Has anyone had problems losing weight on this WOL while taking asthma meds like Advair or Singulair? I've had to go back on meds for my asthma and was wondering if these drugs are contributing to my stall/gain. Thanks for any input...

I take advair. I am losing a little slower than some people but at the same time 15 lbs in 2 months is nothing to sneer at. I take the stronger 250 Advair and I take it twice a day....I think I was slower at the beginning because I had bronchitis and was put on antibiotics ...which I was on every few month...so I believe I had serious yeast build up in my body. I can't tell you for sure because each person is different. Did you just go back on the inhaler? Is it since you went on it you have been having trouble?.Its hard to tell because I have always been on steroids. Lucky me

I take Flovent 110, 2 puffs twice daily. I take serevent morning and evening and singulair every evening as well as clarinex every morning. I also use Rhinocort aqua 2 squirts/each nostril morning and evening. Occasionally when I have a problem which isn't too much lately unless I get sick or have an allergic reaction then I need to use albuterol. I haven't had to be on prednisone in a long time. I've heard that albuterol and serevent mess with your insulin levels. I know that advair is a combo of flovent and serevent cuz I used it for a while but the insurance wouldn't cover it in such a convenient way to take it.
Anyways...I've been on this stuff for well over 2 years and just on flovent for about 4 years, the singulair I've been on for about 3 years. I haven't noticed stalling any times other then my TOM. But I did notice that I put on most of my weight during that time. I believe that the flovent did have an effect over time on my gain. But I also had 4 children in the last 10 years and had a knee surgery and c section which slows your metabolism. So...Hang in there. I've done ok so far, can't say I've been good about drinking my water lately, I think if I had then I would be loosing more. Look at the bright side,,,at least you can breathe and that's the most important thing. When you can't get the oxygen you need then the fatigue sets in and you don't want to exercise anymore. That's when you give in, get tired, and eat cuz there's nothing else you feel like doing. So hang in there. You'll be fine. You're doing the right thing. Annie

Thanks guys! I just had a nasty case of bronchitis that wouldn't go away after 2 rounds of antibiotics so the doctor put me on Advair 250 and has now weaned me to 100 plus the singulair. I wasn't taking any of it before March. When I went on it I noticed that I have had WAY more cravings and have been more tempted to cheat. I've been out of hand with my calories and my exercise went out the window as I was having the breathing problems so I think that has contributed more to the stall than the meds. Now that I am back on Induction, I was just wondering if these things are going to have an affect! Thanks for your responses!

I think that being on cortisteroids does slow the loss. However, before you settle for having asthma or bronchitis, consider this....

For two and a half years I thought that I had asthma. It's gotten so bad lately that I have been doing my albuterol inhaler every three hours...on the dot! I have to do a nebulizer machine twice a day with a stonger version of albulterol. I am on Singulair and Allegra-D, as well as Nasicort. I have been on Advair, Claritan, Flonase...you name it. All the while, things were getting worse and not better.

My weight loss has slowed to a grinding halt. I decided that the only way that I was probably going to lose was to start exercising. The first day I exercised and had an asthma attack that took me about 30 minutes to recover from. This was so depressing because it was a vicious cycle...can't lose weight because I can't exercise, can't exercise because of the asthma.

I started paying more attention to how I felt when I couldn't breathe and realized that I couldn't breathe very deeply because it hurt right under my breast bone. The lack of oxygen was so bad that I felt like I was going to pass out at times....that or else I had an anxiety attack (again lack of oxygen to the brain). I started doing some research on the web and found some articles about GERD (Gatroesophageal Reflux disease) and the asthma connection.GERD/ASTHMA

Basically what was happening to me was that when I did my bronchiodialator (inhaler) the esophagal sphychter muscle would relax and allow acid reflux to enter my lungs, thereby exercerbating the asthma-like symptoms...which made me have to do my inhaler more often.

At this point, I was desperate to try anything to regain my life back. I started taking PrilosecOTC and I am on day 5 of the first 14. Yesterday, the amount of time that I had to use an inhaler to breathe was about every 5.5 hours. This is very good for me! Even when I started wheezing, it was nothing compared to what it was.

This WOL eating is conducive to acid production, I'm afraid. So, if you do find that GERD may be the culprit and not asthma, you may want to eat smaller, more frequent meals to reduce the acid reflux.

Hope this helps someone!

Dana

That's interesting about the GERD. I haven't had problems with acid for years, only happens if I'm in my 3rd trimester of pregnancy and then I get that acid coming up. yuck I know I have asthma cuz I've been tested with a methylcholine challenge test and had to quit before the test was finished because I was so bad off. The medication totally fixed it. I think if your inhalers aren't working for you then you defenitely need to look into what else could be going on. As for me, I feel the best I've felt in years. I didn't know it, but I've probably had asthma all my life. When I was a child I couldn't run without wheezing and all the time I played soccer as a child I played goalie for eleven years cuz I couldn't hack the running. (pun intended) I always thought I was just out of shape because I had such a "tight chest" after even going to soccer practice and running laps. I got sick alot through the years with bronchitis, or walking pneumonia etc. Nobody ever mentioned it could be asthma until about 5 years ago when I had been sick for 3 months with a horrible asthmatic bronchitis that kept me sleeping sitting up with 3 pillows the whole time. By the time I got sick with this stuff, my asthma was WAY out of control and I was in the 300range on my peakflow. (red zone for me) This is when I found out the truth as to what was wrong with me and thanks to the albuterol, for the first time in 3 months I was able to sleep through the night without coughing to death. It only took a couple days of flovent for me to really notice a huge increase in my breathing and within weeks I was back to normal WITHOUT antibiotics!!! Since then, I've had some bouts with flu bugs and my asthma is a bit worse, but it's probably cuz I'm getting allergy shots now. (when I react I feel it in my chest right away) Now, after 2 years, I'm up to maintenance and my allergies are alot better and soon I expect I will be able to back off the serevent and be back to just flovent/singulair.
Anyways Dana, good thing you found out about the GERD thing, acid really is nasty. Btw, tagamet is actually a type of antihistamine. Isn't that interesting? I think it makes the research much more fun when you find links between illnesses and then you find strange things about medications too. Annie

Thanks for the info on Tagamet. I'll have to look into that! The lowest I have ever been on my peak flow was 200, which is less than 50%. I had pneumonia in November and had to have sinus surgery for fear of having meningitis. So, as you can see, I am REALLY interesting is getting well.

Thanks so much!

Dana