Bradley Wiggins

Pirahna

Looking through yesterdays Cycling Weekly there is a bit about Bradley and the stuff he takes on tour. Part of his kit list is asthma drugs. Is he really an asthmatic?

bigdawg

Hey good to see you over here, you can almost smell the fresh paint..

Apparently something like a 1/3 or 2/3 of the peleton are asthmatic, or at least say they are so they can use the puffers. Not sure of the exact figures but as a percentage its more than double the percentage of hte general public.

Moose11

yeah i find it pretty hard to believe that many are 'actually' asthmetic.

sing_for_absolution

Well to look at it the other way, they've been cycling on public roads for most of their lives and inhaling car exhaust fumes might be a reason?

photojonny

There was something in last week's Cycling Weekly about 'exercise-induced asthma' which is apparently what the peloton suffer from.

psychiatricblues

When you start analysing things like this, you realise that "doping" isn't always a cut and dried as you'd imagine. Most professional sportsmen/women caught doping are plain cheats, but a few are caught in the grey area between treatment and performance enhancement.

Where is the line drawn? Is exercise induced asthma a medical condition, or a reflection of someone lack of athletic abilities? I don't know.

Somebody riding the Tour could probably be accurately described as suffering from exercise induced aneamia, but should they be treated for that with EPO? I don't think so, but exercise induced asthma is treated. Please explain the difference.

pawlfreehub

They've got no more reason than the general population to have exercise induced asthma (except maybe that they exercise whereas the general population just get fatter), where's your cynicism, it's doping for many, and of course for some it will be genuine asthma They should get better medical care if their asthma control is so bad they have to use the quantity of salbutamol they need to get anywhere close to the testers upper limit, I bet thats not reached via an inhaler.
Anyhow as far as I recall the anabolic effect isn't proven either so it may be the pharmaceutical equivalent of sticking bits of tape on your nose any how.

notanotherhill

Guys im not trying to turn this into a medical research site, but the long term effects of inhalers are minimal. Research has shown time and again that Salbutomol (the usual constituent drug in inhalers) is not beneficial to endurance athletes.
If anyone thinks im trying to defend dopers, I'm not, just trying to clarify this.

SteveR_100Milers

you could theoretically drink enough coffee to fail a drugs test. Go figure.

iainf72

SteveR_100Milers wrote:

you could theoretically drink enough coffee to fail a drugs test. Go figure.

No you couldn't.

Caffine is legal - The rules changed a few years ago. So if you got a ban for it in the old days you must feel short changed.

SteveR_100Milers

B*gger. If only I'd known that 2 weeks ago...

Do you have a list of the limits for banned substances in a) everyday descriptions e.g. aspirin not salicyclic acid, and easy to understand quantities (i.e. ingested rather than blood level mol/ml for example)

iainf72

Here you go.

http://www.didglobal.com/page/didenqs/search

You can search and see if what you're using is legal.

Enjoy.

SteveR_100Milers

I doubt guinness is on there. I couldnt afford to take anytihng else, let alone want to. I'm quite happy with just dipping under the hour thanks..

Just searched Fenufibrate and Lipitor. All I had was under the hour? ha ha no chance!

notanotherhill

Ask your GP if he/she has an old copy of MIMMS they would be willing to give you. Its the monthly medical publication (free to Doctors I might add) that lists every perscription and non perscription drug available (thats why they get it montly-to stay abreast of new drugs on the market). Every drug in there is denoted as permitted in sport, restricted in sport, or banned in sport.
If you have a copy of that its almost an impossibility to say that you didnt realise the medications you were taking wern't allowed in sport.

Mark Alexander

SteveR_100Milers wrote:

you could theoretically drink enough coffee to fail a drugs test. Go figure.

yea, de-caff's strong stuff

hevipedal

Exercise induced asthma is very common, my daughter suffers from it, so did my son when he took exercise...............

jalapeno

you also don't necessarily have to have asthma as a condition to suffer similar symptoms/respiratory problems as an allergic reaction, something simple as hayfever... rural France loaded with pollen in the summer.
Also, slabutamol may just be 'in case', nothing says he uses it every day.

EmergBiker

Also have a look at the 10%ME site for links and info on drug use in sport. You can also get free stuff from the shop.

http://www.100percentme.co.uk/home.php

Salbutamol may be one of those drugs where levels do count, didn't Petacchi get done for very high levels despite a known asthma problem earlier this year??

S

neilv

Speaking as someone who suffers from exercise induced asthma and is marries to an asthmatic I think you'll find it's more common than you think.

