Inhaled, short-acting, beta-agonist medications are widely used in the treatment of asthma. It is recommended in current asthma management guidelines that these medications should only be used "as required" for relief of asthma symptoms. Despite this, there are still a number of asthmatic patients who are using excessive amounts. In occasional patients this may be detrimental to the control of asthma. We report the case of a 43-year-old, steroid-dependent asthmatic, with unstable asthma, using salbutamol up to 30 times a day. Following reduction of her beta-agonist use she had a dramatic improvement in her asthma control and was able to successfully stop her oral steroids.