What the doctors don't tell you is that long term use of these drugs cause permanent respiratory lung and heart damage.
I'd like to see the data.
Actually the data is the opposite. Poorly controlled asthma results in long term damage as siginificant as chronic obstructive pulmonary diseae due to a process called airway remodeling. We used to think asthma was a reversible process.
Your advice may only apply to excercise induced asthma since long term studies do suggest airway remodeling and subsequent damage from poorly controlled moderate to severe
intrinsic or atopic asthma.....so I would not be espousing your theory to the general asthmatic population. There is no data on albuterol or singulair causing long term damage. Serevent can cause heart problems if people use it incorrectly by taking them for rescue treatments and accolate (which most docs don't use) can cause an idiopathic eosinophilic syndrome. Inhaled steroids prevent progression of the long and slow decline in meaurable lung volumes (FEV1) etc. rather than moderate or severe asthmatic who doesn't use them.
here is a general review
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/446395_2
This year alone, thousands of ashma sufferers will die not because they didn't have medication, but because the drugs STOPPED WORKING after years of overexposure.
Once again the opposite is true.
Asthma is the fastest and growing cause of death compared other modern diseases where mortality has decreased. Most of them in young people not using their inhalers correctly or getting their asthma under control. It's actually associated with decrese in asthma medicine usage especially inhaled corticosteroids (see link below). Most of the deaths I've seen are people still clutching their empty, expired inhalers. Had they refilled their meds on time or had it around ready to go, their lives would not be ended.
Another link
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/445503