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Steroids

Dear Sirs:

I am a twenty-one year old woman, who has had asthma all my life. I treated my asthma with theophyline (400mg qd), and Albuterol inhaler, and a prednisone dose pack for bad spells. The amount of theophylline is much, much lower than it was when I was younger, I lowered it to its current dosage from 400mg b.i.d..

My doctor wants me to begin taking a steroid inhaler....(my mother and aunt are also MD's and they agree), but every time I use the inhaler (about 1.5 tho 3 hours after), I vomit. I put up with this for about a week and then stopped taking it when I noticed I was loosing weight from not eating. My doctor says This is psychosomatic... I say no because I have tried: Azmacort, Aerobid and Aerobid M....each time I did not expect to get sick, I honestly believed the doctors when they told me I wouldn't get sick, but I still did.

Can these inhalers can people sick to their stomachs. I read the description in the PDR, and it said that people were getting ill due to the bad aftertaste if they didn't wash out their mouth...I rinse out my mouth after using the inhaler. My asthma can be controlled by theophyline and albuterol, and I think that this works fine for me. I have heard horrible things about every asthma medication that is on the market. It seems that the steroid is not much better for me.

Is there anything I can try?

Erin T.

Thanks for asking, Erin.

Your story of being sensitive to inhaled steroids is not rare.
Usually it is due to the fact that some of the medicine finds its way into the stomach.

Using a spacer such as the AeroChamber can help to prevent the medicine from being delivered into your stomach region.

Inhaled steroids are exceedingly safe for almost all patients with asthma. The mild dose of inhaled steroid helps to decrease the inflammation within the linings of the lungs.

You may wish to ask your doctor about the newer asthma medicine called "Accolate." This medicine either works great or does nothing at all for asthma patients. The only way to know if it works is to try it. Accolate may not, however, take away the need for most asthma patients to be using inhaled steroids.

Be certain to discuss your symptoms with your physician, and Good Luck!

Steve Kagen, M.D.
Allernet.com