Flovent is not an Asthma preventitive, it's a symptom mitigative... there are
no Asthma preventitives, unfortunately.

---= BOYCOTT FRENCH--GERMAN (belgium) =---
     ---= Move UNITED NATIONS To Paris =---
Sheldon          
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"Life would be devoid of all meaning were it without tribulation."
     

Have you tried Pulmicort?  Also, Flovent is available in different
strengths, how many micrograms (mcg) does you current prescription
deliver per dose?

--
"Iraq will not be defeated. Iraq has now already achieved
victory - apart from some technicalities."
Iraqi Ambassador Mohsen Khalil after the fall of Baghdad

If you're only having to use albuterol 4-6 times a day, that's actually
within the manufacturer's recommended dose so you don't sound too badly
controlled to me; if you said you had to use albuterol 20-30 times a day and
you were also on high-dose (1000 mg/day fluticasone according to CBI)
inhaled steroids and also on leukotrine inhibitors and your peak flow
was 30% of normal, that would be rather more problematic.  If your albuterol
use goes up, I'd ask your doctor about increasing your inhaled steroid dose
as the most effective way of controlling your illness.

You could also ask about getting some allergy tests and explore allergen
avoidance in your home if they identify some allergic triggers.

For interest, I've listed a couple of newer treatments below although
I think you're already on the best treatment going so they probably
wouldn't apply to you.

Xolair (generic name: omalizumab - some vicious bean-counter  thought
that one up, try saying it fast) is a relatively recent genetically
engineered drug for which there have been some claims of success, based
on double-blind clinical trials.  The FDA have approved it but slapped a
cancer risk warning on it, although the manufacturers dispute whether
there is any increased risk.  Remember it's very new and there is little
long-term experience of it's use - I believe it's also very expensive.  
They give you one injection a month, if memory serves me.  Again, it's not
a true preventative, though; it aims to block the allergic reaction chain
to control the illness.  There have been some recommendations that it might
be useful for severe asthmatics whose symptoms are not controlled by
inhaled steroids (which probably rules you out).

There has been some recent research in the UK on an asthma 'vaccine'
for cat allergen (a hospital in london and I think imperial college,
I can try to dig out a reference if you want) which is basically a
desensitisation injection approach, the initial results were very good
but it's still experiemtal at this stage so not much point asking your
doc about it.  However this could arguably be called a preventative approach,
so I've included it for interest.

Another line of preventative approach may be some kind of genetic
therapy - there's been recent research that has identified some of the
genes implicated in asthma - however that's unlikely to be available for
years if not decades.

Please note I'm not medically qualified and you should not take my
post as medical advice, always ask your doctor before making any
changes to your treatment.

-- gumbo

Advair, which combines fluticasone (Flovent) and Salmeterol (bronchodilator)
and is available in several strengths.

QVar, a new formulation of Beclamethasone (smaller particle size for better
penetration, theoretically).

The leukotriene inhibitors, Singulair & Accolate, which work very well in
some--not at all in others.

Xolair, a genetically engineered (and very expensive) new class of drug that
targets IgE, the antibody underlying allergic asthma.

As some others have said, why don't you ask your doctor to
give you Advair.  It is flovent/serevent combined, you will
only need one puff, morning and evening.

The best preventative asthma treatment is to get rid of it entirely.
In my case, this was 15 weeks of azithromycin (Zithromax).  If this is
of interest to you, please see http://www.oshinsky.org/asthma.htm

Dave Oshinsky

I use the Serevent Diskus inhaler, and have had to use my albuterol
inhaler MUCH less.  In fact, I have been able to tell a difference
when the stopped making the serevent aerosol and switched to the
diskus form.

Cindi in NC