Advair HFA and medications

A few years ago, my doctor prescribed advair to better control my asthma. After a few days, I had an almost fatal reaction to the medication. I woke up feeling fine, took a shower, and got ready for work. I took a puff from the advair discus and immediately felt my throat closing. I started gasping for air and took my rescue inhaler which didn't work at all. The nebulizer didn't work either. Within minutes I collapsed and became unconscious.Luckily, my son was late for work that day so he called 911 and gave me mouth to mouth resuscitation until the paramedics arrived. My blood pressure dropped to 60/30 and I had to be intubated for the first time. I remained unconscious until I reached the hospital. The doctor said the only reason I survived was because my son saved me. If I had been alone that day I'm sure everyone would have assumed that I died from an asthma attack. I wonder how many other people that happened to. Since then, I have been very careful about taking new medications.

I have been on Advair Diskus and Singular for about 2 months now for Athsma. As time went on I wondered what was wrong with me.

Singular gave me a horrible stomach ache after 2-3 days which I stopped.
Symbicort made me very itchy and gave me hives.

W/Advair my personality changed as I fell deeper and deeper into a pit of despair. It all began w/serious mood swings, fatigue, leg cramps, anxiety and depression. I wondered why I was so out of sort and I noticed my emotions were not what I considered normal for my self. I became anti-social and have been unable to sleep for more than 3-4 hours at a time as well as now I also have itchy skin and hives.

I thought, what am I doing now that I have not been on or doing before and began to Google my symptoms. I ran into this site to find my aggravations w/anexity, depression and lack of focus is now not my imagination and that I am not the only one and now understand the reasons why I have been feeling so down.

I am now on the path to detoxing from this stuff and am going to stop taking this medication and just use Proventil as needed for my Athsma.

Thanks to all of you who posted here and best of luck to everyone in recovery from the terrible side effects of these medications.

My daughter was on Advair, Singulair, and Zyrtec to control her severe asthma and allergies. We were so thankful that these medications kept her from having to be hospitalized 2-3 times a year for uncontrollable asthma attacks. About six months after she began taking these medications she began to have headaches, she had difficulty sleeping, she was irritable, she had stomach pains, leg cramps,and eventually depression and social withdrawal. She went from an outgoing and happy teenager to a bitter and angry person. In 2003 she committed suicide. Six months after her death reports started to surface about the link between singulair and depression and suicide. Perhaps for my daughter it was a combination of the three drugs. Whatever you do be cautious and do your research before taking any allergy or asthma medication. Go to the Singulair website and you will be astounded by what you read. Please try to get the word out about these medications.

I hope this helps someone.

I was never allergic to anything in my life until I went around this cat at the age of 33. I sneezed and got a really scratchy throat. I thought it would go away, but it turned into a cold. I thought the cold would go away, but it turned into bronchitis and then pneumonia. I was jogging everyday at the time and realized something was wrong when I couldn't finish my run.

I was hospitalized for two days and upon discharge I was stocked up with a cocktail of drugs: Singular, Advair, Albuterol inhaler, and Claritin. Needless to say, I took them all, because I was scared of dying. Thank God I'm not a good medicine taker, because I missed many doses and only took them as needed. I think this is why after 3 years I have only started to see the effects of these meds in the last 8 months.

Okay... I have major joint stiffness(all over) especially neck and fingers, heart palpitations, nervousness, short patience, horrible memory, lack of motivation. Oh my God! The weight gain...Please!

Before this, I was completely healthy. After reading this I will reduce myself to my inhaler and Claritin. I notice they are cool. Otherwise, if I keep my stress level down my breathing does really well. It would probably help if I got rid of the cat. Shhhh...Don't tell anyone. LOL.

I have since put my self on a juice fast using a high powered juicer to cleanse my system of all the trash the doctors gave me.

God bless you all and I speak life and breath into each of our lives.

BreatheWrite.

