side effects

I was wondering what side effects people get form there salamol/salbutamol/ventolin (relievers). I get very very shaky and my heart rate etc goes extremely fast does anyone else get this? my doc/nurse both say its normal but it freaks me out! It sometimes scares me how fast my heart is beating and it scares me.

laurenjayne

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yes it can give me the shaky and racing heart rate, it is some thing you get use to

hope this help to know you are not on your own

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Hi Laurenjayne,

Yes, it is a very common side effect and I am sure most of us here have experienced it. I know it is scary and unpleasant, and also can be embarrassing when you are shaking in public (I am sure people must think I am a withdrawing alcoholic sometimes!). Hopefully you will be reassured to know, though, that it is not actually dangerous on normal inhaler type doses.

It does get better with time, gradually, although sometimes it can take a while to improve. When I first had asthma, for several months if not years I would shake and have palpitations from one or two puffs of the inhaler. As my asthma got worse and I had to have bigger doses, I got more used to it and now it would usually take one or two nebs, if not more, to get me shaking. It can be quite variable, though, and sometimes I will just have a random shaky day for no apparent reason - again I know that this is something that others experience too.

A couple of things do occur, though - I'm not sure what other medication you're on, but if you are using your reliever very regularly, then it probably means that your doctor might want to look at increasing your preventative medication, if possible, to try to improve your asthma control. Then you wouldn't need to use your reliever so frequently, and wouldn't have to deal with these nasty side effects. I know that you posted in another thread that you are having allergy tests and spirometry, so hopefully your doctor is doing these with a view to using the results to tinker with your treatment and maybe give you better control?

Also, there are alternatives to salbutamol/Ventolin - the main one is terbutaline/Bricanyl. It is essentially a very similar drug which works in a similar way, but some people do find for whatever reason that they are less shaky with terbutaline than with salbutamol.

Another thing - and again if you have seen your GP/asthma nurse recently I am sure that you will have already done this - is to get your inhaler technique checked. Sometimes excessive shaking can occur because you are actually ending up depositing the drug in your mouth and throat and then swallowing it, rather than inhaling it. A quick revision of technique (there's a useful demo on AUK) and also using a spacer can help with this.

Other than that, I can only really repeat that, yes, I agree, it can be pretty scary, but it is normal and very common. Just one of the crosses we have to bear to be able to breathe I'm afraid!

Hope this helps, take care

Em H

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Thanks Em and Lyndsay i think its just difficult when my heart is beating so fast - as i am sure it is for everyone. I think it beats fast because i am panicing and then because of the salbutamol.

I'm wary of changing to another reliver as i really find the easi-breathe easy to use although when attack gets bad its on to salbutamol/ventolin thorugh the aerochamber or volumatic. The nurse suggested Symbicort SMart as i'm on symbicort but really don't think that symbilcort would suit me during n attack as its more fiddly for me to use to be honest i don't actualy like it.

Apparently i'm on the highest dose of it yet it doesn't seem to work i'd like to be changed but i used to be on this purple round thing that was combined i think it was an accuhalor but i really didn't like it and i don't think its my place to say i want to change.