Just out of interest really, who has Asthma and still runs the Fells?
My mate wants to run with me and is not sure it would be dangerous or beneficial to his health?
Any Doctors views would be good!!
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Just out of interest really, who has Asthma and still runs the Fells?
My mate wants to run with me and is not sure it would be dangerous or beneficial to his health?
Any Doctors views would be good!!
Not a doctor but a physio who works in the exercise field. Is your friend already a runner or does he take regular exercise of some kind? Unaccustomed activity can be dangerous for anyone with or without a condition like asthma. If he is already a regular exerciser then the advice would be to ease gently into a new activity and listen to his own body i.e. unusual or new symptoms, signs of overdoing it. Hope this helps...
JLS
Not a doctor or a physio but an asthmatic plodder.....
I normally take an inhaler with me 'just in case' either in my hand or in my bum bag.
I never know if I'm going to have a good 'un or not till I start and if I go off too hard I get in oxygen debt but, having asthma, I can then never seem to shake it off. So I have to try and take it easy from the off.
I don't think it's any different to road running EXCEPT it's more committing and you need to be more responsible for and aware of your own condition.
One point; short midweek races in summer which involve twice round the cricket pitch to spread the field out from the start tend to bugger me up 'cos of the dust created during the initial two circuits.
FB
BroownAle,
Look at my photos of Pennine Bridleway relay, leg 3; 1 bloke is using his inhaler at the top of the climb :eek:
Respect due man:cool:
I have asthma, Im usually really bad with it this time of year, it comes and goes. For example yesterday on the pennine bridaleway. I took my inhaler before my race and felt okay. After about 10minutes running I was really blowing, I took my inhaler on the way round but it did not help much. I really struggled all the way round and did not particularly enjoy it.
Usually if I was racing and felt this way (it very rarely happens tbh, Im usually fine), I would have inhaler and ease off. Until I got my breath back and recover slightly. It did not happen for me yesterday as I did not get much respite through not letting my partner down.
Im not sure whether having inhaler and running helps, but sometimes I feel great and controlled other times. I just cant get a grip on it like yesterday.
I think its the weather over this time of year.
So I'd rather take it and do this kind of stuff that not take it and struggle through.
I think if I set off slowly and bed gentle into a race im fine. Yesterday I went off like an idiot and blew up basically and this did not help the asthma.
About your friend I reckon its better not to let things like asthma stop him from doing things and if it means having his inhaler then so be it. Why miss out:(
Darren Dunn, who has asthma, managed a BG last year without much trouble. I carried his inhaler from Dunmail to Wasdale & he didn't need it at all.
Only once, at the end of a fast race, have I seen him struggling for breath (he's normally miles ahead of me, anyway!)
I have excercise induced asthma - after races, those who've been running near me often tell me they thought i would keel over on route with my chronic wheezing.
In my experience if the treatment is right it can be controlled very effectively.
Paula Radcliffe has asthma, theres a good section in her book about it.
Geoff,
I seem to cope better on the longer races, more time to settle in and I dont seem to go off like Ive got a rocket up my arse.
Perhaps I should warm up a little more.
Tom,
I have had first hand experience of you wheezing past me when you lapped me at cross country.:)
I've got exercise induced asthma and saw my GP who gave me ventolin then I went through work and saw a consultant who stuck me on a long acting bronchodilator and corticosteroid which works a treat. Running with asthma shouldn't eb a problem as long as it is controlled.
How often do you have to take the new treatments the doctor at work gave to you Detritus? Do you still use your inhaler?
Do you not get affected differently depending on time of year.
Cheers
Jamie
My asthma wasn't that bad to start but would still cause me issues when I was running hard like chest tightness and wheezing which linked directly into a drop in performance. I'm not a bad runner so I'd go from 5:30 mile pace in a race and end up doing over 6 even though my legs were fine just unable to get the air in.
