[maccard]

The short of it was that they decided salbutamol was overprescribed and shouldn’t be given to anyone who isn’t taking a corticosteroid inhaler at the same time. The advice has changed from “if you feel like you need your blue inhaler take it” to “your asthma should be managed by your corticosteroid dose, and if it’s not you should adjust”. Obviously not suitable for everyone but for people like my dad it got him from using his reliever once a week to not having an active prescription for it anymore.

[jmole]

That was a worldwide change after they figured out long acting beta agonists were basically killing people because they don’t treat the underlying inflammation like inhaled corticosteroids do.

[maccard]

Yeah that doesn’t surprise me - I just don’t have enough knowledge of outside the UK to know if it was advised elsewhere. Anecdotally, my breathing is so much better since I’ve adjusted to the correct dose and never missing one, I’ve gone from needing a reliever with me at all times to not using it once in a year.

[wbl]

Shit I should talk to my doctor again. Although probably for exercises induced things might be a little different.

[maccard]

Very possibly, although I wouldn’t be surprised if the advice has changed. Asthma is an inflammation of the lungs and the learnings seem to be that any inflammation is bad, so we want to prevent inflammation rather than respond to it.

Definitely worth a conversation!