asthma!!!

Felix-da-house-mouse

hi, i've had asthma for about 15yrs now since i was 11 or 12, and i have now just thought about the idea of my body developing a need for ventolin, like a junkie needs smack, but not as severe lol. i've thought about buying the green powerbreathe to try and help me kick the inhaler into the proverbial touch. has any one tried this or knows any one who has? i've also seen a russian guy on the net who has excercises that he has "invented" which he says he has got rid of his daughters asthma.

any info on this?

willbevan

hi,

I have an older model red version.

Can say it has improved my lung capacity, my peak flow has increased, but i still have the larger than average variation (swings from 500-700 in the course of a day when im feeling nothing but fine)

It has not help me cure my ashma, but i feel its affects less, dont know if its a placebo or not though

Thanks

Will

Shadowduck

No idea what a green powerbreathe is, so can't help you with that, but I used to be a heavy / daily Ventolin user until I started using a Serevent inhaler morning and evening. Nowadays I don't even bother to carry a Ventolin.

Just my £0.02.

hammerite

Pretty similar to shadowduck.... my preventative is symbicort, now I hardly ever use ventolin. Although I do still carry it and usually have one puff before exercise.

As for the power breathe I was talking to a GP who is a runner. She said that she feels they are a bit of a gimmick, and that in proper testing didn't throw up any results that were surprising or showed that the results of using them are positive (or negative for that matter).

Felix-da-house-mouse

The green powerbreathe is for "well being" i believe.

SBothwell

I have a blue powerbreathe, and it allowed me to approximately half my Ventolin use when I was only on Ventolin. Placebo effect? possibly - but for £30 quid or whatever they are now, its worth a try isn't it?

(I was also switched to Serevent, and haven't needed to use Ventolin at all for the last 3 months... if you are using yours regularly, get down to see the asthma nurse and get it controlled properly)

Max_Man

I was a heavy ventolin user too, but when I got my dosage right on my Beclazone preventative inhaler I hardly ever use ventolin. I tried everything before even the green powerbreathe (expensive!!), it did help a little but I don't think anything is going to work until your asthma is more controlled.

My advice, go and see your gp, try and get reffered to an astma specialist and get it sorted properly.

My cycling has come on leap's and bound's since my asthma has been fully controlled.

Richie G

No idea what a green powerbreathe is, so can't help you with that, but I used to be a heavy / daily Ventolin user until I started using a Serevent inhaler morning and evening. Nowadays I don't even bother to carry a Ventolin.

Same here! A friend of mine who suffers a lot more than i do recommended asking to go onto Serevent. My asthma is only an issue if i get a cold these days- can't remember the last time i had to get a perscription for Ventolin!

giant_man

I had it from birth myself and nearly died when i was 11, but now I have grown out of it thank goodness, and i have found cycling to be great for asthma, as in I don't have it at all now.

Felix-da-house-mouse

hi, what is this servenant stuff? os ot just another inhaler or is it a pre-ventative or what? my asthma isnt too bad i mean today and yesterday i only used it twice. sometimes i wake up feeling like a smoker!!! no happy!!! lol.

sbullett

Interesting stuff, I've had asthma since birth as well, and take Beclamethasone preventer (brown) and salbutamol reliever (blue). I had a call from the GP nurse the other day asking me how well I felt my asthma was under control.

I replied that it was fine and then she said they'd noticed that I'd used a lot of preventer inhalers in the last year (6 apparently) and this implied that I wasn't as well under control as I thought!

The rule they use is that if you use you reliever on more than 2 days a week you are not under control.

Now I do a fair bit of sport (squash, cycling) and don't generally need to use the reliever for that, but I do find that last thing at night and first thing in the morning I am often out of breathe and need a quick puff. I think there might be an issue with an allegic reaction to our cats and / or house dust mites as our 5 year old has just be diagnosed with both and now is on the inhalers too......

I'm due to see the nurse on Thursday this week for a review of how I'm controlling my asthma so i will ask about the Serevent and the "powerbreathe" things.....

