Asthma Inhalers – Are they safe?

Asthma inhalers are essential part of asthma management. They offer the advantage of delivering the medicine directly into your respiratory system (lungs). More importantly, it also means that the medication reaches the place it is required, far more quickly and easily, thereby resulting in faster relief of asthma symptoms

Asthma inhalers can be divided into four major categories of inhaled medication

• INHALER FOR IMMEDIATE RELIEF - These consist of short acting bronchodilators like Albuterol (Proventil, Ventolin) and pirbuterol (Maxair).
• LONG ACTING BETA-2 AGONISTS (LABA) - These also act by relieving the bronchospasm caused by the smooth muscles around the bronchioles, but they take much longer to provide relief and their effect is more persistent. They include salmeterol (Serevent) and formoterol (Foradil).
• INHALED STEROIDS - Steroids prevent inflammation within the airways, and so reduce the swelling and blockage of the airways. Steroids used as inhalation include fluticasone (Flovent), beclomethasone dipropionate (Qvar), budesonide (Pulmicort) and flunisolide (Aerobid).
• AST CELL STABILIZERS - They include Cromolyn and nedocromil. These are medications which act in a long term by reducing the hypersensitivity of the bronchial mucosa, and prevent the development of asthma attacks in the long run.

Common side effects: If you use preventer inhaled medicine there is a small risk of having a sore tongue, sore throat, hoarseness of the voice and a mouth infection called thrush. To help prevent these side effects, rinse your mouth out and brush your teeth after using your preventer inhaler. Using a spacer will also help reduce the possibility of thrush.

For a small number of people, a short-term course of inhaled steroid, can lower the body's resistance to chickenpox, so you should contact your doctor if you or your child are inhaling steroid and you/they come into contact with chickenpox.

How to avoid Asthma inhaler side effects?

• Most importantly, don't smoke. If you smoke, bone thinning side effects are worse. Your general asthma control will also be helped if no one in your household smokes. If your partner gives up smoking, it may mean you can cut down on your dose of inhaled steroids.
• Inhale steroid first thing in the morning may have some benefit in decreasing side effects.
• People who need to inhale steroid regularly can use daily calcium supplements, although there is no clear scientific evidence to prove that these are useful.
• Weight-bearing exercise, such as walking for 20 minutes each day will help protect against the bone thinning effect of long-term inhaling of steroids.

Source: www.consumerreports.org