I take an inhaler in the morning and at night and take my ventolin before I do any hard training or racing and touch wood my chest has been spot on. I only know its working as I forgot to take it for the club handicap and my performance dropped dramatically all in the space of 100m when my chest tightened up.
I do regular peak flows and prior to exercise it was up around 510 then post exercise would drop to 480-500 which is a significant drop. Now I take the inhaler its increased to 520-540 prior to exercise and maintains immediately post exercise.
Peak flow should increase or remain the smae post exercise if it does drop it shows that you are getting a restrictive pattern in your lungs which will be due mainly to bronchoconstiction.
The inhaler I take in the morning and night is a mix of a corticosteroid and a long acting bronchodilator. The corticosteroid to reduce airway inflamation and the long acting bronchodilator to keep the airways open. In theory the one I take lasts for 12 hours. These include medications such as seretide and symbicort (a COPD inhaler but it works for me). The Ventolin I only take prior to hard exercise this really as a preventative measure so that the airways are even less likely to go into spasm.
What tends to happen is you'll get put onto ventolin which is about 2 quid a metered dose inhaler as its cheaper. The corticosteroid that you'll generally be thrust is a brown one which be becotide or beclamethasone which at the most is 8 quid. Most medication is given as its cheap even though its not always the most effective. ie symbicort is 30 odd quid an inhaler and seretide the same.
Its also important to have you asthma controlled as uncontrolled asthma is a precursor to COPD not what you want. I only know this as part of my role as a physio is with COPD patients and god its scary at times
Interesting stuff for me this. I grew up in the countryside and never had any problems until I moved to London in 1989 when I experieced chest tightness. My doctor at the time told me I was having panic attacks which I wasn't. Now it comes and goes and is always worse from about October through to March / April depending on the weather. Very cold weather makes me suffer more but during the spring and summer I am usually absolutely fine.
I too used to use the blue inhalers before races and other exercise as a precautionary measure. Last year I had to stop after the first few minutes of a race - it was a hill race (I live in the South so no fells) and started with a steep climb on to the South Downs. I was all fired up and set off a bit sharpish and I think this is what triggered it. I had also had a cough / chest cold a few weeks previous which was not fully cleared out which didn't help.
I returned to the doctor and he checked me out and assured me there was nothing untoward. He prescrbed the brown inhaler with a small spacer tube. This helps you get more of the drug in - apparantely only 10% gets in to you if you do not use a spacer. I started with two bangs on the blue followed by two on the brown twice a day and noticed a huge improvement. I'm now down to one on each in the morning and before bed and then two on the blue 15/20 minutes before exercising. I only need this extra with running and biking - most other exercise is okay.
My mother in law bought me a 'Power Breather' for Xmas this year. It's a small device that allows you to exercise your lungs and build up their strength and I have found this beneficial - despite all the saliva it produces and the fact I sound like Darth Vader! Just do a web search on Power Breather and you'll get loads of info and reviews.
Hope that helps. Your friend should be encouraged to run and exercise and manage his asthma properly. If he sits on his arse all day he'll get fat and increase his chances of all sorts of nasties later in life. Feel free to get him to contact me if he wants any further advice.
Some interesting stuff here guys, thanks for your reply to my inhaler questions Detritus.
I ran last night and felt terrible again, I tried setting off slowly getting the first 20 minutes out of the way. Then speeding up, this did not help and as soon as I increased my speed I started blowing again
Im sure its just the weather at the moment, as its happened before. Im probably gonna rest for a few days and see if things clear up as I have been suffering in the middle of the night also.
On my next run I'm going to wear my buff over my mouth and nose and try to control the temperature of the air going in. I have heard this helps
I'm interested in what downsman has said about the spacers that are used with inhalers.
I have also looked into buying a powerbreathe to try to help with things, but I have heard (or read) mixed reviews on these things.
