[Zutroy]

Hey does anyone here have asthma or exercised induced asthma? I had my first experience with crappy air and racing here at the last Fontana race. I thought i was going to die coming down the wall, and fro about 2 hours after the race. The issues with the poor air quality were different than what i normally have from just riding hard or the cold.

So my question is short is what kind of Inhalers ya use, and does it help at all with crappy air?

 

[buildyourown]

I know exactly what your dealing with. I've had exercised induced asthma for about 15yrs. Advair Diskus is what I'm on now and it seems to be the best. It's 2 drugs in one so your co-pay is lower than buying 2 seperate drugs.
Mine is way worse in the winter. I can get away with mild exercise without drugs in the summer.
I don't take the stuff everyday cause it destroys your liver/kidneys. I only take it when I need it.

 

[downhillzeypher]

Albuterol. Works fine, I can breathe normal with it, but it's a pain to carry around an inhaler all the time.

 

[buildyourown]

Talk to a real doctor about this instead of taking the word of a bunch of internet dorks.
Albuterol isn't something you want to be taking regularly. It works fine as a rescue inhaler for mild asthma, but it only lasts 4 hours and it is REALLY tough on your liver/kidneys.
Aersols are also worse than the diskus for regular use. They can cause throat infections and are less effecient.

Again, talk to your doctor.

 

[downhillzeypher]

WTF? My doctor didn't tell me that...

 

[buildyourown]

Yeah, If you're taking Albuterol everyday or mulitply times a day, you should be on something else. I'm not a doctor but I've been on lots of asthma meds.
They make drugs that last 12 hours which means you don't have to carry them all the time. I just take it when I wake up if I'm going to go riding or do anything active that day.

 

[lovebunny]

ive had terrible asthma my whole life. to the point wherei had to keep a nebulizer in my room. i allways use my advair evrynight and evrymorning. thats my preventative. and i use the typical abuterol inhaler as my rescue inhaler. i take that before evry ride and as needed along the way.

 

[Ciaran]

Yeah, If you're taking Albuterol everyday or mulitply times a day, you should be on something else. I'm not a doctor but I've been on lots of asthma meds.
They make drugs that last 12 hours which means you don't have to carry them all the time. I just take it when I wake up if I'm going to go riding or do anything active that day.

Same for my GF... She was using the Albuterol inhaler multiple times a day and the doc said, "No way!", and put her on different meds. Now he has an inhaler that she uses once a day and has the Albuterol for emergencies. Seems to work pretty well for her. Go see your doc, they should fix you right up.

 

[Zutroy]

Yeah, If you're taking Albuterol everyday or mulitply times a day, you should be on something else. I'm not a doctor but I've been on lots of asthma meds.
They make drugs that last 12 hours which means you don't have to carry them all the time. I just take it when I wake up if I'm going to go riding or do anything active that day.

Actually, i am talking to a Doc about it, he suggested seeing what other racers are using and how they work since DH and Smog, are not per say something you would normally deal with in a medical sense.

Exercised Induced Asthma is a strange beast, there is not alot of info on it and how it happens, and what is out there doesn't always agree....well actually most of the info doesn't agree at all

So yeah albuterol is is pretty strong drug, the receptor that it binds to can cause you heart to do some strange things too. Now that being said, it is considered to be a safe drug for limited use during the day, they usually say 2 puffs 15-30mins before exercise, and there are some forms that are better than others. Ventolin is a good one to use, it's a little less harsh than the original albuterol forms.

It works well for me in the cold, I just don't know about with the smog. I've been talking to one of the docs we work with about it today. Hopefully I'll be able to get a sample from him before the weekend to try.

