Whoops, my bad. That's what I get for spouting off the cuff. I was confusing my albuterol inhaler with my Flonase and Symbicort inhalers.

I'll admit the whole mess over albuterol gets on my nerves. It's a piss-poor rescue inhaler, which I've heard from every asthma sufferer I know. It never works for me or anyone I know as a true rescue inhaler. It's only useful as a preventive inhaler. I use it before a ride. Some days I don't even carry it in my jersey pocket because it does absolutely no good at all, and I've heard the same from other asthmatics who carry albuterol.

Part of the problem is it's a powder. Most of it sticks to the mouth and never reaches the airway. Same with those stupid disc inhalers. And the more congested the airway, the weaker the ability to inhale sharply enough to draw it into the airway. So we might as well just swallow the stuff a few hours before exercise. And it can take a dozen puffs, spaced about 5-15 minutes apart, to even being to offer any relief.

It's a sham perpetrated by the industry because of the pressure to take epinephrine rescue inhalers off the OTC market because of a few stupid druggies abusing it to get high. (Same thing will happen soon with loperamide, the most common OTC anti-diarreahal, because a few morons insist on taking dozens or hundreds of the tabs at once to get a mild opiate buzz, and end up in the ER with impacted colons.)

Epinephrine inhalers are the only true rescue inhalers. I don't care what the claims are for albuterol. Nothing else works in a true asthma emergency except epinephrine. And if you don't use the inhaler immediately the airway closes and you need the epi shot. I've hauled my cousin's kids to the ER over identical emergencies when they ignored the symptoms and didn't use their epi rescue inhalers in time.

/rantoff