69 year old beautiful grandmother, Yes, I stopped taking ADVAIR... After taking advair for two years, I just put a stop to the weight gain, emotion mood swings, headaches, poor circulation in my legs and arms companied by pain. Now my Doctor has me going through test to re- evaluate my condition... I am keeping it real and listening to my body as I questioning my Doctor..
Lady D

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.

i'm 17. I have extremely bad asthma. and i've had it all my life. i remember being 3 taking nebulizers. i don't know it had gotten better, worse or stayed the same over the years. but i started taking asthma preventers medications because it was really out control. i have horrible allergies all together (which really is all asthma is) but little, tiny things will set asthma attack off instantly, like a short breath from under my bed or even steam from the dishwasher o_O. so i needed to go on preventers. i went from prevention inhalers, pills then finally advair.(and no doubt it works the Best) i was still kinda a kid at the time so it was 100/50, im to young to remember any side effects. but 100/50 wasn't cutting it, so i went to 250/50 , im still on it today. its hard to notice rashes, sinus, mental etc, problems because i have soooo many other allergies. plus im taking medications from them to.
i'd say im pretty healthy though, despite asthma i still play sports and i don't have to use my inhaler THAT much when i take advair it does work good, and i don't really notice all the symptoms/ side effects mentioned in the other comments, its a very good possibility some people are just allergic to advair, i was allergic to some meds i was on, plus, advair is a drug. Every drug Will have some kind of side effects unless its all natural. i question albuterol, i'll find myself reaching for puff when i don't even need it. O_O ! even with the new cfc free inhalers they have out.

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!

WOW! I guess I will consider myself one of the lucky ones after reading all of these side effects posted here. Let me first say that I have tried many inhalers -- serevent, flovent, ventolin etc etc -- and the asthma kept getting worse. Then my doctor suggested Advair. I've been taking it for several years now. I knew that all medications have side effects and I read through the list carefully. The medicine was a Godsend! It helped me so much that I would have recommended it to most anyone. Recently, however, I've started having the occasional heart palpitations and recurring sinus infections. I'm beginning to wonder if it is time to move on to another drug. I'm in my early 30s and have been trying to conceive for a few years to no avail. I recently read that Advair can cause irregular cycles and now wonder if it is playing a part in my fertility struggles. Only other symptoms I have are tooth sensitivity and occasional leg cramps -- however, these existed prior to starting Advair; they might have become more prevalent but I don't believe Advair caused them.
I'd like to hear from anyone who is currently trying Asmanex...that might be my next drug.

my mother was on Advair for COPD and now she is totally messed up mentally....My mother is paranoid. She refuses to go outside and thinks people are bugging our house and are all out to get her....she never used to behave like this. My mother is from the generation that I like to call "old school" Its a generation that goes to the doctor and takes whatever the doctor prescribes without questioning it. I'm "new school" I question everything and only take medicine as a last resort....I believe in natural alternatives....if there is anyone else out there who is suffering or has a loved one suffering from paranoia please contact me at ***

I've had asthma since I was a teenager, and about 9 years ago I went to an allergy and asthma specialist and had the whole gamet of tests run to find out why my allergies and asthma were worsening. I was prescribed Advair, Albuterol, Prednisone, & Servient. At the time, these were the only medications I was taking and never experienced any severe side effects. My asthma was much better and by my one year check up, I had almost completely stopped using the Albuterol for sudden attacks. Due to my graduation from college, I was no longer covered under my parents insurance and due to the cost of the medications, discontinued my treatments. I felt fine, hadn't had any attacks or breathing episodes, so I felt I could do this without any problems.

Fast forward to this summer. My asthma symptoms had returned and my PCP put me back on the Albuterol. It helped the sudden attacks, but I was blowing through an inhaler in a month. Last week I found myself in my local urgent care center, barely able to breathe, gasping for breath. I'm 31 years old with an almost one year old. They gave my 3 breathing treatments and prescribed Prednisone (only 5 days worth), Albuterol, and the Advair. After a week on the Advair, I feel so strange. I haven't had to use my fast acting inhaler since last week, but I feel like my heart is going to jump right out of my chest. I have a constant headache, a weird ache in my right arm, can't sleep even though I am exhausted, and my mind is constantly racing. It's like I can't slow down. After reading all these crazy side effects and comparing them with my own, I'm stopping the Advair. I have an apt. with my asthma specialist in 2 weeks and I will be sure that he doesn't put me back on this med. It's awful...can't imagine taking any drug with a side effect of death.

