On Thursday, the US Food and Drug Administration demanded for new limits to be imposed on powerful and long-lasting bronchial medicines that are used by millions of Americans every single day as a potential treatment for asthma, a development which is aimed at lowering the risk of complications which lead to hospitalization, or even death in the extremist of cases.

Physicians were urged to try and shift asthma patients away from medicines which contain both long-acting beta agonists, commonly called LABAs, and inhaled corticosteroids.

The FDA has stressed that the patients should instead be put on products which contain only corticosteroids or other asthma-relieving medication whenever possible.

Also, patients who find it difficult to control symptoms of asthma in any other way should use LABAs for the shortest period of time possible, but the medicines should never be taken alone as a treatment of asthma in adult or children.

The new regulation of medicines has been a direct result of the clinical data which revealed that the use of LABAs tends to carry an increased risk of "aggravating asthma symptoms leading to hospitalization and, in some cases, death".