Cycling and Asthma
acr
Posts: 53
Hi Folks,
Just wondering how many of us in the cycling fraternity are asthmatics ? I'm one, excercise induced but seems to be getting worse so they gave me the brown inhaler....grrrr! I read somewhere that cycling can improve lung capacity (?) and is therefore a positive thing for asthmatics. Am interested in your experiences, not for research or anything scientific, just interest ie. do you take the blue inhaler before heading out or take it as and when, and does asthma interfere with your cycling in any way etc....
Ta,
Ade
Just wondering how many of us in the cycling fraternity are asthmatics ? I'm one, excercise induced but seems to be getting worse so they gave me the brown inhaler....grrrr! I read somewhere that cycling can improve lung capacity (?) and is therefore a positive thing for asthmatics. Am interested in your experiences, not for research or anything scientific, just interest ie. do you take the blue inhaler before heading out or take it as and when, and does asthma interfere with your cycling in any way etc....
Ta,
Ade
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Comments
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A good friend of mine (also a doc) has exercise induced asthma and finds that taking his blue inhaler before exercise helps keep it at bay for longer..... Just his experience though.0
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I used to have to stop and take an inhaler after around 15 minutes riding, don't any more because I've learned to control my breathing more and got fitter too.
My peak flow readings have gone up over 100 L/min on the EU scale thingy in the last year, and is now not far below what it should be, so I'm doing quite well.
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I also get excercise induced asthma and my doc has put me on Serotide (think that's right) which is a combination of the brown & blue giving 12 hours of ventolin.
You can still use the ventolin and he has also recommended I do this before cycling.
My peak flow was down to 450 - should be 625 - but has increased to 550-ish by using the Serotide.
The only thing I find with both the Serotide and Becotide is that it seems to affect my throat (husky voice).
If you use Becotide it may be worth getting a spacer to pump the stuff in before inhaling?
Regarding the riding, I do sound out of breath quite quickly but seem to be able to keep this up for a couple of hours ok. Personally, I feel I lose out on steep hills as my lungs run out before my legs?
Mike0 -
I have just been diagnosed as having exercise induced asthma, however I’m not so sure, so wondered if my symptoms are anything like you guys, this is what basically happens to me.
Generally on the first climb of the day (and thus first really high heart rate) I run out of breath, I feel like I cant breath anymore, and start to get light headed. I generally have to stop and once I do I feel like I have to take off my helmet and loosen clothing. 1 to 2 minutes after this I am back to normal, heart rate has gone down, back on bike and off again.
I have experienced this a couple of times when not on a climb but when I really exert myself and thus can occur at anytime during a ride, but generally only once. So for instance if I climb same hill again later in the day I have no problem.
I have been prescribed a blue reliever (which is like my wife’s asthma inhaler except that you don’t pump it as you suck through the reliever works). I have tried a local ride with a nice uphill for the last two weeks, on the first week I used the inhaler and rode Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday I did the exact same ride each day and had the breathing problem only on the Thursday. Each day I used the inhaler before cycling and the climb is about 25 minutes into the ride.
The next week I did exactly the same ride 4 times Thursday through Sunday but without using the inhaler, same situation occurred I had the breathing problem on the Thursday. So I don’t believe the inhaler is helping.
I however suffer the same symptoms when not cycling, if I walk briskly up 3 flights of stairs at work, I cannot talk and struggle to breath for around 30m seconds. I also found when swimming a couple of length this weekend that on the first two lengths I started to struggle to breath again, but after that no problem.
I generally ride around 75 miles per week off-road, I am a little over weight and just turned 40. Any thoughts ?0 -
hi all i joined this forum for this reason i have suffered with asthma since the day i was born!!
last visit to the docs they say i have cronic reseritory disease i have a blue,green and purple inhalers and i also get given a course of steroids every now and then to help keep my chest calmed down i hate having asthma!!
in cant go too far on my bike at the minute as my chest cant handle it although i havent done a proper bike ride in almost a year i need to get back into it any help advice on breathing techniques or exercises i can do would be a great help
cheers0
