Advair HFA and muscle cramps

I am a part-time professional singer and attorney. I developed an odd cough-variant asthma this winter at age 42 -- it had scary breath shortness and wheezing plus lots of phlegm coughed up. I had never before had the shortness/wheezing/asthma, though I have always had allergies and occasional bronchitis following a cold. The asthma/allergy specialists put me on Advair 500 twice a day with each attack, plus an oral prednisone burst/short taper, nebulized (not just rescue inhaler) albuterol (beta 2 agonist), and antibiotics (a different one each time). I also take Claritin, Rhinocort and Astelin for my allergies. I had four attacks of asthma this winter that were treated this way; after the fourth, they put me on Advair 250 maintenance for a month. With each attack, I would get hoarse, have trouble sleeping, and get odd muscle cramps I never had had. The hoarseness was worse each time, but I was able to sing through it at my regular gigs. I attributed the side effects to the prednisone. With my fifth attack, they told me to ramp up the Advair to 500 and do all else the same, but as an experiment to see how this would alter those side effects, I decided to treat it with everything but the prednisone. The hoarseness, sleep trouble, and muscle cramps were all much worse. I found this site, noted the recommendation of several other singers to try Asmanex instead of Advair, and asked the docs about it. They agreed that all these symptoms could be related to the Advair and gave me Asmanex 250 twice/day instead instead of the Advair, plus all the other meds for the attack. The symptoms went away within a week, although it took a little longer for me to get over the asthma attack this time. I am extremely grateful to this site and all the users posting comments. I can sing again, sleep again, and exist without weird muscle cramps during treatment of my asthma. Thank you very much.

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 have been on Advair for a little over two years. At first I thought it was very helpful, I had a very rough summer last year and it was the only thing helping me. But lately I've noticed an increase in frequency of my migraines, muscle cramps, constant edema in my legs and always being tired. My sleep is broken due to leg cramps, back spasms, or very strange dreams. I had also gained a lot of weight, but thought it was just natural slowing of my metabolism due to age (I am 46). I am cutting back to one dose a day and plan to stop altogether soon. I also stopped my Zocor because that seemed to make my leg swelling worse and the lasix the doctor prescribed just made me pee a lot and my legs were just as swelled up as before.

I have been on Advair for the past three years after a severe asthma attack on Oct 2005....what a mistake..I got all the side effects possible...really! Rash, arrhythmia, tachycardia, eye problems, runny nose, shakines, depression, anxiety, sleeping problems, nausea, muscle cramps or muscle spasms, hoarseness or voice changes, sinus infections, abdominal pain, dizziness, etc, etc and it is gatting worse! I am on 100/50 once...every two days! I could not stand all of this anymore- Does anyone know about some other less dangerous medication (Albuterol gives me the worse arrhythmia) Is it sensible to note that Advair and another dangerous medication; Paxil are from the same maker: glaxosmithkline pharmaceuticals? No wonder! Any input/help will be most welcome-A very worry French guy in San Francisco-

itching, muscle cramps in feet and now as of yesterday oral thrush, works great on the asthma though. The oral thrush is very scary. Sore throat in morning, hoarsenss. and chest pain. I will be calling my doctor to switch ASAP

I have been taking Advair, Singular and a nose spray for 2 weeks with great results. However: when I was in fr a chek up I mentioned muscle cramps, I thought was unrelated but he immediately changes my prescription from ADvair and said it also ocassionally caused tiredness and sluggishness inthe morning. MY son prescribes Advair all day long and had never heard of the until I called him. He will bw watchful for this from now on.
I feel a hundred times better this morning!

Advair affected my heartbeat, made me feel every heartbeat as if something was wrong. I also had muscle cramps, even after hydrating before bike riding or weight lifting. the unusual heartbeat went away two weeks after stopping use of advair.
I also went through a peeriod of lower back pain, maybe from sore kidneys, although I tapered off of the advair slowly.
I feel better after getting off of this drug, I thought ageing was catching up with me I am 62 but after stopping use of the drug i feel 40% better than while on the drug.