Interestingly, whenIi told her i commuted 15 miles to Leeds a couple of times a week by bike she wasn't impressed - reckoned the car fumes are worse than the exercise, even when I said I did it at 0530 in the morning!!!!

John C.

I too have had asthma since birth, largely associated with hay fever, All my life I have had hobbies that need controlled breathing (I played the flute, I was an archer at national level) These and cycling hills all require a disciplined breathing techniques, Now pushing 50 I am nearly asthma free.
Hope this helps and shows there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Richie G

hi, what is this servenant stuff?

It's a preventer- i take 2 puffs twice a day. I used to take Fluticasone (might be spelt like that!). Was starting to struggle, particulary at night. The nurse suggested the Serevent. She said it was just a better medicine. I barely touch my ventolin now, unless i've got a cold.

Felix-da-house-mouse

John C. wrote:

I too have had asthma since birth, largely associated with hay fever, All my life I have had hobbies that need controlled breathing (I played the flute, I was an archer at national level) These and cycling hills all require a disciplined breathing techniques, Now pushing 50 I am nearly asthma free.
Hope this helps and shows there is light at the end of the tunnel.

what have you done to help you get rid of it? obv sports etc but have you done breathing excercises?

Felix-da-house-mouse

has anyone looked at strelnikova excercises for releaving it? if you go on you tube and type that in it will show some russian doing "stupid" excercises that he says got rid of his daughters asthma. i am going to start doing these for 2 weeks tonight and i'll keep yous updated on here.


how come no-one really had asthma 30 or 40 years ago? what kinda world are we living in now? i snowboard alot in the winter and when i'm in the alps i never ever use my inhaler once, so it shows the air quality difference and i stay in the country in scotland so i feel sorry for you city boys down in england.

johncp

Hi Felix

I am a pharmacist, so this isn't just another anecdotal recommendation! Several posters have mentioned getting your asthma assessed by GP/nurse and that is definitely the way to go unless you are paranoid about medication. You can even get an assessment at some pharmacies - it's just a series of simple questions such as how often you use your ventolin, do you wake up short of breath, does your asthma stop you doing what you'd like to do? Many asthmatics don't like to use the brown, preventer inhalers because they don't seem to have an immediate effect - but they have a huge benefit if used regularly and after 2-4 weeks your ventolin use will decline a lot - if not you may then need to have some serevent added - but the first step is to see the professionals and listen to what they have to say and, most important of all, ACT on it!

Good luck

gav2.0

I too have had asthma since the age of about 5 (i'm 30 now) Luckily, my asthma isn't exercise induced & is mainly started by an allergic reaction (cats,dust,birds,rabbits etc) I used to not bother avoiding triggers but over the last few years I do if poss. I was put on a preventer (fluticasone) about 3 years ago which I had 2 puffs morning & night.

I had my 1st asthma check at the same time, I'd started cycling about 1 year earlier after losing a lot of weight (8stone) & my peak flow was quite low - around 300 - A year later after getting my first road bike & doing lots of regular exercise my peak flow went up to 700, which amazed the nurse who took it. I had also bought the green powerbreathe & used it daily for about 4 months.

I had this years check about 3 months ago & my peak flow went off the end of the scale. The nurse asked me if I really did have asthma & she has reduced my preventer medication by half.

Despite this I used my salbutamol reliever for the first time this year last week as I have been working in a house with 2 cats (not good) & i've been doped up on antihistamines all week :roll:

The amount of biking I do has definitely helped my asthma as has the reliever & the powerbreathe helped a bit, although it is hard work. You have to do 30 deep breaths with a nose clip on against resistence. One thing I found is that after about 15 breaths you start to produce a lot of saliva (gross) & it's hard not to wind up inhaling it. This led to me having a very bad chest infection at the time & was the reason I stopped using it. If you stopped half way & cleared your mouth & then carried on I think that would solve it, there should be something in the instructions about this IMO 8)

If you climb hills regularly on your bike or can do exercise that forces you to beathe deep I wouldn't really bother as this will do the same thing, but it can help. A good site for asthma help is www.asthma.org.uk (as you may know )

Finally I'd say avoid triggers keep medication to hand at all times & remember everyones asthma is different & what works for one may not work for all. Also an annual asthma check with your GP or nurse is a good idea. Sorry for the long post 8)

John C.

