Wanting to come off Seretide

Hi all. This is my first post, I hope this is in the right place I couldn't see an introduction section for newcomers to post.nnI want to post an asthma journal of this journey in full, I am giving you a full run down of my past, and my current state. Is this allowed? I have not been super precise but I have enough data to warrant it's consideration. Is it allowed to post an asthma journal? I will monitor myself more accurately and use peak flows. I have great confidence I have a chance at coming off preventives which I have been taking for over ten years. Here is me a few years ago, over weight and hating myself.nnI feel this is important, as Doctors have kept me on medication for over ten years, and I might have the chance to come off this at my own staged cycle as long as I am careful and monitor myself to see if this is possible. The Doctors are happy for me to continue living on medication forever without even attempting this.nnBefore vs After; Gym / Nutrition - Both with AsthmannI am 29, and have been suffering from asthma since I was very young. I grew out of asthma, but when I was a teenager I become asthmatic once again and had to become medication dependent. Medication Dependent, something I have come to hide and have found very little help emotionally with this, so am really happy to see a forum with so much support!nnI'l mention at this stage I used to pay the B flat corner (a small trumpet) during my early teens. I was bored of playing alone, so eventually gave up. It took me until years later to realise I stopped this wood wind instrument, and took up smoking, and suddenly my asthma magically re-appeared. nnI've always been affected by colds, hayfever and flu. A common trait of asthma as we all know.nnThrough late teens and early twenties, I must say I didn't look after my body, or lungs for that fact. Yes I smoked, like all young people I followed the crowd and then became victim to buying cigarettes and buying medication for asthma. A strong contradiction, but one which is seen often in our culture.nnAround 24 I learnt this was not the way forward, and due to being over weight I focused on the gym. Though I continued to smoke for a small amount of time, I noticed no change to my asthma with fitness. I lost over three stone, and started up my own nutrition company helping others lose weight and feel great about themselves. My mum is my best success, losing over 5 stone and enjoying a healthy lifestyle; primarily through diet.nnIt has been years following any change, aside from becoming more gym focused. I can not remember the exact time, but I believe after a few years of being medication dependent I started waking up in the night. This, is why I am here. nnI'm currently on Seretide 2* 125mg (I'll confirm this later, after a few years sometimes you can forget the exact number). I have Salbutamol but never use it.nnFor years I have worked with the Doctors trialing different medication, or searching other possibility to my sleep issue. I go back to sleep fine after waking, I just have some slight disturbance when I often get up and pop to the toilet. It is however, not linked to fluid intake. Any advice you can give on waking up to the loo, has been tried and tested trust me. With the changes in food over the years (prior to this issue and during) I noticed it was not food intake. I have tried many diets (from interest or fitness) and it has never changed my sleeping pattern. Nothing, has ever, made a difference. Sleeping tablets just alter the state I'm in when I wake up (high on drugs was what this felt like!).nnFor a couple of years, I have used sleeping apps to monitor my sleep. Apnea perhaps, I thought. It seems difficult to find a solution. I had super cold arms (from mentioned of my GF), sleeping makes my hands go numb and sometimes this wakes me up. 4-5 instances waking up is common. I have to go to bed an hour EARLIER so I can accumulate enough time in bed to get enough sleep. This has gone on for at least ten years. So I came up with an idea.... For the numb hands, I even tried lifting my bed up at one end to adjust the height and blood pressure to help keep blood flow to them. No luck!nnWhat if I could come off my asthma medication, completely and assess my performance with sleep and my asthma. Surely there has to be other methods?nnI bought a salt pipe, and planned to start using this to aid my removal of my inhalers.nnI must add, I'm very lucky and have 2* 125 Seretide morning+evening and never need any other medication.nnNow, I used to gauge my instances getting up in the night by my sleep app. Typically 4-5 instances and sleep over 3 hours without a break is uncommon.nnNot needing assistance throughout the day, I never keep an inhaler on me. An often visit to the gym, I still have no issues. Since coming off Seretide, I have carried both with me at all times, as this may be considered dangerous. I know I may get some bad press for attempting this on my own, but out of desperation, I am pushing forward.nnNow for the positive and interesting results.....nnI can only report this for the past few weeks. So far, I have only one or two instances of a tight chest. I can feel my chest is sometimes not relaxed as it should be. But as far as conscious living goes, I feel I am coping.nnSo I can do my daily duties without prevention, this is a HUGE goal for me. The next step, fitness.nnRunning, is hard. My last cardio session begun with me feeling tight chested. I had an extreme warm up session, so I didn't jump in. Afterwards, I must say, I felt more relaxed and my asthma was better. I felt fine the following hours/day. Weights is not an issue either.nnThe main objective here, for my sleep. I now have a trend of over 4 hours sleep being common. Friday night, I have TWO instances in ONE night of sleeping over four hours. This is a HUGE success for me, and having a lye in just doesn't happen so an early night made this possible. I can also note (and this really does prove something) that I dream much more, to the point where I could easily say my dreaming has doubled if not more. Every night is wild crazy dreams which became quite apparent.nnThe hypothesisnIt is my belief, that the medication from Seretide is causing mild sleep Apnea due to the relaxation in the throat (this is not completely unheard of) which is causing my breathing to alter and my oxygen blood levels to drop. This therefore reduces the ability to fall into a deep sleep cycle without the combined relaxation causing reduced oxygen levels and disturbing me. This would account for the numb hands. I didn't really know this, even after I saw my sleep improve. Until I realised I was dreaming much more, every night. Then I realised, I was able to fall into a deep sleep (or perhaps deeper, or for longer). Within only a few weeks I could create daily dream journals. I did not even expect this.nnThe ConclusionnnI believe I have been lucky. Half of these results I did not expect, especially the dreaming. I have had nearly one month without Seretide, and shown perhaps after early abuse years ago triggering something, with a healthy lifestyle my common mental dependency perhaps is not what I thought it was. nnThe first few days were the worst, I feel strange waking up or going to sleep without taking my inhaler. Why after the first few days am I coping better? I don't know. What I do want to do, is get back onto the Seretide so I feel completely relaxed chest wise, and document my peak flows, and increase my cardio to see if I can increase my performance and combat the requirement for Seretide. I would like to document this here. Is this allowed?nnI want to compare sleep cycles, amount of waking up, note my dreaming, compare my amount peak flow when reduction of medication. I am waiting to speak to my Doctor about this, as I want to make sure they are aware. But for the need to sleep better, I must try something, and with the ground I have made I feel potentially I can do this. nnI hope with this information perhaps I can help others become medication free also.