I have horrific side effects from Advair but HAVE to take it or I am on my rescue inhaler 24/7. The worst being the side cramps/muscle cramps in my stomach side back etc. Then of course there is the fact that nothing tastes good. But again the cramps are the worst. Reminds me of my first asthma medication, brethine that also gave me muscle cramps. Complete nightmare.

Hi! I am so happy that I found this website. I was on Advair 500 for over a year and had almost every side effect listed here. After reading the postings, I went to the doctor and demanded that he put me on another asthma medicine. He put me on Asmanex and I've been feeling absolutely wonderful for the past 3 months. Coming off the Advair was scary for me. I had tingling lips, fingers, and skin on my back for almost a week. I also had to use my albuterol every 4 hours during the same week. But other than that my list of symptoms quickly disappeared. Since then, I've only had to use my albuterol a handful of times, mainly on a humid day or when working in my basement or brushing my dogs. I had experienced so many side effects while on Advair that I started to feel depressed. When I asked my doctor's about the side effects, they told me that they weren't from my medications. Advair had caused me to have a constant cough, numerous episodes of bronchitis, hoarseness almost one week every month, severe asthma attacks, constant thrush and other throat infections. I also had my blood pressure up 20-30 points on average, which caused me to constantly feel anxious. I was extremely moody and snapped at my kids and husband very easily. I had trouble sleeping and night sweats. Since I couldn't sleep I was constantly tired. One of the worse effects was joint pain and muscle cramps. My hands and feet would cramp up like I had severe arthritis. Sometimes I cramped so bad that couldn't hold a fork or toothbrush. My legs would cramp so badly it would make me cry. My back ached and I got severe stomach cramps. I had horrible menstrual cycles which lasted for over a week. My elbows hurt so bad that I couldn't carry a bag through the mall. I also lost all interest in sexual relations. I also had jitters. My hands would tremble even when I wasn't holding anything. I also lost my appetite. Food didn't taste or smell the same so it didn't appeal to me. I had to force myself to eat. To say the least, I felt like I was falling apart. Within a few days of going off of the Advair I felt like a new person. I was pleasant to be around and had hope for the future. I am feeling great. My husband and kids are so happy to have the real me back. I strongly encourage everyone to try Asmanex and go off Advair. It's really made a difference in my life.

I have been on advair for about 5 years now. I have severe muscle cramps. I also started with pain in my feet that nows seems to have moved to my knees. Although my other joints hurt too. My asthma is great though.

I took Advair for almost 5 years and just recently decided the side effects just weren't worth it. With each year on Advair I developed more side effects. I knew I had to try some other medication and as the FDA put more and more warnings on Advair, I decided it was time to make my move.
Within the first 3 months of taking Advair I began having terrible muscle cramps in my calves which bothered me at rest, so it started taking longer and longer for me to fall asleep due to this pain. Serevent can deplete your body's level of potassium which these cramps are the result. What my doctor told me. I lived with these cramps b/c I thought the benefits of Advair outweighed this side effect. I was wrong. As the yrs went by these cramps got worse and worse and then the other side effects started showing up.
Advair had always made me hyper and increased my anxiety but the problem just started getting worse and worse. By last fall, I had horrible overbreathing like panting from any exertion even climbing a flight of stairs. My asthma was never that bad before.
I also developed a fast and irregular heartbeat, seemed to skip a beat and had hand tremors.
I recently started taking Asmanex and haven't ever felt better. My muscle cramps went away after 3 days off Advair and slowly the other symptoms went away as well.

Been on advair for 1 1/2 years always had muscle cramps especially in feet and legs - leaped out of bed at night because they were sooooo bad. On each leg they were so bad the cramp indented my calf muscle and tore blood vessels and my legs were purple for about two weeks. I did not know it was Advair until.... February 28th sitting at my desk at work my heart went out of whack 160 beats a minutes...ambulance called...hospital ER doctor told me I had SVT (supraventricular tacycardia) told me to get off the Advair...scary situation...I reported it to the FDA (it is the serevent aspect of the medication that does this). Am now on Qvar.

My sister has also been taken off of Advair. I would recommend to anyone taking Advair to stop.

