Breathlessness is certainly a symptom that not anyone wants to experience. If you have experienced breathlessness in the past or are still experiencing it, you may have understood how terrible it could be and if it starts to affect your daily life, you are certainly not alone. In fact, millions of people around the world are affected by breathlessness. Breathlessness is commonly associated with respiratory disease or heart diseases. You may be surprised to know that many breathless symptoms often occur as a result of psychological factors such as from stress and anxiety. This makes breathlessness a symptom that can be caused by many causes and can exist in many conditions or severity. There are a number of drugs in many forms that can be retained from pharmacies or are only available upon prescriptions by doctors. One of the common medications used to treat breathlessness is SERETIDE 50 inhaler.
Active ingredients in SERETIDE 50 are fluticasone propionate and salmeterol. This inhaler is used as a long-term medication in patients with asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD) that complains of symptoms of breathlessness. Fluticasone is a type of corticosteroids that reduce the swelling and irritated airways. It works by reducing the inflammation process leading to such events in the airways. Salmeterol is a type of beta agonist, specifically the long-acting one that helps to widen the airways. It works by relaxing the muscle that is involved in the breathing system such as the airways. You may have heard salmeterol as a bronchodilator due to its function and action to the airpipe (bronchus). Combination of the two active ingredients aims to prevent symptoms of breathlessness or reduce the likelihood of the symptom. This is why SERETIDE 50 is used as long-term medication.
This medication can be used for children as young as 4 years old. Recommended dose is two inhalations or two puffs. It is worth noting that dose may vary according to the severity of the disease and the person’s condition such as age or other medical conditions they are having. Thus, it is important to follow your doctor’s advice and make sure you know how to take it. This is because using an inhaler may be new to some people and wrong use or improper use of inhaler may lead to the person not getting the dose they should be receiving. If you are using it for the first time or the inhaler has not been used for more than 1 week, priming is needed. Priming makes the inhaler become useful and helps patients to receive the dose intended by their doctor. To prime, simply spray it away from the face and into them. This should be done until you can see evenly spread fine mist. If you need to take more than one puff, wait around 30 seconds in between each puff. Inhaler may cause dry mouth. To avoid this, you can rinse your mouth with after and gurgling it after using the inhaler, then spit it out.
Potential side effects may happen to anyone using this medication. Common ones include sore throat, hoarseness, headache, joint pain and muscle cramps. Should these side effects persist or become severe, do let your healthcare provider know. Side effects such as raised blood pressure may occur. If you notice high blood pressure which you never experienced before or never diagnosed with hypertension, you should let your doctor know. If you have other medical conditions from taking any other medicine while taking this inhaler, you should notify your healthcare provider. This is done to avoid potential drug interactions or side effects.
It is important to use SERETIDE regularly. As mentioned, it is a long-term medication. This inhaler will only start to work as early as 7 days. By this time, you should be able to feel some improvements of the breathlessness symptom. Reports show that symptoms are well controlled after 2 weeks of using SERETIDE compared to inhalers solely containing corticosteroid. SERETIDE is usually prescribed for those with breathlessness symptoms that are not fully controlled with only one medication. This medication should not be used as a quick-relief or rescue inhaler such as during the acute asthma attack. You are advised not to use other inhalers not prescribed by your doctor when using this medication to avoid drug overdose and side effects.
In essence, SERETIDE just like any other drugs used to treat diseases do have potential side effects. However, you should understand that when a doctor prescribes you medication, they already consider and evaluate the medication to ensure you are receiving medication in a dose that brings the most benefits and less likely to get side effects. People who receive SERETIDE are usually those who are also being prescribed with other medications to help relieve symptoms. It is important to know which medications are used for emergency or quick relief and which is used as maintenance treatment. If you are unsure how to use medication or why you are receiving more than one kind of inhaler, you should ask your healthcare provider ways to use it and when exactly to use it. Failure of using medications correctly not only leads to worsening of symptoms but total failure of treatment.
