What side effects should I expect from my asthma medication?
Fortunately, the majority of asthma medications are very safe and very well tolerated. When we have asthma patients who use inhalers, especially inhalers that contain inhaled corticordsteriods, we always advise them to rinse their mouth out and spit out the water so that they won't have any residual medication in their throat. Inhaled corticordsteriods in the throat can sometimes lead to thrush or yeast infection. Although a very rare complication, it's important that patients know that they should rinse their mouth and throat out after they use their medications. The other side effect that asthma patients very often will complain about is with the short acting, quick-relieve medications that are the inhaled bronchodilators. Inhaled bronchodilators stimulate a certain part of the nervous system that dilates the airway. Unfortuantely, that same nervous system also speeds up the heart and makes you a little bit jittery, so we tell asthma patients to be prepared for the fact that if they are using their quick relieve medications, they may feel a little jittery or jumpy for a short period of time. The third side effect that we are concerned about involves patients with severe asthma that have to take oral corticordsteriods, as opposed to inhaled corticordsteriods. Oral corticordsteriods certaintly do have side effects because they get into the blood stream and they stay within your body. We try to minimize those side effects, such as increased water retention and difficulty sleeping, by using these medications very sparingly and for short periods of time.
