Asthma Inhalers may up heart death risk

by SOLARLIFE | September 24, 2008 at 03:31 am

1706 views | 36 Recommendations | 20 comments

Asthma
Asthma Inhalers, many use them daily to breath. Our cities more and more air polluted cause a big demand in such inhalers. Now a study found out they can cause heart problems.

Categories of Inhalers:
Blue or grey inhalers are 'relievers' and contain bronchodilators to open the airways. There are several different reliever drugs, including beta agonists like salbutamol and anticholinergics like ipratropium. Brown inhalers are 'preventers' and usually contain a steroid drug

Inhalers prescribed for serious lung disease may increase the risk of deadly heart problems, say researchers.
Trials on more than 15,000 patients found inhaled anticholinergic drugs increased the risk of heart attack, stroke and cardiovascular death by 58%.
The drugs, Atrovent and Spriva, open up the airways to help patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) to breathe.
The work is published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Sidebar Image-Reporters say:

muppetcakes
pictured: david kappy gearing up for the antinaila going away party [see shirt]. 08/2004 albuquerque, new mexico, usa.
Puffers(01/07/08)
Viral induced asthma, he said. And now I get to use inhalers.
kaitii.angeline
i have been having the hardest time breathing lately. i needed to inhale in the middle of the night. i've never felt such a pain. hello doctor? p.s. i'm not a smoker.
KayleeLynne, Monday.....
I moved my bed around, and, uh, I don't really remember much else. haha Except talking to Nadya on the whone for awhile. :D
Towards the end of the day, I temporarily lost my inhaler. I was quite happy when I found it again. :) It's like an old friend that just always keeps coming back. hahaha :|
RachelValdez
1- Yes, I'm going to redo my 365 Days project. I bought a new camera today, so why not?
2- Yes, I'm back. I got a med-discharge this week. I had a serious asthma attack on Monday, and you can't be in any of the Services with asthma. [Funny story, I've never been diagnosed with it before.] So... I'm home and I've got an inhaler that I have to use 4-5 times a day. Side effects: It makes me very nauseous and very sleepy. And I still find that I'm short of breath a lot of the time. However, I hope that will improve with time...
Winter hurts my lungs
And Breathe
And I might have to get cooler style asthma inhaler
Overcome excitment when we won
Albuterol - this is supposed to help with my bronchitis
Ventolin, Serevant, Beclazone, Beclometasone
Decembre71
So, this is why you're not seeing a picture of my clean living room.. or at least a partly cleaned living room.For those of you playing along at home, I was super sick from Thanksgiving until just before New Years. The doctor warned me that the reactive airway stuff might flare up again once allergy season was in full swing. And man, was she right. I worked for most of yesterday morning and then did a few things around the house and ran some errands. I started wheezing a little and then just couldn't breathe. I'm (thankfully) still carrying my inhaler, so that helped. But I felt crappy and jittery for the rest of the day and just chilled out. So, there went my plans.

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SOLARLIFE

at 05:28 on September 24th, 2008

Thanks rhonda for flag "Asthma inhalers causing heart problems"

Rhonda J Mangus

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 04:06 on September 24th, 2008

SOLARLIFE, I like this story. It's good stuff.

Rhonda J Mangus

at 05:52 on September 24th, 2008

SOLARLIFE, you are very welcome. Thank you for posting!

SOLARLIFE

at 07:26 on September 24th, 2008

Rhonda, I posted the Asthma article, because I lost a friend of mine. Not knowing, he has this "hidden" Asthma problem, I was angry he didn't show up for a mountain tour. Now I know he had fear 2500m high with Asthma, better to talk. But experience shows people with Asthma problem feel well in the clear air of the mountains. Most experience a sudden liberation when they climb up the hill. The squeezing feeling goes. However one should have the spray with you and consult your doctor. In France Asthma is increasing to a record high, PPM, dirty particles from Diesel cars in the cities

Paschen

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 07:22 on September 24th, 2008

SOLARLIFE, I like this story. It's good stuff.

My Father used one and died of a massive Heard attack that should not have been since his heard was rather healthy in prior test.

SOLARLIFE

at 11:17 on September 24th, 2008

Paschen very sad story to remember. Many families have to deal with a sudden accident possible.

SOLARLIFE

at 14:45 on September 25th, 2008

Thanks to all Sidebar Image-reporters participating in the Asthma-Inhaler report; solarlife

The reports get more and more dramatic, thanks for the courage to out you, it helps us all to understand, what suddenly may happen to all of us.

Terri Potratz

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 14:55 on September 25th, 2008

SOLARLIFE, I like this story. It's good stuff.

Check out this other recent asthma story related to chlorine in pools.

Christina 123

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 15:54 on September 25th, 2008

SOLARLIFE, I like this story. It's good stuff. I am prone asthma and have the salbutamol and becotide inhalers, but it has not been serious for years now. It has been long known there is a risk of palpitations as the inhalers increase the pulse, thus you have to be careful not to have more than two puffs at a time. Chronic asthma sufferers tend to have enlarged hearts too (most older people do as well, as part of aging). Coffee has been shown to help asthma, and it too may stimulate the heart. I think the key is a healthy diet and to avoid fatty foods

SOLARLIFE

at 17:00 on September 25th, 2008

Christina 123 "Coffee has been shown to help asthma, and it too may stimulate the heart. I think the key is a healthy diet and to avoid fatty foods" Refers to Asthma inhalers ? , thanks for giving first advice

Amitjha

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 01:01 on September 26th, 2008

SOLARLIFE, I like this story. It's good stuff.

SOLARLIFE

at 01:55 on September 26th, 2008

Asthma inhaler Report, thanks for Flag Amitjha

CJaye

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 11:42 on September 28th, 2008

SOLARLIFE, I like this story. It's good stuff. I too have asthma, thought at first to be COPD. I use two inhalers daily. Usually inhalers if used properly don't cause heart attackes. But anyone could be fine one day and have a massive heart attack the next. I ran rescue for 13 years this I know also from being a nurse for 20 years plus now. The Spriva & Atrovent inhalers are Tiotropium is a long-acting, 24 hour anticholingergic bronchodilator. The albuterol, is a short-acting beta2-agonists bronchodilators. They only last a few minutes. It's only the Spriva & Atrovent type inhalers they are talking about. The Spriva caps also can't be touched by your hands you have to handle them very carefully.

SOLARLIFE

at 12:24 on September 28th, 2008

Thanks Cjaye, Asthma Inhalers, your "nurse report, very detailed", stays to mention the price tag of over $100, handle clean..., it is worth looking to your explainer, thanks for sharing this burden with the many others concerned, it helps to know, there are ways, as you describe.

patgarcia

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 09:12 on October 4th, 2008

SOLARLIFE, I like this story. Thanks for posting this valuable information

SOLARLIFE

at 00:46 on October 5th, 2008

patgarcia.."valuable info"..Asthma Inhalers may up heart death risk, thanks for Flag. How is Mexico city doing with high Pollution ppm ?

patgarcia

at 07:36 on October 5th, 2008

The pollution problem in Mexico city is very high, I haven't been there for years! but I can tell you about my city, we still have many dirt streets and during the rainy season the weed that grows causes allergies and asthma attacks, in my case I have to take montelukast , to relieve the symptoms and prevent and asthma attack to avoid Salbutamol which speeds up my heart rate tremendously.