Asthma Medications

[AKcollegestudent]

I spent this morning running between my doctor and the pharmacy. And googling. Why, you ask? Because I'm going back on asthma medication and because since I've been okay (not great, but not dead) being off of meds for four months, it's been decided that we can switch down from a combo to a straight inhaled steroid.

Do you know that some genius out there decided that most inhaled steroids should have lactose as the propellant? Because I didn't. Neither did my doctor, who only checked out of sheer habit.

Out of an entire list? We found four medications that met the criterion. And one of the four was questionable (Qvar).

Flovent HFA (but not the rotadisk)

Advair HFA (again, not the rotadisk)

Qvar (questionable)

Symbicort, which is a combo inhaler (and, in fact, was what I used to take before going off of meds for a while).

I am just absolutely baffled at the hoops I had to jump through to find a workable asthma med.

[Tatum]

Wow, that's interesting! I use both Advair & Symbicort.

[tarnalberry]

It's not so much that lactose is the propellant, as the filler.

Thing is, pharmaceutical grade lactose is extremely purified. I would NOT worry about it as an issue if you're casein intolerant. (And, of course, it doesn't have gluten.) I would also not worry about it if you're lactose intolerant as it is a VERY small amount and most of it doesn't get anywhere near your digestive tract.

Of course, it's a personal decision, that's just what I choose when I need asthma meds.

[AKcollegestudent]

It's not so much that lactose is the propellant, as the filler.

Thing is, pharmaceutical grade lactose is extremely purified. I would NOT worry about it as an issue if you're casein intolerant. (And, of course, it doesn't have gluten.) I would also not worry about it if you're lactose intolerant as it is a VERY small amount and most of it doesn't get anywhere near your digestive tract.

Of course, it's a personal decision, that's just what I choose when I need asthma meds.

Because I break out in hives and the symptoms have been worsening, there was no way my doctor was going to let me grab the one that had dairy in it. And while I did run across the info that it wasn't a massive deal for intolerant folks, I figured better safe than sorry.