 

[rvlacich]

I'm more of an XCer than a DHer, but I use Albuterol for my exercise induced asthma. I don't get to ride as much as I should, so I only take it a few times a month. I've been around the block as far as asthma medications go, and it's the only thing that's consistently worked for me without exascerbating my acid reflux or allergies.
Albuterol works okay for me, but I've basically accepted that I will always have asthma. I think I'm already past any point where I might grow out of it. Regular regiments of intense riding or other cardio do help me by raising my threshold, but the asthma is always there. When I ride, I aim to stay just below the threshold of an asthma attack, and I've gotten good at sensing it. There have been one or two times in the past year where I had an exercise induced attack on the trail, but Albuterol works great as a rescue inhaler.
I don't have much to say about air quality as I don't ever ride where the air is real bad. I know I don't fair well in bad air, but I've never ridden in it. Best of luck to you.

 

[ChrisKring]

I was diagnosed with exercise induced asthma after blacking out in a XC race. Up until then I always felt short of breath and felt like I was drownding (sp?) when I was running or riding. Luckly when I blacked out, a friend of mine with Asthma recognized what was going on and jammed an inhailer in my mouth.

After going through 3 different doctors at my companies health facility, I got to a dotor that raced pro XC and had asthma. She refered me to a specialist. The specialist can test you to determine exactly what was causing the attacks. Typically, an allergin in your environment coupled with the high breathing rate during a race is what triggers it. Mine was not diagnosed by the first few doctors since they only looked at my breathing capacity while under a lab triggered attack and compared it to a normal male of my weight and age. If you are above 80% of normal, they typically don't treat it. Well, my normal capacity is 150-160% of a normal male. Therefore when in an attack, I have about 50% of my normal capacity.

I take Alegra D twice a day to take care of my dust mite allergy. This also helps with seasonal grass/weed alergies. I am a mess without it.

I take Singular 10mg once a day and Advair 110 twice a day for the asthma. Albuterol is for rescue only. I had to take it after Snowshoe and a couple of times at night in the last year. I also can sense my limit and stay just below. The humidity level is critical for me. Too high or too low will cause issues during exercise. Get a heart rate monitor to help you find your limit. Your heart rate will spike just as an attack is coming on.

All of that said, see a specialist. Most doctors do not have a clue. Also, everyone is different so what works for me might not work for you. I had to try several other medications before we found something that worked well.

I would also advise that you warm up really good before a race. I notice a big difference if I warm up for 20-30 minutes before the race.

 

[Zutroy]

Thanks for the feedback, it looks like we're going to try albuterol for racing. We're actually going to do some experimenting doing some breathing tests at races pre and post race run to see if we can pic up a difference. If anyone wants to know what we find, if we find anything interesting let me know.

 

[fatguysmiling]

I think that it is important to note that the term exercise induced asthma is often missused. I am part of a large respiratory research group in Canada so I've heard far too many talks about this topic.

Be sure to get a proper diagnosis from someone other than your GP. Sputum analysis is necessary in order to properly diagnosis true asthma. If you don't see any inflammatory cells within the sputum (derived from your airways) certain therapies really won't work.

Some people have hypersensitive airways during exercise, but don't truly represent the asthmatic phenotype (inflammation is a hallmark). In this case irritants and dry air can cause contraction of airway smooth muscle decreasing airway calibre. These same stimuli can trigger and increase in mucous production that, combined with a decrease in airway calibre, will lead to weazing and chest tightness. Because of the lack of inflammation in this condition it shoud really be termed excercise induced airway hyperresponsivenss or bronchoconstriction.

The most effective treatment for this is the use of beta2-selective agonists (salbuterol, salmeterol and others) as they will directly relax the airway smooth muscle.

If, when you go to a respirologist and they perform spirometry and analyze your sputum, inflammatory cells (eosinophils) are observed you may be truly asthmatic and benefit from the use of both beta2-selective agonists and inhaled corticosteroids.

My suggestion, get a referral to a respiratory clinic and ask for a complete analysis of airway function and sputum.

If you want more literature to point you in the correct direction you can drop me an email and I'll find some good peer-review papers that support the importance of a sputum analysis.

Simon

hirotasa@mcmaster.ca