Hi, I just ran across your website. My 11 yr. old son is very much allergic to every airborne thing one can be allergic to. He has been on Advair 100/50 for about 3-4 years now because he has also been diagnosed with asthma. Recently we took him to the pediatrician for what he thinks might be lower chest wall muscle spams. Plus in the past he complained on/off of leg cramps which I attributed to growing pains but after reading your website am not sure. Recently we have him on Prevacid because the allergist thinks he is suffereing from heartburn. Also, yesterday, we took him to get his eyes checked and he needs glasses now for nearsightedness. All could be occurring on their own accord or could this be due to Advair? He is overweight as well and we always suspected Advair and now to hear others say it sure makes me worry.

My daughter took advair. She was an asthmatic for years. Last April she had bronchitis, and went on prednisone, I don't believe they took her off the advair. She developed a severe septic pnuemonia, went to the hosp. on a Monday with body shutting down, kidneys involved etc. Wed. seemed to pass the crises, Sat, developed a staph, and died on April22. Ask your doctors and pharmicists, about this combination. I will always believe it was a contributing factor to her death.

Just wondering if numbness in extremities, particularly toes/feet, could be caused by Advair? I've had loss of feeling in my feet on and off since starting it almost a year ago. The past couple days most of my toes have been nearly totally numb.

I cannot imagine that you would be able to sue the company.
With WARNINGS posted on the box and all the literature, it's
almost spelled out in black & white. I guess everyone is free to make up their mind..........which is the lesser of the two evils? Do you breathe, or...........do you use the medication?
That seems to be the choice. My Dr. did take me off the Advair, but I ask for it back because I could not get my breath. So I went back on it knowing what the outcome could be.
I believe it's true with MOST of the medications. I know a person with a heart transplant. The anti-rejection medication gave him cancer. He was told that before it was started, but he had to take the medication or his heart would reject.
Now, his kidneys are ruined from it too and it's a kidney transplant to dialysis. There were a lot of risks with all of it, and I believe that can be the case with all the medications.
It's a choice we all have to make personally.

i ahd astmah as a child and it returned at age 22. i wasa on a variety of medications for many years including a nebulizer.
i started the advsir about a year ago. after reading all this i am amzed and less scared,because the feelings of extreme fatuige and lethargy i now know what i can attribute that to,also if i go off the advair very long my symptomsget much worse.i guess i will be a slave to this drug...........

I am a 42 yro who has been using Advair 250/50 for over a year now. The Doc prescribed 2 puffs a day but I prefer to take 1 puff every day (shhhh...don't tell the doc!). Before going to Advair I was taking albuterol inhaler on an as needed basis (allergy/exercise induced asthma). I am not sure if its old age, or me moving from NE to the SE USA (where its hot & humid), or Advair itself but I am noticing that I am getting more and more dependent on Advair to the point where If I don't take my once-a-day-puff, I find myself starting to wheeze. I was never like this with Albuterol. Sometimes I wonder if there is a chemical in Advair that makes you become dependent on it just so the drug company can make more profit on your depenency. The other two minor side effects that I attribute to Advair is the occasional hoarsness in my voice, and a minor tingling sensation in my arm and leg (Restless Leg Syndrome?) at night. Anyone else can make a connection between Advair and RLS?

I don't smoke, drink caffine free drinks, athletic, and work out regularly, and take no other medications or vitamins.

I am having severe all-over pain, electrical like jolts, headache and chills. I've had these symptoms before and they were gone in days when I stopped. Now it's not going away after 7 days. Last night I couldn't fall asleep because I was freezing and my skins hurt all over, just like the flu. Has anyone had symptoms this severe disappear when Advair was stopped?

I don't smoke, am thin, a healthy eater and have no other diseases and take no other medications except vitamins.

