| If you're having trouble viewing this email, click here | | | | | Once-a-Day Breo Approved for the Treatment of Asthma in Adults | In May 2015, the FDA approved the use of Breo, an inhaled corticosteroid and long-acting bronchodilator (ICS-LABA) combination, for the treatment of moderate to severe persistent asthma in adults. Breo joins Advair, Symbicort and Dulera as ICS-LABA combination therapies available in a single inhaler device. What makes Breo special is that it is taken only once a day, making it a much more convenient way of taking an asthma inhaler to control the symptoms of asthma. | | | Are Symbicort, Dulera, Advair and Breo Safe for Asthma? | The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has provided a warning to patients taking medications such as Dulera, Advair, Symbicort, Breo, Foradil and Serevent. One study, the SMART trial, showed an increased risk of death from asthma and other respiratory problems when compared to placebo in patients taking Serevent, particularly in African-American patients. For this reason, the FDA has assigned a black-box warning for these medications, the highest level of warning for a medication that the FDA can give. | | | | The Food and Drug Administration's Black Box Warning | When a prescription medication is known to cause certain side effects, the Food and Drug Administration may place a warning on the prescribing information, or package insert, of the medication. These warnings range from known side effects and precautionary statements to a black box warning, the highest warning the FDA uses. A black box warning is a statement to doctors and patients that the medication has been linked to a certain severe risk or side effect, but not to the point that the medication needed to be removed from the market. | | | | Asthma Treatments | In general, there are 2 types of asthma medications: rescue and controller medicines. Most asthmatics require both medications. Controller medicines are those medicines that are taken every day (sometimes multiple times a day) regardless of asthma symptoms. These medicines are taken all of the time in order to control the inflammation and swelling of the airways. This leads to less irritation and constriction of the muscles around the airways and therefore less asthma symptoms. These medicines usually take a few days to a few weeks in order to start working, but then a person with asthma notices that less and less rescue medicine is needed. | | | | | | You are receiving this newsletter because you subscribed to the About Allergies newsletter. If you wish to unsubscribe, please click here. If you would like to unsubscribe from all newsletters sent from About.com, please send an email to optout@about.com with "Unsubscribe" as the subject line. | | 1500 Broadway, 6th Floor, New York, NY, 10036 | © 2014 About.com - All rights reserved | | | | | |
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