New Inhaler

I've just been prescribed a new inhaler as my asthma is not coping with the ones I have, anyone know what this green one is? She was going to give me the white one that you twist but that will react with my other medication.

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Hi madkat,

It sounds like you've been prescribed salmeterol (Serevent). This is a green inhaler available as both an MDI ('puffer') and a flat, disc-shaped Accuhaler. It would usually be started as the next step if your asthma was failing to be controlled with the brown steroid inhaler.

Salmeterol is a long acting beta-2 agonist (LABA) - basically similar to salbutamol (Ventolin - your blue reliever inhaler) but with a slower onset (so it is not suitable for use as a reliever in an acute attack) and a longer duration of action - typically about 12 hours. You should hopefully find that using it regularly stops you from getting tight and wheezy so often.

It's important to keep taking your brown steroid inhaler regularly too, as this is the one that actually treats the underlying inflammation in your lungs, as opposed to treating the symptoms by opening up your airways. There is a small amount of evidence to suggest that salmeterol - which is a very safe drug - is safest if taken with inhaled steroids, not as a substitute for them.

Hope this helps

Em H

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Haaay

Ive Just Been To The Doctors And Got A Purple Inhaler

But I Dont Know Wot It Is For Or Wot It Does

Does Any One Know ??

=D

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Yes it is a serevent and it's helping quite alot even though I've only been taking it a few days seems better allready. Quite relieved really as it has been bad of late and a bad flu bug has just nocked me clean out too. Here's hoping hey.

thanks

Kath