I get exercise induced asthma pretty redmonly but more comonly when its cold (mornings or winter). So I often use an inhaler before I ride just in case. If I don't it's like a 20 stone man stting on my chest.

So I suspect most racers use it just to keep their airways open........

deejay.

notanotherhill wrote:

Guys im not trying to turn this into a medical research site, but the long term effects of inhalers are minimal. Research has shown time and again that Salbutomol (the usual constituent drug in inhalers) is not beneficial to endurance athletes.
If anyone thinks im trying to defend dopers, I'm not, just trying to clarify this.

Well, I have exercised-induced asthma (probably because against medical advice my mother chose to smoke when she was pregnant with me and my sister both) and I use an inhaler to reduce the wheezing I otherwise do during and after exercise (swim/bike/run). I wouldn't say it improves my capacity for exercise, but then again I can pretty much max out a peak flow meter anyway...

deej

jerry3571

I read an article in the Procycling that said, a pro rider never realised that he had Asthma until he gave up being a bike rider. He had taken Steroids and got the usual benefits but also the side effect of temporarily curing his unknown Asthma.
Bit of a mystery why these guys are taking Inhalers if they are getting a similar drug from the patches/ injections from Paulo Nultini ?!?

Felix-da-house-mouse

my chiropracter has told me that i should find a way to try and get rid of my asthma as taking an inhaler for a long time can induce osteoperosis, p.s see my topic needing some advice with my asthma.

Ma coli

psychiatricblues wrote:

Is exercise induced asthma a medical condition, or a reflection of someone lack of athletic abilities? I don't know.

The first can result in the next due to said asthmatic running 20 metres then falling over while trying not to go blue in the face. When treated can often result in better than average athletic ability due to the association of exercise with extreme pain in the lung/chest area!

Was there anyone at your school who was shite at running until at a certain age (just after they'd been given their first inhaler of whatever sort they needed) when they started to not be in last place? They probably had it and wanted to do better but usually didn't have the ability due to physiology to transfer enough oxygen to the muscles. Suddenly the condition has gone, and these people who are so used to going to the pain barrier just to not make themselves look an absolute laughing stock find that they can perform well without going there. The fact that they are used to dealing with pain to try to prevent the laughing stock situation means that when suddenly faced with the chance of winning, their increased used-ness to physical exercise induced pain will give them an advantage - if you're used to going through the pain barrier only to lose, how much more can you suffer to win?

jerry3571

I know Ventolin expands the air sacks in the lungs to increase air capacity. The strange thing is that if Steroids are in general use then the Ventolin shouldn't be of any use to them. Ventolin is a Steroid. Some Professional Blike riders find they actually have Asthma when they retire from the sport due to thier Steriod intake through thier career which has hidden the symntoms of underlying Asthma. I think Ivor Gonzalez Galdeano (oops! spelling!!) was done for using 10 times the amount of Ventolin than is recommended. :?

Ma coli

jerry3571 wrote:

I know Ventolin expands the air sacks in the lungs to increase air capacity. The strange thing is that if Steroids are in general use then the Ventolin shouldn't be of any use to them. Ventolin is a Steroid. Some Professional Blike riders find they actually have Asthma when they retire from the sport due to thier Steriod intake through thier career which has hidden the symntoms of underlying Asthma. I think Ivor Gonzalez Galdeano (oops! spelling!!) was done for using 10 times the amount of Ventolin than is recommended. :?

Whoever told you that is, like you, wrong and misguided. Ventolin is a trade name for salbutamol and DOES NOT expand the air sacs in the lungs. What it does do is helps to stop the spasm in the broncheal tubes that cause the asthma attack in the first place.
Salbutamol is not a steroid, it is a beta-agonist (it acts on the same sites as a beta blocker but in a different way).
It also should have no effect on those that do not suffer from broncho-constriction.

The preventative treatment Becotide or beclometasone is a steroid, but it is not an anabolic steroid, so stop thinking of Ben Johnson everytime you see the mention of "steroids"...

jerry3571

I guess that's why I couldnt make any sense of why they would take Ventolin then. Does this mean that Steroid abuse in the Peleton is minimal? If they were on Steroids then there wouldn't be any need for the use of Ventolin. My God!! I think, I beleive again!! :shock:

Ma coli

I can't understand why the last series of Stephen Fry's show QI didn't coverr this under the heading of "doping" and sub-heading "general ignnrance" but if the general public and professional athletes are going to be ignoramt then what can we do?