I am 31 years old and have been on Advair for atleast 5 years and have experienced a 25 lb weight gain despite all attempts at losing it, bruising, joint aches and pains, fatigue, and "lung pain." I have made the decision to wean myself off of it at this time especially because I plan on becoming pregnant in the near future. I need to search for alternative medications, preferrably not a steroid. Any ideas?? Thanks, Staci

My daughter, who was 7 years old when prescribed Advair, became moody, sullen, disobedient and cranky. I have since taken her off it because it bothered me so much to see her not getting along with kids at school, having attitude problems at home and school and just generally being discontented most of the time. She is gradually returning to her former self (although is currently experiencing an asthma episode but its the first bad one she's had in about a year). I will resisit any further efforts to put her back on it. One doctor, although nice, was almost shaming in his effort to get her on it. Not all medications work for all people.

I am on Advair 500/50. I feel better than ever but have developed a tremor. The tremor is in my family, and appears to be triggered by strong medications. I started on the lowest dosage of the inhaler, increasing it over the past five years, but my tremor didn't become noticable to others until I started using the 500/50 strength. The shaking increases when I am nervous or stressed. It has become embarassing, especially at work, but if shaking is the price I have to pay to feel this great, I'll take it. I would, however, like to get off such a powerful medication, but don't see what other choice I have. Any thoughts?

I've been on Advair for less than one month (22 days exactly), but have experienced several side effects noted here, i.e. acne, fluttering hearbeat. I also noticed a slight wieght gain of 4-5 pounds in 2 short weeks. Needless to say, I have taken my last does as of today. I also think I was misdiagnosed with asthma. I suffer from mild allergies and hindsight tells me I had contracted viral bronchtis, which can mimic asthma symptoms. I have since changed my diet to more natural and minimally processed foods and I feel great (outside of the Advair side effects). I rarely get sick, but this last bout of illness has made me realize that you have to be wary of misdiagnosis and doctors pushing new medications of which knowledge of long-term effects is nil. I've changed my primary doctor as well (I wasn't surprised to find a low rating score by current and past patients, which means I should have shopped around first like any good consumer).

I started using Advair approx. 2 months ago in an attempt to get rid of a severe cough that I've had for over 25 years. I've tolerated it for this long, however, the cough has gotten worse as I've gotten older.

Although I very carefully rinsed my mouth my mouth out, as advised by my doctor, I developed a sore throat and almost fully lost my voice for almost 1 1/2 months now. The ears, nose and throat doctor has diagnosed me with a bad candida (yeast) infection in my throat and put me on diflucan and nystatin. He felt it was the Advair that caused this infection. After taking these medications for a little over a week I am slowly getting better, however, my cough is still there and possibly a bit worse from the infection and my throat is very raspy. I've also noticed moderate pain in my fingers and hands -- whether this is from the Advair, I am not sure, but it is coincidental to the timeframe I've been on it. However, I have also been on an nebulizer using albuterol so it's hard to tell which medications are causing which side effects.

I have been Advair for over four years. I had terrible sleeping and some of the other side effects. I found out through working out and sweating you sweat out the extra troxins that you get from the medications and allergies. I sleep really well and do not have a whole lot of side effects. I can not go two day without Advair. I would be in the hospital. I would love to try the homepathic stuff. Where do I go for that????

MY SON WAS GIVEN ADVAIR BECAUSE THEY FOUND THAT HE HAD PNEUMONIA A LOWER FORM BUT IT WAS STILL PNEUMONIA. HE HAS ONLY BEEN TAKING IT FOR 2 DAYS BUT I WAS A LITTLE LEARY ABOUT GIVING IT TO HIM SINCE HE WAS ALREADY TAKING THE ALBUTEROL FOR HIS ASTHMA. HE SEEMED TO BE A LITTLE BETTER YESTERDAY BEFORE HE STARTED TAKING IT. HE COMPLAINS THAT HE STILL ISNT FEELING GOOD AND HE IS ALWAYS TIRED AND HIS CHEST HURTS. HE IS ONLY 13 YEARS OLD. I REALLY HATE GIVING HIM ALL THESE MEDICATIONS THEY GAVE HIM OMNICEF & SOME ANTI INFLAMATORY & ADVAIR AND COUGH SYRUP WITH CODINE. I DONT THINK THAT I WANT HIM TAKING THE ADVAIR WITH ALL THOSE SIDE EFFECTS. HE TOLD ME THAT IT REALLY DOESNT FEEL LIKE ITS WORKING ANYWAY. WHY TAKE THE CHANCE? MAKES YOU WONDER WHAT KIND OF SIDE EFFECTS YOU WILL HAVE LATER ON FOR TAKING THE MEDICATION.

