<s>[INST] Why can I use inhaled corticosteroids for many years, but corticosteroid cream on my skin for only a short period? [/INST] The skin and the blood vessels just below the surface of the skin are very sensitive to the effects of corticosteroids. If you apply a corticosteroid cream to the same area of skin for a long time, the skin and the walls of the blood vessels become fragile and break easily, which makes bruising common. Because of this, doctors and scientists have looked very carefully to see whether this could happen in the airways of people treated with corticosteroids over a long period of time. However, no signs of damage to the airways have been seen and it seems that the lining of the airways reacts to corticosteroids in a different way from the skin. Source: Ginasthma. Link: https://ginasthma.org/about-us/faqs/. Field: Lung Disease. Disease: Asthma </s>