Cheers
Jamie
Jamie - I noticed a big difference in the effectiveness of the inhaler when I started using the spacer. I used ot get woken in the nights occasionally before using the brown inhalers but (touch wood) it seems to be okay now. Not pleasant though!
Is the spacer used for all inhalers or does it just come with each inhaler and have a 1 inhaler life span.
Thanks
Forgot about spacers. There are two main types on the market there is the aerochamber and the volumatic. The one you'd want really is the aerochamber. Its about 6 inches long and although not as effective as the volumatic is much more convenient.
i thought you wern't supposed to use the power breathe if you were ashmatic? :confused:Quote:
Originally Posted by downsman
around may i struggle with running the doctor told me it was mild ashtma and gave me the blue inhaler, it didn't help with the running though as i found i was still wheezing on track efforts.. some times i really struggle and i now put this down to pollen.
i use the power breathe around march-june to counter act the pollen it seems to work and helps my lung strength as well.
i showed the power breath to my doctor, he tried to give me another inhaler i have around 10 of them floating around somewhere not used. :)
I have exercise induced asthma and so do a handful of fellow club members.Quote:
Originally Posted by detritus21
If you enter County level events or above you have to register as a user, as some inhalers include Salbutamol which is a banned substance.
The UK Athletics website lists details.
I have weaned myself off my inhaler, and tend to use only after running when I can't stop coughing.
If I thought I was really bad, I would always make sure I carried an inhaler and let race organisers know I was asthmatic.
My consultant is filling in the forms to UKA as I type.
I use my spacer (The Aerochamber) for both inhalers and as long as you rinse them out every now and then they last for ever. I'm off to see the asthma nurse next week for a review so will take my power breather along and see what she says about it ... I was not aware that they shoud not be used if you're asthmatic.Quote:
Originally Posted by NotOnUrHelly
One other thing I forgot to mention. A few years ago my (now) wife and I took an eight month round the world trip from USA across to Hawaii, Fiji, NZ, OZ and SE Asia. I ran regularly and also snowboarded, hiked on glaciers and in mountains, mountain biked, swam, surfed, etc, etc. In all that time I never once needed an inhaler or got even the mildest symptoms. What air are we breathing in the UK I wonder?
Ran with my buff covering my nose and mouth tonight, this felt great at easy pace. I upped the pace and it worked fine breathing wise. Thing is every deep breath I took I was sucking my buff in. It also got rather soggy and awkward.
But all in all it kept my breathing okay, and I only used my inhaler before I went running. Not during and after as it has been recently. Definately the cold air thats doing me in.
If it gets me round winter hill on sunday, then look out for a man with just peep hole for his eyes.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Penguin
I checked the booklet last night and it's fine to use if you have asthma.
Sorry to Bring this thread up again.
Is anyone still suffering due to the cold weather. I had another shocking run tonight. Again its the 20 minute mark and my breathing just goes shallow and uncontollable, my inhaler did not help much so I just turned it around and went home.
I have an appointment with the asthma nurse on Friday again. Perhaps I need stronger meds through winter. I defo having flu jab next winter, I've been up and down for 3 months now
Its really starting to get me down now, especially with race season starting god knows how im going to cope. I thought I would be well over it by now.
:(
My name was given to me in primary school because, yep, a life long asthmatic. It nearly got me when I was 10. Saved by a caring GP with a steroid/aminophylline shot. Took up rugby at 12 and never looked back. Absolutely no holds barred whatsoever with asthma. Live with it, kick it in the balls. Do everything and to the max.
The asthma nurse put me on an new inhaler called serevent, its a green long lasting inhaler. That I need to take in the morning and at night.
Hopefully this could be the answer, Ill try a run tonight and see how it goes. I'm so not sure about Edale on Sunday.
You MUST do Edale. Just keep running until the blasted wheezing stops. it may take an hour or two, but it will! Sodding bloody stupid lungs, just tell them who is boss!!! It doesn't happen too often thank god, but I will NOT let some dickhead tubes get the better of me!
