Has anyone felt they've got asthma from taking albuterol when they don't have asthma?

Question

I had pneumonia and went to the hospital. They treated me and I left. A week later they told me to take an albuterol inhaler for two months everyday, every 4 hours. Ever since then I've been having asthma attacks and never had a sign of one before. I used to be a runner and now I couldn't make a mile if I tried. By the way, the pneumonia felt nothing like the asthma.

Answer 1

We often see this. Albuterol is a medication that does nothing but cause bronchodilation. If your bronchi are not constricted it will not do anything, yet doctors often prescribe it like an antibiotic or something.
If you are not short of breath or congested, throw it in the trash and go on.

Answer 2

Let's start with the basics. Asthma is a reactive airway disease in which the bronchial tube constrict when irritated. This allows a person to take a breath in, however when they breath out the tubes prematurely collapse making it very difficult to exhale. The air squeezing through the swollen, constricted air passages is what makes the distinctive wheezing sound associated with an asthma attack. Pneumonia is an infection that is residing within the lungs themselves. This includes both the airways and the alveoli (air sacs). It doesn't matter whether the infection is caused by bacteria, a virus, mold, or even fungus. If you have an infection in the lungs two things are going to happen. The body will send fluid to sooth the affected area and flush it clean and the airways will become irritated, swell up and become constricted. The reason the your physician gave you albuterol is because it is a fast acting bronchodilator. This means that it opens up the airways quickly. That is the only thing that is does. The side effects are rapid heart rate, palpation's and anxiety.
Pneumonia is a deadly serious illness to have. It can take normally healthy active people up to six months to recover from. Just because the actually infection might be gone doesn't mean that the lungs themselves are fully recovered. They need time, along with a healthy lifestyle to get you back to your baseline. I hope that your health continues to improve.

Answer 3

A real case of pneumonia can take a long time to fully recover from. If you were wheezing still when you left the hospital, they may have felt that you might benefit from an inhaler.

An inhaler serves to dilate the passageways in the lungs so that air can get in more efficiently. There's no way that one can "give you" asthma.

You might be experiencing a "rebound" effect, like an addiction to the drug that makes your lungs react badly when the drug wears off. Ask your doc if its okay to quit using the inhaler.

Answer 4

Your lungs may still need some time to heal. Pneumonia is serious and causes scarring on the lungs. Don't try to over exert yourself or run yet..allow yourself time to recooperate. You may not necessarily have "asthma" but still feeling the pneumonia..

Answer 5

first of all do u smoke? if not it could be what is called allergen induced asthma . also if u have any type of chronic respiratory problems it could be a more serious problem i reccomend u see ur doctor about this as soon as possible especially if it occurs soon after taking a treatment or if your treatments make it seem worse due to the fact u could be alergic to the albuterol itself.