I cannot take the leg and muscle cramps anymore. I am stopping Advair today - Jan.9, 2006. I have been on it for about 5 years. I need to actually sleep through the night without my feet/legs waking me up and making me leap from bed. The pain after an 8 mile mnt hike trip on this past Saturday, even after a long soak in a friend's hot tub, lead me to this site. I could certainly do without all of the phlegm, too.
If ANYONE finds a different drug we can use, please post it. I am going to try just singular for now.

I have been taking Advair 500/50 for 4 years. My Asthma is much better. I do have unpleasant side effects such as sinus congestion, muscle cramps, and red/purple bruises. However, if I wasn't breathing, none of these side-effects would matter.
My immune system is overactive that that is probably why I have asthma and so many strange side-effects.So until something better comes on the market, I will continue to take Advair and work with my doctors to control the side effects.

Now I just want to cry...I don't know if it is joy for not being alone with all of these side effects or just thankful that I don't feel crazy anymore. The last few years have been the worst for hip pain ,muscle cramps,memory problems snd cloudiness and loss of sleep. I have so much that I have put off because of how I feel. I really believed that I found a cure for this asthma but now I know that I was just being fooled .After reading all of these posts I really want to cry.I cannot go on feeling like this.

I have been taking advair 500 for over a year, breathing better than ever. In the last month, I have developed severe muscle cramps in my legs that are incapcitating as well as gained weight. I did not have problems with advair until now. The leg cramps are so severe I had to be rescued from a swimming pool. Also, the muscle cramps have on two recent occasions resulted in a painful injury to my legs.

I take advair 500 twice a day. I read in the insert from the pharmacy that if you have been taking corticosteroids for a long time you need to be careful about stopping them cold turkey--it is dangerous.

I am glad I ran across this site and confirmed my suspicion about the leg cramps. I will call my allergist Monday and see what she recommends.

Recently, I contracted some sort of virus or infection and had been coughing for 6 weeks straight. Coupled with asthma and allergies, I was just miserable and *so* tired of coughing. My doc prescribed a Z-pak and Advair. I had taken Advair before and stopped, but I couldn't remember why, I thought it was because I was adverse to taking a steriod, in any form. The Z-pak stopped the cough, and the Advair helped me breathe MUCH better. However, now I remember why I stopped taking it before. I started getting a sore throat, very dry mouth, and it felt like I had a lump in my throat, and phlegm that I could not clear from my throat. I've stopped already, I had been on it only a week and started feeling the dry, sore throat after only three days. It's getting a little better now, but I'm just glad I stopped when I did. The irony is that it does work for me, and in the week I was on it I didn't have to use my albuterol once. I would just rather suffer with a known ailment rather than be surprised by new side effects.

I saw a couple posts here that had statements along the lines of these side effects being in our heads, and while in some cases that is true, keep in mind that every person has a different reaction to medicines. Every human is unique in their body chemistry. I didn't experience any of the muscle cramps or nausea or other effects, but I have taken medicines that have done that. When I started Advair 100/50, I took the proper twice a day dosage, and it was in good faith (i.e. I didn't know about or expect any side effects). Using inhalers and nasal sprays and the like is very common for asthma sufferers, so I wasn't "looking" for something to be wrong, so to say. And yes, it did work for me very well. In the day and a half that I've been off it, I've already gone back to needing my Albuterol. So, before a person can try to say that the side effects are made up out of paranoia, please do remember that we are all different, and we all react to foreign particles in our bodies differently.

Jessica

I am glad I found this website also. I didn't know I could contribute the muscle cramps in all parts of my body (especially calves & mid-back), sore & tight throat - it is difficult to carry on a conversation for more than 2-3 minutes - and even the headaches to Advair. Someone asked, but I didn't seen an answer - how long after you stop using Advair do you go back to being "normal"?

my name is danielle. i am 29 and have had asthma all of my life, properly diagnosed by age two. i have been on many medications, and advair seems to be the only one that works for me. i use 100/50 once a day, because it does keep me up at night, and i already have troble getting to sleep. however, i do have side effects that until now i have disregarded, but upon reading this website, i feel that i am no longer alone, and that some of these side effects are not a part of life, but a part of the advair.
metal side effects:
irritabilty
aggresion
mood swings
depression
hard to concentrate
short fuse
stress
and the above mentioned insomnia

over the years i have been on many different steroids for my asthma, and the docs always said that that amount wouldn't
have side effects, and sent me to shrinks to be medicated. currently i have no insurance and am not taking anything besides advair and albuterol as needed.

