Feeling Of Heaviness In Lungs, Chest Tightness. Suffer With Asthma, Anxiety. Taking Salvent Puffer, Flovent. Related?

Posted on Mon, 10 Jun 2013

Question: hey,i have been experiencing weird feelings in my lungs they feel heavy and also my chest feels tight ,i do have asthma and i just seen my doctor recently regarding this, i have received a Salvent puffer and a Flovent, does it take time for these puffers to kick in? i also have anxiety could this be related? if theres anything i can do to calm them down what is it? thanks

Answered by Dr. Satyadeo Choubey (1 hour later)

Hi XXXXXX,
Thanks for your query,
On the background history of asthma, increased breathlessness and chest tightness usually represents acute exacerbation of the disease. Treatment of choice during the episode remains inhaled salbutamol and inhaled steroid which you have been prescribed. Salbutamol do not need too much of latency to act. It acts with in seconds.
If you are not controlled with your symptoms you may increase the frequency of the dosing say 4 hourly. If even not controlled, then you may take a short course of systemic steroid like prednisolone 40 mg once a day for a week, continuing the above medication.
Get a chest x-ray done to rule out infection or any other cause of increased breathlessness.

Best wishes

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar