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Watch What Asthma Does to Your Lungs
If you are treating only asthma symptoms, you're not treating the whole problem
in your lungs. You see...
Even when you don't have symptoms, you still have asthma. It may not feel like anything
is wrong, but you still have inflammation or swelling in your airways.
Uncontrolled inflammation can damage the lining of your airways. It is unknown if
any asthma medicine, including SYMBICORT, can prevent long-term damage to the lungs.
Uncontrolled inflammation makes your lungs more sensitive to triggers, like pollen,
dust, and smoke.
When your lungs react to these triggers, the muscles around the airways constrict
or tighten,
...causing asthma symptoms and attacks. If inflammation is not controlled, you can
have asthma symptoms and attacks more often.
More frequent attacks cause you to need your rescue medicine more often. But using
a rescue inhaler can only provide temporary relief of sudden symptoms and does not
reduce inflammation. If your asthma medicine doesn't reduce inflammation, your airways
will continue to be more sensitive to triggers. That means you will be bothered
by asthma symptoms and need your rescue inhaler more often. Needing your rescue
inhaler more than twice a week may mean you need a controller medicine.
Now that you have begun to think differently about asthma, you understand the problem
of trying to control asthma by only treating symptoms. Let's take a look at how
SYMBICORT can help you get control of your asthma.
SYMBICORT is a controller medicine that works to help control your asthma, so you
can do something good for health of your lungs. SYMBICORT is for people 12 years
and older. SYMBICORT contains formoterol, a long-acting beta2-agonist or LABA. Medicines
containing LABAs may increase the chance of asthma-related death. So, SYMBICORT
should be used only if your health care professional decides another asthma-controller
medicine alone or you need two asthma-controller medicines.
SYMBICORT works in two ways, to help control your asthma throughout the night and
day.
SYMBICORT helps control inflammation and also helps keep your airways open. Remember,
you can't always feel the inflammation in your airways. But this inflammation makes
your lungs more sensitive to triggers, like pollen, dust, and smoke.
SYMBICORT also eases constriction or tightening of the airways of your lungs. This
helps to keep your airways open.
SYMBICORT improves airflow in and out of the lungs within 15 minutes and continues
to help control your asthma throughout the night and day. As a controller medicine,
SYMBICORT is not - and will not - replace your rescue inhaler for sudden asthma
symptoms. If you are taking SYMBICORT, see your health care provider if you asthma
does not improve or gets worse.
Control your asthma with SYMBICORT and do something good for the health of your
lungs. When your asthma is managed and under control, you can feel good about doing
more of the things you like to do.