Advair Diskus and thrush

Hello everyone. My name is Michael, and my experiences with Advair were so horrific, I thought I would post here as a both a cautionary to those who would use this product, and to validate those who thought "they were crazy" while using it.

I was diagnosed with "World Trade cough" as a result of my four month exposure from that disaster. It finally culminated in frequent walking pneumonias and a sinus-drip initiated cough, which is really part of a complicated process from GERD, also World Trade related. Finally, the pulmonologist diagnosed the obvious "RADS", Reactive Airway Disease.

I was prescribed Aidvair Diskus inhaler 500/250 twice a day, along with Nasonex and Nexium. The first two months seemed uneventful. As my cough cleared, I saw no reason to take the medication anymore and slowly titrated its discontinuation.

Then everything went awfully wrong and my nightmare started. First, panic and anxiety attacks, which I hadn't suffered since World Trade overtook me at different times of the day. Only the Toprol for my high blood pressure kept me under control and out of the E/R with uncontrollable tachycardia. Next, the Depression which also was overwhelming, and the compounded fears from physical symptoms. Then the "TRUSH" came in my mouth and a concomitant fungal infection in my groin. Swollen glands in my neck. Fever, fatigue, listlessness joined the symptoms.

Though a committed heterosexual, a bachelor party a month ago raised spectre's too awful to contemplate and I insisted on the most ultra-sensitive diagnostic blood tests to rule out dreaded disease ( I did responsibly use a condom ). The 24 hours from yesterday to today were like sitting on death row, awaiting an answer. ALL NEGATIVE, including Diabetes.

Then I saw this site and had to enroll to tell this story. All of it was here from the THRUSH, which scared me the most, to the Depression and anxiety attacks, which made my fears really get out of control. The Advair had nearly destroyed my immune system.

I am taking "CLORIMAZOLE" for the fungus, which is no bargain...liver toxicity and nausea. Still, far preferable to the feared diseases.

I learned that so-called "modern medicine" is little advanced from the witch doctor. If you read the Pharmacology inserts, half the time they don't even know why something works, and they can't isolate the good effect from the bad. Then, they assault your body with another extreme ( anti-fungal ) to combat what they caused from the first medicine.

My new girlfriend is Chinese. Next time I am sick, I am trying alternative medicine. In the meantime, for anyone prescribed or handed a sample by their doctor, AVOID THIS MEDICATION IF YOU CAN!

After never having asthma in my life I was put on Advair 100/50 at 34 ...
I have been on it for a little over a year but I have been reading these side effects and wanted to try and ween myself off this stuff. I cut back to 1 per day then 1 every other day and now I am down to 1 per week. Hopefully I am going to be off it soon. The side effects are real with the weight problems people are having with this stuff .... My question is does anyone else have the feeling in their throat like there is an obstruction or a lump? or like something is stuck in the back of their throat?? Does this go away ?

I rinsed my mouth and brushed my teeth after every use .... so I am not sure if this will go away with lower use or not

My dosage has been 250/50 and I have been using the medication for about 3 years. I have experienced increased mucus, hoarseness, and thrush. I now have the thrush under control by thoroughly rinsing my mouth after using the inhaler. The hoarseness was not caused directly by the Advair, rather it was caused by frequently clearing my throat due to the mucus. My wife is a speech language pathologist and noticed my frequent throat clearing and explained that throat clearing irritates the vocal chords and causes hoarseness. By avoiding harsh throat clearing the hoarseness has gone away. I still have issues with thick mucus but it is minor nuisance compared with the improvements to my breathing.

My doc assured me that it wasn't possible that my hoarseness was due to a residual build-up of the med on my vocal chords. I raised the question, "If there could not be any build up, why the need to rinse ones mouth after each use." I was told I needed to do that to prevent thrush. That's all well and good but still leaves my query a bit open. It stands to reason that if one could get thrush from the medication being in ones mouth, one could also have other problems from it being in ones system.

I've been doing research on asthma and other medical issues. If you want to do some good reading, look up Dr. Mercola. Also, look up MMS. Interesting stuff. I also found one woman's recommendation that at the start of a wheeze, let some sea salt dissolve in your mouth and then drino a glass of water. (Those with problems taking salt in should be careful about that.) And also, drink more water and check out your overall nutrition and fitness levels. Positively impacting those may make changes you'd be surprised by!

Jack Lalanne spoke against refined sugars and becoming fit way back in the 50's and not many listened. Look at a current photo of him today, a man in his 90's, and think about it. Look up sugars on Mercola's webpage as well. I had no idea the things sugar can do to ones body.

Blessings

My 15 y.o. daughter has has first hand experience with weight gain on Advair. About 6 years ago at about 9 y.o., she gained 20 lbs in 6 months - and it started happening exactly when she started the drug. She was very active (swim team, gymnastics, etc) and did not overeat. It is very frustrating that both her pediatrician and her asthma/allergy specialist deny that her small dose of Advair is to blame.

For some reason, and I have talked to others that this has happened to, switching to Singulair did not help her with the weight problem. Seems the people who are hypersensitive to inhaled steroids are also sensitive to Singulair. Concerned about her rapid weight gain, and because she was always so thin, I took her to an endocrinologist to rule out any other problems. After a lot of bloodwork, he concluded that he could not rule out that it was a side effect of the Advair and/or Singulair, and that they may have elevated her blood sugar. I have read tons and tons of postings on the internet about children & adults rapidly gaining weight from inhaled corticosteroids (i.e. Flovent, Advair), along with the round face, bloated stomach, stretch marks, thin skin, easy bruising, etc. but nobody ever says what happens after stopping any of these drugs. Do people ever go back to normal? Do kids look like themselves again? Do any of the side effects disappear?

She is now 15 y.o. and cannot reverse her weight gain no matter what (30 lbs overweight). The last 2 years, she has only been on a small dose of Pulmicort (a different class of corticosteroid even safe to take when pregnant) since she has mild persistent asthma, and allergy shots have helped trememdously. My husband and I have been looking for 6 years now on how to avoid our daughter's weight gain with asthma drugs. If you run into any info., please let us know. Any experiences or info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

I am 48 yrs old and have been on Advair 500/50 for a little over three years now and although it helped my asthma dramatically in the beginning, everyone around me has commented on the crazy mood swings I have been experiencing for the past two years. I have also developed a very persistent case of thrush in my mouth/throat that never seems to go away-the doctor keeps on asking me if I rinse my mouth and it's starting to get annoying because I'd be an idiot not to rinse out my mouth-I even gargle, but the thrush keeps coming back! Also,my throat always feel tight-I frequently feel like I'm choking and I get hoarseness that interferes with the important thing like reading a book to my son. Recently, I have started bruising very easily. Everytime I mention all these things to my doctor she says that I should stay on the Advair and disregards my complaints about the side-effects. I would really like to stop using it, but I stopped once for Three weeks and I had a really bad bout of tightness in my chest and shortness of breath-any suggestions on how to get off it and what I can do instead?? I forgot to mention that I have gained weight and even dieting won't get the weight off-I am very active and exercise, but the weight stays.