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Asthma and running
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I too have been in denial that I have asthma as I only need to use the reliever during this time of year. However, this winter I noticed I was also affected by the very cold air, but not severly but enough to make me cough a lot after running and to struggle with breathing in races.
So now I'm being good and taking the Qvar once a day and the ventolin only before a race at the moment. Although I know come April/May I'll need it for training too, but hopefully now I'm taking the preventer I won't suffer like last year!
Trinity I dropped out of 2 races last summer due to asthma I just could not breathe when I tried to run and within a mile I knew I was in trouble! I know exactly what you mean about the body being trained but the breathing letting you down. I'd go back to your doctor and see if there is something else you could take. I've not had palpatations, but I know a friend who has.
PLEASE take your asthma seriously, and use your preventers if you are prescribed them
asthma can kill
it worries me sometimes when i read some of the posts on here
But they arent a substitute for proper treatment either
ive been a doctor for 13 years, and acute severe asthma still scares the c--p out of me yes, even in a hospital setting
just google in quorn and asthma and you'll see the reports
I first noticed problems with my breathing while out training in the cold, so maybe as it gets warmer I won't need any meds.
PH...my asthma is not severe by any means, it's more of a nuisance to my training and racing.
a keen sportsman himself.
i thought doctors were invincible
you are in control of that asthma
Never run in mist or fog tho
im not asthmatic, but theres a world of difference between 6 am and 9 am
Trinity, glad you found some benefit with the breathing..... you asked about cost of couses earlier in the thread, i think when i did the buteyko course it was quite expesive but it was 5 evenings, and at that time there weren't many courses on offer or many butyko practitioners around. There seems to be more practitioners etc around now so maybe you can go to shorter seminars? or maybe there are books ? if you know a bit about physiology etc then it might be usefull just to do more reading first. When i did the course, they recommended selotaping your mouth at night to try and teach your body to breath through your nose more !!! I did this for quite a while... however the selotape was NEVER still on in the morning and i never could find it ... ooh just thought hope i didn't swallow it all those times !!
Hippo, i totally agree about taking asthma seriously, and i think there has been some bad press in the past about buteyko saying how bad drugs are and you should stop using them, certaintly the bloke who took the course i went on years ago was definitely anti drugs and didn't hide that, however he did not say to STOP taking medicine, rather to reduce it if you felt the breathing exercise were helping etc.
Having had EIA throughout my teans, trying every preventer drug in the doctors medicine handbook and yet i still found nothing that enabled me to exercise at a decent intensity, where do you go from there especially when sport is one of the most important things in your life? I (well my mum) decided to give various alternative medicines a go. Buteyko helped me, and up until Jan this year I had not had an attack in about 5/6 years and not used any medication since then, when i had my attack out of the blue while doing X-Country (there is a lesson in there about X-Country being evil I am sure !!) what did i do.. well first i thought what is wrong with me ??.... then oh S**T it's an asthma attack ... then... well any asthmatic i am sure will understand i went into PANIC mode...... then i remembered about how to control my breathing which i had learned from my buteyko course..... result i managed to get myself in enough control to not collapse at the St Johns ambulance ...
And yes i went to my doctors soon after and am back on medication to try and sort myself out again, cos i did get a big scare and not knowing what suddenly sparked it off really worried me.
I am not sure how much anyone knows about the buteyko method and don't mean to be patronising, but the physiology behind their ideas is very interesting, i did a lot of research on it and wrote an essay for my degree on it. In my option I think there is some real benefit and some research to back up their ideas, however i think there is also a need for drugs in treating asthma. Surely we should be trying anything possible to keep the amount of people off drugs that don't need to be especially with the amount of 'asthma' sufferers increasing so quickly .. because what works for one person may not work for another. Which sparks another intersting debate as to why !! I am sure buteyko had a wacky theory on that.. must see if i can dig out my notes and to see if i can find out what it was .
and a lot of asthma attacks are made worse with panic-as you quite correcxtly say tigger
since you have had started having asthma symptoms have you had a lack of energy too ? I have been feeling so tired over the last month, which hasn't helped with my motivation to training !
I don't have asthma - but even sitting here typing am breathing thro my mouth (OK I've got a bit of a cold !) but that's normal for me
Running is just gasping for air
I've tried so hard to get myself to 'nose breathe' and just can't - except for 6 glorious weeks just after I first took Co Q 10 for a while......
I had a scary race last year where I carried on even though I was gasping for air and then after felt light headed and weak as if I was going to faint. My husband had to get me home quite quickly, luckily he was with me at that race as I would not have been able to drive. It's since then that I know that even though I feel ok now and my peak flow is good, come summer it might be very different.
Does anyone experience a burning in their throat and chest after a hard run?
I think I'll try and get most of my runs done during early morning through the summer even if it means getting up an hour earlier!
During a previous life, I had a bit of a flirtation with running to get me fit for football. When I started, I was on salbutamol only, and thought that I was fine to run after a puff or two. I was put on a preventer and my times round my usual route dropped by ten percent, virtually overnight.
But I get a burning sensation in my chest after a hard run now...not so much in my throat though.
I also haven't been low on energy either...how are your iron levels, I have to watch mine...being vege
Of course that might have been the EPO......
A few years ago (in the '80s actually) I was on a particular preventer that made a dreadful noise when you took it. This was embarrasing at school (for I was but a fresh-faced 17-year old at the time) so I skipped the school dose most of the time... it didn't matter really, after all, I didn't suffer that badly at all, did I?
Well, as it happens, I embarked on a cycling holiday with some friends that summer. I had to abandon after one day because of asthma and come home :-{
Well, that wasn't the end of it... the asthma continued for a few days, then got really bad. To cut a long story short... the doctor arrived but couldn't keep me breathing, and I lost conciousness before the ambulance arrived.
A few weeks later I was fully recovered. I was starting to think along the lines "It wasn't so bad... the hospital would save me if it happened again". Summer holidays were over and I returned to school... only to discover that someone else in my year had died from an asthma attack over the summer!
That hit me so hard you wouldn't believe it! Since then, managing my asthma has been a top priority at all times.
If the asthma is playing up, don't put yourself in any danger. I always know where the ventolin is - I don't usually run with it (unless I'll be a long way from base or it's the asthma season for me) but I know where it is and know the early signs and will always be able to get the to drugs if needed. I always have at least one inhaler in the bedside cupboard, in the medicine box at home, in my desk at work, in the car, on my motorbike, in my sports bag etc...
Understand the drugs you have. What they do, what dose is safe in an emergency (my bad attack could have been eased if I'd known what dose of ventolin I could have taken as an emergency-only one-off, for instance). The main weapon is the preventer. If you don't have one, make sure you understand why, and if you're not satisfied, keep asking, get second opinion etc. Make sure you are totally happy that your medication is as good as it can be for your situation.
Sorry for the lecture, but this is VERY IMPORTANT to me, and to you!
Cheers,
Dave.
I was told at the hospital that it was my healthy and powerful heart and lungs that kept me alive. Had I not been so fit, I probably would have died!
Thats EXACTLY what i mean
It is not funny watching someone die of asthma in a hospital setting either
I take my asthma very seriously and know where all my meds are, take them on time every day ,would never not take them as I know only to well what would happen to me!!
I can only breath through mouth not through nose .
It must be very scary Hippo(I know I would be) and you are a doctor!
Miles makes smiles.
Progression
Miles makes smiles.
Progression
Please take care all and heed the advice given here by people who know.