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Spoke my GP last night. We are going to assess weaker inhalers to stage my reduction. nnNot taking inhalers and fighting asthma without proper medication can cause problems later in life, so we are doing it progressively, ensuring I am not putting up with asthma un-knowingly.

[amyukulele]

Wow, what a story! Well done to you for taking control and finding out what works for you.

I've come off Seretide just recently, after taking it for 15 or more years. I was taking it for so long, I don't remember when it was first prescribed. Probably soon after it was introduced, in 1999.

My doctor said I could come off it because I was using my rescue inhaler only when I run. It was strangely anti-climactic, suddenly being allowed to let go of this thing I've had for so long... with just an "okay, sure" from my doctor.

You mentioned cardio - I can heartily recommend the NHS couch to 5K running podcasts. You start with very short intervals of running, with walking in between. I found it really difficult at first, but it builds up gradually over 9 weeks, and I found I could keep up with the programme. This morning I ran for 34 minutes. My breathing is deep and steady when I'm out running, and I haven't had to use my rescue inhaler at all for months, except as a preventative measure just before I go for a run.

The other piece of my recent health transformation is eating low carb, whole foods. It sounds like you've already found what works for you in terms of nutrition, but for me, this was revolutionary as a low-inflammation diet. Obviously inflammation in the body is closely linked to asthma - and losing 4 stone by eating this way has helped immensely, too.

Good luck with your sleep experiments. I hope others on this forum will be able to chime in on that front.