Felix-da-house-mouse wrote:

John C. wrote:

I too have had asthma since birth, largely associated with hay fever, All my life I have had hobbies that need controlled breathing (I played the flute, I was an archer at national level) These and cycling hills all require a disciplined breathing techniques, Now pushing 50 I am nearly asthma free.
Hope this helps and shows there is light at the end of the tunnel.

what have you done to help you get rid of it? obv sports etc but have you done breathing excercises?

Both playing the flute and archery require a very controlled breathing as does riding up hills, I used to practice breathing in quickly and then slowly breathing out. I seam to remember I could constantly blow out for over 30 seconds.
I have been on Ventolin since about 1980, the doctor wanted to put me on Becotide to be taken every day, but I argued that as I knew my season was getting shorter if I took becotide how would I know how short the seasons were getting. I therefore stayed on Ventolin, things that trigger my asthma now are only
Dust from a field of corn
In the past I started wheezing in May and carried on untill about October.

Felix-da-house-mouse

john c,

i've been prescribed becodisk (becotide) as well, what is all this about seasons getting shorter,



arrrrggghhh just heard my first xmas ad on tv not happy now :evil:

ancientbiker

Like a couple of forumites I'd had asthma since a child and have found that good breathing technique learnt through hilly cycling has cleared it up. I don't need any inhalers or anything like that now.

I had to persevere for a few months and found that getting through the pain and suffering of severe breathing difficulties early in a ride, without using an inhaler, eventually strengthened my lungs enough so that now I've no problems at all.

I do concentrate on having good rythmic breathing when riding hard and make sure I ride regularly to keep my breathing/lungs in good shape.

Hope this gives all asthma sufferers some hope!

Shadowduck

I'm another one who's been asthmatic as long as I can remember!

I didn't find Becotide all that effective, though I believe it's one of the ingredients in Serevent which certainly has been for me.

ancientbiker wrote:

Hope this gives all asthma sufferers some hope!

Hope, with a little jealousy! I'd love to get to the position of needing no inhalers at all - things have certainly improved since I sold my car and started cycling all the time, so I'll probably talk to the vet about reducing my Serevent dosage next time I'm in for a review.

Izembard

I thought I was ok but having read all of this I'm not so sure now. I have posted a reply to your similar q in Pharmacy but look for Buteyko on the net. I don't like it cos it really uncomfortable but I'd be interested to know if it genuinely works.
Coincidentally I have been considering my condition for some time now and have concluded a number of things. My condition is linked to my fitness level, problem is that can spiral quickly with a virus. Im allergic to something that is in the air in July/Aug most likely some form of tree pollen.In order to address this I bought an air filter for the bedroom a couple of years ago which I use during these months, this is very good. (it did cost £600 so it should be).
My peak flow is generally very low and I'd decided to get a powerbreath so your thread is interesting. Despite this low general measurement I can still run and cycle reasonably well...if only I could breath I'd be quite good.
The drug Servenant seems to have some bad press...be interesting to hear the Docs viewpoint which we would probably get if we were in Pharmacy with this debate.
Iz

Shadowduck

Shadowduck wrote:

I didn't find Becotide all that effective, though I believe it's one of the ingredients in Serevent which certainly has been for me.

My mistake - I looked at the inhaler this morning and it's actually Seretide I'm taking, which is a mix of Serevent and becotide.

Izembard wrote:

The drug Servenant seems to have some bad press...

Do you mean Serevent? I've not heard of any bad press around it, but I'd be interested to hear if there is... Then again, I'm trying to get off it anyway so it won't make much difference to me.

