I have has asthma for the last few weeks and it has been pretty bad. The doctor put me on prednisone and it really made me feel weird, lazy, and anxious. I told the doctor and he took me off it and put me on Advair. I have had a similar reaction to advair dizziness, blurred vision, panicky feeling and depression. Before getting asthma there was nothing in my world that was depressing. After a few days on Advair I have decided that I would rather fight the asthma with just my albuterol than feel like I do on the steroids. I believe I was suffering from Steroid Psycosis. Anyone else have a similar reaction. What other medicines can I take other than steroids to help out?

Thanks,

Jim

I believe there is, but you will have to go to an alternative medicine physician. There are herbs, supplements, vitamins that will all help with asthma. If you say your case is pretty bad, I don't know. It might take a while for these to help since they are not a bandaid. Asthma is not to be taken lightly. People can die from it if not treated properly. I say, try to stay on your medicine for now and seek out other opinions. They are out there. Try to find a doc who knows both traditional and alternative medicine. There are actually doctors who believe a combination of the two are the best - treatiing the whole person: diet, exercise, breathing techniques, and the above I mentioned. It will take time and discipline on your part, but if you are really wanting an alternative to what you are taking, I think you can find it.

Sounds like you are highly allergic to steroid types of medications. There are other medications that you can use besides albuterol to control your asthma that are not steroids. There is Singulair, Accolate and Serevent. Serevent is one of the components of Advair but is not the steroid part.

Howitt44 is right that asthma is not to be taken lightly. You can have a severe attack and end up in ER. You really have to get it under control as soon as you can.

Take care.

I take QVAR, which is in an inhaler with no side effects so far. I tried Advair with major side effect of muscle spasms over my whole body. If the asthma didn't stop my breathing the pain made me not want to breath.

Do not put off going to the doctor. I did, ended up in ER with complete respiratory failure.

Have you asked your doctor about getting a nebulizer? I am on advair and always carry my albuterol inhaler but at times I need my nebulizer maybe once or twice a day.
Asthma is a chronic disease!!!!!!!!!!!!! If you screw around with it and wait and put off going to your doctor don't worry you won't end up in the ER you might end up in a coffin.

I also went through the same. Inhaled steroid could cause mood swings.
I believe that combining several ways, such as medications, supplements, health food, exercise, breathing techniques and biofeedback training, is the best in order to minimize unwanted side effects of meds and enjoy better quality of life. However, you should be careful when you reduce the dose of inhaled steroid.
Peak flow reading helps you measure your airway function and determine the minimal effective dose. Good luck. :wave:

I have not personally had this. I do know that sometimes the body needs awhile to adjust and once it does it is fine. Depending on what causes your asthma flare ups different things can be prescribed. if yours is allergy triggered you may be able to get by with taking something like singulair to help control it.

Hi,
I was in the Doctor's office about three weeks ago, I had a lung infection and severe asthma, he put me on predison, I was on 60mg. for five days, then 40mg. for 5 days and then 20 for five days. When I was on the higher dose, I did have bad side affects but I could breath, I had legs cramps, I was shaky, warm and was sweating allot. I had a hard time sleeping and at times I could feel my heart just pounding, but I stuck it out because I wanted to get better. Sometimes our bodies are not used to a steriods and we really feel the side affects, after awhile they do subside a bit. Now with the advar, I think you should try to stick it out and give it a chance. My son has severe asthma, at one time in his life, he was on 9 meds, His asthma was so whacked out it was scary, you don't want to end up like that, I normally remain pretty cool and don't freak out to much on things, but when he would get these attack out of no where, it scared me. Sometimes asthma gets bad due to the season and something in the air really triggers your asthma, now my son gets bad in the fall, there's allot of mold in the air, some people have more problems in the spring, all the pollen in the air, so your asthma may calm down in time, just give your meds a chance.
Karen W.