SYMBICORT for Asthma

Asthma and the Lungs

Watch What Asthma Can Do to Your Lungs Video

Gaining control of your asthma can be different than simply reacting to sudden
asthma symptoms. See why ...

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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.