Max_Man

Had Asthma since I was 5, went for donkey's year's without taking any kind of preventative, used to get through lot's and lot's of ventolin. I was always prescribed reliever's but never took them, I had becotide (brown)/intel (white with red lid) and a few other's I can't remember. Some time around last Christmas my asthma was terrible, I could barely get up the stairs. I thought, I need some help here, went the doc's, my doc wasn't available so saw the head nurse instead...she was amazing, got me on a couse of steroids to strenghthen my lungs then a beclazone inhaler for prevention. My asthma is now completely under control..touch wood.

Always been overweight bit now that I can exercise properly it's coming off....

John C.

Felix-da-house-mouse wrote:

john c,

i've been prescribed becodisk (becotide) as well, what is all this about seasons getting shorter,



arrrrggghhh just heard my first xmas ad on tv not happy now :evil:

As I said my hay fever/asthma season used to be about May - October and then it started getting shorter about 15 years ago and now unless I pass a field of corn being harvested I am nearly asthma free.

Izembard

Shadowduck wrote:

Do you mean Serevent? I've not heard of any bad press around it, but I'd be interested to hear if there is... Then again, I'm trying to get off it anyway so it won't make much difference to me.

Yeah sorry can't smell when Im tried. :oops:

Serevent has a black box warning ordered by the FDA on every pack and is described as having "lethal" side effects....come on what the hell does that mean!!

Iz[/quote]

Shadowduck

Izembard wrote:

Serevent has a black box warning ordered by the FDA on every pack and is described as having "lethal" side effects....come on what the hell does that mean!!

More info here.

Doesn't sound too much to worry about, but it concerns me slightly that I first hear about it from a cycling forum... :roll:

richardast

I've also suffered some mild asthma symptoms over the last 18 years since an industrial accident during an apprenticeship.

Symbicort turbohaler (1 puff every other morning) and a few lifestyle changes (obscene amounts of fresh fruit and veg, more exercise, less fags :oops: ) has taken me from 4 puffs of ventolin per day 5 years ago to never using it at all now.

Just out of interest, how many of us asthmatic types are predominantly mouth breathers and how many are nose breathers? I've heard theories that it's relevant.

I'm a mouth breather.

Max_Man

Mouth breather...I've never been able to breath through my nose for any length of time.

Izembard

The mouth breathing thing is the general theory of this bloke Buteyko who has basically developed breathing exercises. His hypothesis is that mouth breathers massively hypoventilate i.e. exhale too much carbon dioxide which he suggests the body can use benificially.
The exercises include holding your breath after exhaling for as long as you can and immediately follow with shallow nose inhalations. This is really uncomfortable and the guidance suggests you need to do this three times per day for 30 minutes...horrible!!, but if it works.....????Their is even a section about taping your mouth off in bed to force nasal breathing!!!!!!!!
I don't lke it at all and it is for this reason that I have looked for other ways of replicating this theory. I can see assimilations with the Powerbreath, hill climbing, swimming has got to help you would think.
I think together, and their seems to be enough of us, we can debate this really succesfully and come up with a menu of options that will be to the benefit of all of us. We need professional advice, cos I don't feel I get it from my quack and it will be relevent to most of us as I feel we are all probably very similar by the very nature of our interest i.e. cycling , fitness etc.. This debate is really meaningful!

Shadowduck

I don't normally take much notice whether I breathe through my mouth or nose... On the bike I think I'm mostly a mouth breather but off the bike probably a mix of the two.

Izembard wrote:

*snip* ... the Powerbreath, hill climbing, swimming has got to help you would think.

When I was at primary school in the 70s (ie before all the fancy drugs were developed), my doctor recommended I joined the school brass band to help with asthma - I think it did help, but of course I packed it in when I was a teenager 'cos teenagers are too cool for that sort of stuff. :oops: :roll:

Izembard wrote:

*snip* ... and their seems to be enough of us ... *snip*

There are a lot more than I would have expected! Does this represent a normal sample of the population or is there something that attracts us wheezers to cycling, d'you think?