physical side effects:
sore/scratchy throat
always have to clear throat before talking
hoarseness
sores on tounge
dry throat, mouth and nose
deeper voice
dental problems
a lot of these may be my fault because i never rinse my mouth after wards.

more side effects:
abdominal weight gain-no matter what i do
gas a lot!
constipation
blurry vision-i now need glasses
floaters
acne on face only ( i'm 29) and not only at that time of the month
dizzy spells on ocaasion (just last night in fact)
muscle cramps in upper back, shoulders and neck
chest pain/lung cramps-sometimes i think i am gonna have a heart attack, but then the pain goes away
i do notice an increased heart rate after taking advair. i had to give up caffeine so as not to make it worse.

i don't know if these side effects are due to the steriod or the serevent, which i read here is now being investigated. i am not sure what to do at this point. without medcation, i am sure to end up in the hospital emergency room. i have been on advair for going on three years. i am ready for a change. i tried not taking it today and my chest became tight. i had to give in. i know i should not wean myself off it anyway. i will make an appt. with a doc once i gather some research. what have other people done?? i am willing to try anything at this point. my email is ****** thanks for listening. i feel better already.

i AM A HEART BY-PASS PATIENT A DIABETIC AND BLADDER CANCER PATIENT RECENLY ABOT 2 MONTHS NOW I SRARTED ON ADVAIR 500/50 NOW MY SLEEPIUNG IS WORSE, ARTHRITIC TYPE PAIN IS WORSE TYHIS IS NEW AND I HAVE GENERAL CRAMPS ALL OVER BODY WHEN I SNEEZ OR WHATEVER AND SEVERE MUSCLE CRAMPS IN LOWER LEGS SO THAT SORENESS MAKE WALKING VERY DIFICULT. i AM ALSO GAINING WEIGHT ABOUT 20 POUNDS NOW. i THINK THAT THIS IS ALL MOSTLY BECAUSE OF THE ADVAIR. NLT

I have been on 250/.50 for three yrs.now. I have the severe muscle cramps and arthritis in both wrist and an all over aching! I HAVE DEVELOPED CHEST PAINS ALMOST DAILY. I tried to go off the advair on my own, what a big mistake!! I had muscle cramps in both legs , tummy, and arms so severely I ended up in th ER. JUST THIS YEAR; My gallbllader ruptured and had to be removed and a week long stay in the hospital. I honestly believe Advair has caused all my medical problems. I am not sure what to do or take in place of advair. my asthma is under control, but;I am still on advair. I want to goff it again, but;my doctor says absolutely not.. I hate the stuff!!

used for 4 weeks
- thrush
- joint pain that i never knew was attributed to this until reading this board
- back spasms from playing basketball after playing for years with no problem
- weight gain ~7lbs
- muscle cramps in calves, hamstrings that were not exercise related
- jaw tightening up
- stomach aches

ADVAIR SIDE EFFECTS ARE EQUAL TO EITHER CANDIDA OR A TYPE OF YEAST OVERGROWTH!!

I took advair for about 3 months. Gained weight, had muscle cramps, couldn't sleep, nerve problems, etc. Went to Dr. and told her, she told me to take Acidophilus and gave me a dairy and yeast-free diet to follow. That's when I figured it was yeast related. Jack Tips has a book called "Conquer Candida and restore your immune system." It is incredable how, after taking advair and reading the problems on the website, there is so very much in this book that makes me believe that ADVAIR=CANDIDA (or some type of yeast overgrowth).

Before taking advair, I just had breathing problems. After taking this drug, I have an abundance of problems. I'M VERY SORRY THAT I EVER TOOK OR EVEN HEARD OF ADVAIR.

I'd go back to having my breathing problems over this, anyday.

I hope this will help someone. If anyone is thinking about starting, I would tell them "NEVER TAKE ADVAIR"!!!!!!!