You might have gathered that I subscribe to the 'Mind Over matter' school of medicine!:p
Thanks for that Wheeze, I can see your school of thought on this
not being a wuss or anything, but Im not sure whether fighting it, does more damage to the lungs or not.
Its not that Im letting it get the better of me, its just the first time its been this bad and its been for so long (most of the winter).
I have just read some bad press on google when I search for serevent.
Anyhow, hopefully the wamrmer weather is going to help this.
Cheers for that, are you at Edale
Jamie
Hopefully these inhalers will bring it under control now,
Im usually better on the longer slower runs anyhow.
It's been my worst year so far - I'm now 36 and have had this on and off since about 18. Usually it's a week or two and this is the first time I've had to go back for stronger drugs since about 1994. Seems to be under control now and I just stop if I get a cold or cough as that is a killer. Keep running and try not to get down my friend!
Cheers Downsman
Just did a miserable 2.5 miles indoors on a treadmill. Had inhaler (blue) before hand. Got to about 19minutes and failed miserably. It took about 2 hours to fully recover my breathing.
I have been to the doctors today and demanded (politely of course) a chest x ray.
Am I getting paranoid????
am I thinking about it to much before a run and its happening due to that??
Anyho heres to tommorow
It can take a while before you get the right medication for your chest. Can take a fair amount of trial and error. Serevent is a long acting bronchodilator which works on the theory of keeping airways open for a longer period approx 12 hours.
The usual pathway for prescription of asthma medication goes something like this:
Step one:
Short acting bronchodilator (beta 2) (Salbutamol, Ventolin)
Step two:
Short acting beta 2 + Corticosteroid (beclamethasone, becotide)
Step 3:
Separate Long acting beta 2 (eg serevent, formterol) with or without corticosteroid as above
Separate long acting beta 2 and other corticosteroid (e.g. budesonide, fluticason, mometasone, ciclesonide)
Combined long acting beta 2 and Corticosteroid (eg symbicort, seretide)
Step 4:
As for step 3 but using phylines
This isn't by any means definitive but it is the usual kind of pathway. Strangely enough it works in cost order I wonder why that is. Hope you do manage to get it sorted.
i suffered last night at training as I forgot to take my inhaler yesterday oops
NotOnUrHelly do you keep a peak flow diary they can be a usful diagnostic indicator. If you take peak flow pre and post exercise over a period of time you can usually see whether medication is working effectively. What should happen is peak flow should remain stable or increase post exercise. What you will probably find is there is a drop post exercise which shows you are going into exercise induced bronchospasm.
Detritus,
Im thinking from what you write that I am at stage 3.
Im using
Green Seretide, Brown also (2nd week)
Then Blue when required (quite a lot at the moment)
I do not take peak flow test regularly, Im probably going to go and get my hands on a device and add it to my readings to my brief/empty running diary.
Thanks for your advice, like you say it may take a while for the meds to start acting.
Its only kicking off when I provoke it, Im fine sleeping and going about my day to day life just fine.
I have noticed since I started taking the green, I wheeze slightly for about 10minutes afterwards. Also my tongue feels really fat especially the morning after taking the green before bed.
The doctor listened to my breathnig last night and noted there is some wheezing on my lungs. I have chest X ray tommorow
Thanks
Jamie
After you take your meds make sure you rinse your mouth and spit after might help your tongue a bit
Will do cheers for that, guess you've had the fat tongue feeling then
nay to the fat tongue bit but its advise you should be given as some of the medications are known to give oral thrush if you don't and a hoarse voice and possibly a fat tongue too.
Thrush - Oh Great:p
Feel a bit of a winge bag venting my frustrations on this forum, but for every daft rambling or worry im adding. There are many helpful replies from you guys. That will prove beneficial to others further down the road.
Im gonna crack this thing, thanks for your advice on everything.
Jamie