Advair HFA and racing heart

Hi all. I'm posting again after being off Advair for about a week. I've noticed a dramatic change in my emotional health. The anxiety that I've been suffering from for the last three months while on Advair has now entirely vanished. I feel like my old self again, and friends and family have also noted the difference. I won't ever take this medication again-- I'd rather deal with my asthma in a preventive way.

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 have been taking Advair 500/50 for about two years ( I am now 60 years old,) to help control my allergy related asthma (that only presented itself when I had to take steroid eye drops for glaucoma.) While I had the hoarseness, dry mouth and occasional mouth sores, they seemed livable compared to uncontrolled asthma.

One morning about a month ago, when I was taking my normal AM puff, I suddenly felt as though a giant sledge hammer banged down on my head - pounding me into the floor - almost losing consciousness. Then, I experienced pounding, racing heart that felt as though it might jump out of my chest. I turned white and gray - my family and I thought I was having a heart attack.

I was terrified to take another puff - thinking it might be my last. Two days went by, when, I decided to experiment by taking a very light puff, barely taking any into my lungs. (I had been further scared by warning about suddenly going off steroids.) My doctor was out of the country and no one wanted the liability of advising me.

One hesitant puff of Advair caused the exact same pounding - heart jumping and racing reaction. I decided right then that I did not need further evidence to "pound into my head" that Advair was now toxic for me.

The odd thing is that my doctor seems to discount my experience by saying I am the only person this has ever happened to (implying there must be something wrong with me!) When I asked about the dangers and appropriate process for suddenly stopping steroids, she pooh-poohed my concern saying there are no side effects from inhalers with steroids. (Several nurses recently told me that was not necessarily true. Who knows what to believe!)

I have stopped Spiriva and Advair and have scheduled an appointment with a doctor and nurse practitioner who use diet, exercise and nutritional supplements to help treat asthma. A friend has gone to them for several years and is now off all asthma medication, has lost about 50 pounds, has improved health and looks 10 years younger! I can only hope this works for me!

I am also writing Advair manufacturer with my experience;copies to FDA. I can only wonder if there are others as 'rare' as me? If so, let it be known. thanks

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i took it one 2 days and stopped from feeling hiped up racing heart palapations i won't go back on it im going it seemed to make me much worse then i was i keep wheezing more since i got off that

I am a 39 year old female. I have been taking Advair for about 4 years now, since a bad attack landed me in the hospital. My pulmonologist initially put me on the 500 strength and told me to take it twice daily. After a couple of week of that my skin broke out in small bumps all over the place - my face, my chest, my back, even on my scalp. I suspected the Advair, told my doctor, and she advised me to reduce to once daily. I did, and the bumps were gone within days. After a few months she decreased me to the 250 dosage and I remained on that for 3 years with no debilitating side effects. Unfortunately my doctor retired around this time and another doctor took over her practice.

About a year ago I noticed that my joints were weaker, specifically my knees, and I had one bad fall caused by complete loss of strength in my left knee. My new doctor said I might be experiencing cartilege loss but did not mention it may be from the Advair.

Then a few months ago I had got an upper respiratory infection which went into bronchitis. My doctor put me on an antibiotic that I'd never taken before and increased my Advair to 500 again. Almost immediately I began experiencing racing heart, joint pain, extreme skin sensitivity, sore throat and ear pain. I also got a yeast infection, which is something I have never had before. I still did not suspect Advair as the culprit. Although I reported all these symptoms to my doctor, he also did not mention the possibility of Advair playing any part in them. He told me it was acid reflux, although I've never had a single GI problem in my life. He told me the muscle pain was stress, for Heaven's sake. I wasn't very comforted by his diagnosis, but couldn't think of what else I could do.

One morning a few weeks ago I woke up and for some reason decided to Google Advair, and found copious documentation from reputable sites like Mayo Clinic that detailed all the possible side effects of the drug. I was floored to see that I have been experiencing so many of them.

I have now taken myself off Advair. It's been a week thus far and my breathing has not gotten any worse but the heart racing has already gone away. I also feel less ear pain. The joint pain has remained. I suspect that bone and cartilege damage done by this drug will not be reversible.

Tomorrow I have another appointment with my doctor and plan on showing him the information I printed out from the Mayo Clinic site on the effects of Advair. I do not plan to resume taking that drug.

I was on Advair for nearly two weeks and had to stop because of a racing heart and felt as if my heart was pounding against my chest. Also, I had so much mucus in my throat that I felt as if I was drowning. Since I stopped taking Advair, my symptoms stopped as well.

I HAVE BEEN TAKING ADVAIR 100/50 FOR 6 MONTHS NOW.
AND UNTIL READING THIS WEBSITE I THOUGHT SOMETHING WAS WRONG WITH ME. I FEEL NERVOUS AND HAVE BAD ANXIETY,FREQUENT HEADACHES,HEART PALPITATIONS,RACING HEART,EXCITMENT. AND I CAN'T DRINK OR EAT ANYTHING WITH CAFFIENE OR ALOT OF SUGAR BECAUSE THE SIDE EFFECTS GET WORSE. I'M THINKING ABOUT STOPPING MY ADVAIR.

I began taking Advair 250/50 in 1999. I was convinced Advair was a miracle because it worked so well and eliminated the need for a fast acting inhaler within the first few days. However, now 7 years later, I am beginning to have side effects. When they first started, my doctors told me it couldn't be the Advair. According to the doctors, I should have had symptoms initially, not after years of taking it. So, I dealt with the side effects for a year until asking to be taken off of it.

I gained 20 pounds in 5 months (very rare for me to gain weight at all), mostly in the mid section. I feel dizzy all the time, throat hoarseness and voice feels strained when I talk. My eyes are constantly uncomfortable and sensitive to light, and I have frequent headaches. I feel more irritable and shakey when I get hungry than ever before. Often nauseous. I recently developed PVC's and a heart murmur and almost daily have a racing heart and PVC's. The final straw was when I found the correlation between taking my nightly dose and immediately feeling anxious with racing thoughts, tense muscles (especially in legs), and complete inability to sleep for hours until the medicine wears off.

I have now been off the Advair for 3 days, and have switched back to Flovent only. However, I am still experiencing the muscle tension, racing thoughts, and inability to sleep at night directly after taking the Flovent as well. The symptoms wear off a few hours later and only occur directly after taking the night time dose. I am wondering if the Advair has caused some permanent damage.

I'm taking Advair for residual chest tightness after a peunmonia infection and I sometimes wake up with racing heart. Some of the other inhaled medications I took while in the doctor's office made me feel light-headed, made my whole body tingle and made me laugh for no apparant reason. I haven't had that problem with Advair. I'm taking 250/50.

Thank goodness for this site !

I am a 36 male living in Australia and was prescribed Advair(Seretide) 4 weeks ago to treat a asthma induced cough.
About a year ago I was diagnosed with high blood pressure and have scheduled visits to a cardiologist, the next one in a few weeks for an echocardiogram and follow up.

About 2 weeks after starting Advair I started having the following side effects:

Racing heart beart, dizziness & feeling faint,waking up with tingling in my hands at night, inability to sleep at night, anxiety/ nervousness.

Further side effects developed over the last few weeks:
hoarse, need to swallow, extreme anxiety and feelimg panicky.

Initially I put the symptoms down to stress and concern over the impending cardiologist visits.
But the situation worsened to the extent that last week I felt extreme distress at going to work.
I went to my GP who put it down to stress and referred to a pyschologist.
This site has been such a relief - thanks