I am a 55 yr old female that has battled with asthma my whole life. In the more recent years, it seems to be more related to allergies, than the earlier years when I was more affected by temp changes and activity. I have used a form of albuterol in inhalers for years to control it. About 5 years ago my doctor put me on Serevent and Flovent. Last year he changed me to Advair saying it was the combo of the two of them. I have gained a lot of upper body weight in the last 5 years. I have never had a weight problem until now and can't seem to lose it. I have also developed high blood pressure and have to take meds for that and for "water weight", and joint pain and have to take meds for that. I stumbled onto this forum and it has been a real eye opener. I realize that some of this is due to my age and body changes but I now wonder how much has to do with the medications, particularly Advair. I wonder if I can drop the weight - and therefore lower my blood pressure and cholesterol and maybe lessen my joint pain if I stop the Advair? Has anyone experienced anything like this. My asthma was pretty controllable prior to Advair - Thanks for any info you may have.

Hello Everyone,
Like all of you. I am a highschool student and competitive athlete (football and baseball) and was diagnosed with asthma 2 years ago. As months passed and numerous trips to my general practicioner/allergist I was given a lot of prescriptions including advair, clarinex, xopenex with the nebulizer, my asthma and lung function became increasingly worse. It was hard to be so dependent on all these medications, which in combination all can make you feel kind of lousy. When my asthma was at its worst I started seeing a chiropractor, and was being adjusted 2-3 days a week. Its hard for me to explain who chiropractic care can reduce asthma, but it has something to do with the spine controlling all systems in the body and when there is disallignment all of these symptoms cant work properly. For asthma sufferers and those sick of taking all kinds of medication I strongly suggest looking into chriropractic care. Today I am completely asthma symptom free, and no longer take a single thing other then carrying the albuterol inhaler with me for comfort, although I havent really needed it. Any questions I would be happy to answer at ******

I had my first trip to the ER for an asthma attack. I was started on Advair only three days ago. Being extremely healthy, except for the asthma, and not taking any medications except for the Albuterol, I was a little concerned about the side effects of the steroid in Advair, especially since I am having difficulty sleeping after only a couple of days of it. Glad I found this site. I will stop using Advair. Too bad, in a way, since it did stop my asthma symptoms and I actually felt normal for a coule of days, but I don't want to experience irreversible systemic damage. I'll guess just put up with using lots of Albuterol during the winter. Thanks to all of you for the posts,

My son who will be 11 in 4 days has been on Advair 250 for his asthma since he was 6. He is always complaining that he doesn't feel well but since he has so many different symptoms that he is usuallly ignored. Everything from sore stomachs, sore arms, legs, back and headaches all the time. Also he has a few sores over his body and has had a few of them removed to see what they were but everything came back negative. The main thing we notice about him is his anger and how upset he gets over little things. My son is also on ventolin several times a week and singulair everyday.

Been on it for 3 years - tried to come off by myself but became really ill with continual wheezing fits of breathlessness and no voice for almost 6 weeks - had to go back on. Now having vision problems - floaters, blurriness and silvery specks of light dancing about sometimes and flashes on the peripheral vision. Weigh gain, sore muscles, unable to sleep, constant mouth thrush - never have been able to get rid of it, even with medications, and croaky voice.

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.

Read many of the postings and I am experiencing almost the same thing...weight gain of about 15 lbs, the little bumps like acne on my face(not sure what that is) and occasional muscle/joint pain. The Advair really helps me breath much better than I used to but the side effects are awful. If anyone knows of an alternative medication that works with a lesser degree of side effects, please let me know.

Thank you