'm going to the doc tomorrow. I'm so sad :(

I am off of Advair. Doc put me on Flovent instead. Flovent is same as Advair only without the Salmetrol, which is the stimulent. My heart rate is down already after just one day and I feel much more relaxed. I have also started taking Quertecin and Bromelain (supplements) and I hope that they will help me maybe get off inhaled steriods altogether.

I am on Advair 250/50 and I want to QUIT NOW. At first it worked great, still does on my asthma, but for the past month, I have gotten so jittery, nervious, snappy and my heart rate at resting is racing at 115-120 bpm! I hate feeling like im about to drop dead. Ive called my doctor and am begging him to switch me to flovent instead. Flovent doesnt have the salmetrol and Im sure its the salmetrol that is causing my crazy jitters. I have cut my dosage to one a day and I hope that my Monday I will be off it altogether.

I started taking Advair two weeks ago and over the last two week the following symptoms started out subtle until the last few days where I knew there was a problem. I had a very rapid and irregular heart beat, my hands would tremble uncontrollably and I started to have joint pain in my right hip and knee. I did dome research on line and also called my doctor and they said there can be side effects and to stop taking the medication. It has almost 24 hours since took my last dose and I am really starting to feel better. I less trembling and my heart rate and rhythm are slowing becoming less noticeable. Thank God I equated the medication to the onset of these symptoms. It was quite frightening to say the least!

I am sooooooooo glad I found this site. I have been on Advair 100/50 for about 5 days now. I did not have asthma but for years I had shortness of breath on my left side. After seeing a pulmonologist she told me to try the Advair and it worked great! I could breathe again!!! Then came the side effects. The first couple days I felt fine. Then, all of a sudden, my left shoulder was sore, and the pain went all the way down to my left index finger. After eating a lot one afternoon my heart rate started to increase and I thought I was having a heart attack or something. Anyway, I'm off this stuff as of tomorrow. I'm going to look for a homeopathic healer!

The user who said he had heart palpitaions and while trying to fall asleep, or after falling asleep, he had a sound and feeling that sounded and felt like a "PING" in his brain (it felt as though a nerve or vessel had exploded at its end). has described what i have been trying to tell doctors for the past three years. I was using Flovent and Servent at the time. At work I had what must have been an anxiety attack (which I've never had before) and after setting in my chair for nearly an hour (took some asprin and trying not to move because this just increased the heart rate) my palpitations soon were down. After ER visit (nothing found), that night and for several night, I had the same PING and palpitations. Got off Flovent and Servent. Recently had to try Advair--same thing. Can't take the stuff. You're the only other person who has described it so accurately. I haven't been able to find anyone else who has had that PING. Finally I can tell my doctors that I'm not crazy---IT HAPPENS. Thanks

2 weeks on Advair and had SVT with heart rate of 220 bpm. Also mood swings.

I suggest to anyone who is taking Advair, please stop taking this poison! Let me tell you about my life for the past week. First of all, I am 33 years old and in pretty good health except for asthma which I have had since I was 18. I have been on Advair for a little over a year. I was on Serevent before that. I also take Singulair which I love. Let me start with the past week of my so called life. After 3 weeks of feeling extremely exhausted and not being able to stand up without being dizzy, I woke up one morning and thought my heart was going to pound through my chest. I spent an entire day sitting in one spot trying to keep calm while my heart raced and skipped and pounded. Trying to sleep that night was a joke because there was no change . The next day I went to my Chiropractor/Kinnesiologist. His first suspician was my Advair inhaler. I really had him puzzled because my blood pressure was high for the first time ever and he could hear my heart skipping a beat. I did not think he was right about my inhaler because there was NO WAY it could be making me feel this awful.Yet over the entire week that he treated me he was still possitive that I was having a severe "chemical" reaction. On the sixth day of heart palpitaions, skipping beats, and no sleep ( I would try to sleep but every time I would start to doze off, an electrical charge would go through my body) I decided to go to my MD for peace of mind. My heart rate was alarmingly high but my EKG showed a very strong healthy heart! They put me on a holster heart moniter for twenty four hours. I am still waiting to hear the results. My doctor also lowered my dosage from 250/50 to 100/50 which I took only one day until I found this website. My inhaler went in the trash yesterday. I got my first nights sleep last night and today my heart is MUCH calmer. It is still a little shaky and I can't wait for this chemical to leave my system. Over the past year I have gone from a healthy, active 33 year old to a 33 year old in a 90 year old body. I have thought that I was developing Rhuematoid arthritis due to extreme pain in my shoulder, hands and neck. Then I was even convinced that I had Fibromyalgia. I have been so tired. I have had a rash develop that I could not explain on my arms and legs. I have forgotten what it is like to sleep a normal night. I believe that this is all the workings of Advair. I am in the process of finding out if I have any legal rights. This drug has taken a year of my life away since I feel like I have been in a fog. I forgot to mention short term memory problems. I did not agree to be a lab rat. Once again, if I had not found this website I don't know how long it would have taken me to figure it out or atleast believe my Chiroprator (Thank God for him!). Throw your advair in the trash where it belongs!!

I am a 28 y.o. that began on 250/50 in february. Hadn't had asthma problems since I was 17-then had an an upper respiratory infection in january-went to the doctor because chest tightness wouldn't go away& was immediately placed on
Advair. Went to an allergist who sent me to a cardiologist because my heart rate in the office was 176! I always had a fast heart rate, but worried I had some congenital defect. After multiple tests, an electrophysiologist told me I should limit my albuterol use but said nothing about the advair. I went back to the allergist last month and my breathing was worse so they increased me to 350/50 twice a day. I had horrible palpitations and was very jittery the first few days, but I figured it might get better-and it did. But I have nausea now about every other day, only gained about 5 pounds, but the bloating has made me go up a dress size on bottom. Then for the last two weeks I have been geeting horrible cramps in my calves and feet & I started to wonder if it could be my advair because I have never experienced anything like this before. Also, I have been very moody, depressed and irrational, which I blamed on my "health problems" (my asthma is still not really under control) but now I wonder if this is a side effect as well. I'm so glad I discovered this site, because I was going to "tough it out"---not any more! I am talking to my doctor right away !!

I have been taking Advair 500 twice a day for 19 days! I have gained 7 lbs (that I know about), heart rate of 115 beats a minute, hair loss, vision problems, getting up several times a night to go to the bathroom, abdominal bloating, sores in my mouth! I'm not using this anymore after reading the side effects noted on this web site!!! I was given Advair when I had severe bronchitis, pneumonia, and NOW a sinutis infection. I'm not sure the medications have not caused some of the problems.