Question for Asthmatics

I've got both exercise- and weather-induced asthma (lucky me). If there were exercises, I'd love to learn them, but I've never heard of any. Except for staying active. Which you already do! (An ex-boyfriend's dad had terrible asthma later in life, and a doctor told him simply staying active and moving would help increase his lung function -- sadly he didn't do any of that and because of it wasn't doing so great).

Some days, my asthma is bad, some days it's non-existent. I've learned to predict the bad days and just make sure to take an extra hit off my inhaler before I do a workout. Are your meds not helping?

One note, if you're doing triathlons and need to take your inhaler before you race, try to leave some time, like a good 15-20 minutes, prior to the race to take them. I don't know about you, but Albuterol tends to make my heart race, which is seriously annoying before heading into a swim.

In a pinch if I can't get to my inhaler immediately, pursed-lip breathing does the trick:

http://www.sierrabiotech.com/bt_copd_plb.html

Good luck -- asthma sucks, literally, but once you figure out your triggers and the right meds, it's pretty manageable, even as an endurance athlete. 

If you were my patient I would try you on symbicort (or advair) to see if you still get this.

I also have EIA and need higher treatment when I am training hard

I have allergy induced asthma.  Talk to your doctor.  Get on a good maintenance inhaler (that will be defined by your response to the meds, NOT by current trends in advertising or what other people are taking ....ALSO NOT determined by your health insurance tiered pharmacy benefits***).  Get a rescue inhaler.  Know your triggers and your baseline peak flow so you can trend  where you are having problems and have good communication with the doc about this.    Get an asthma action plan.  There is no reason to settle for being in better shape than 99% people of your age when you could have better pulmonary function.  

****If your insurance says a particular med is not on an approved list there are ways to get past this , in general it requires proof that you aren't well managed on the meds covered in the lower tiers with a letter from your doc.

Exercise induced asthma?  Use the rescue inhaler 20 minutes prior to training and keep it with you.  You will know if you really need it or not  but it needs to be with you cause it does no good sitting in the transition area or car while you are out on the bike.   I have been known to tell my training partners where I put it just in the instance I can't get to it cause it happened to me once that I couldn't reach into my jersey pockets to get it cause my coughing was so bad.

There are a number of asthmatics on ST also.  For me, I find that the preventative meds (Pulmicort for me.  I was on Advair but downgraded as I want to 'save' Advair for when I really need it) are the key but sometimes, it just sucks.  I am ALWAYS short of breath compared to my husband, just goes with the territory.  I have also found that albuterol takes about 30-45 min to kick in to GOOD breathing at effort.  In an attack it takes about 10 min to kick in, but for really good breathing (probably like a normal person) it takes longer for me.  I don't get racing heart from albuterol but DEFINITELY from Combivent nebs  (I have a personal nebulizer).

Try taking your albuterol a little longer before your runs or increase to 4 puffs (I think standard is 2 to 4 puffs, right?) and also make sure you're waiting a full minute between your puffs.  Lastly, consider getting a chamber (aerochamber is one) to make sure you're getting all your meds and see if any of that makes a difference.  Lastly are you tracking your peak flows?  That helps me to quantify what is going on.

The more I exercised and ate better (mainly less sugar and other inflammatory foods and more of the good stuff-fruits vegis) the less "asthma" I had.  I slowly tapered off all of my medications and consider myself asthma-free now for years!

I've had asthma my entire life (exercise induced, allergy induced, and viral induced.....just full blown asthma), and I've never known of any exercises that could improve my condition.  

Advair changed my life.  Seriously.  I don't even need my rescue inhaler much anymore at all.  I have a nebulizer I use when I am sick, as my asthma is horrendous when I have a virus or something that affects my lungs.  

I do carry my rescue inhaler on the run portion of my triathlons.  I just tuck it in one of the pockets of my tri shirt in T2.  

THANKS! You have all been very helpful. There are a couple of changes I can implement. i.e. the pro-air a bit longer in advance of my w.o. and increasing the number of puffs. Also you have provided some discussion point to have with my DR. 

As always BT rocks! 

Thanks again, Don