??? for those with asthma

[Crankin]

Yes, the humidity bothers me, but I find that I can acclimate myself to it by doing shorter rides and making sure I am well hydrated. I used to totally stay indoors for exercise on these "bad air" days, but I do much better now. Two weeks ago I did a 35 mile ride on a 96 degree day with high humidity. The pace was slower than my usual, though.
Who said it can't be asthma without wheezing? Both myself and my son have had asthma without wheezing. I believe my doctor called it "specious" asthma. But, my asthma is transient. It rarely bothers me. It's mostly allergy induced or comes on when I have some other thing developing. I keep a Ventolin inhaler just in case, but i go for months without using it. I took Q Var for awhile 2 years ago, but only after having bronchitis. Advair scared me, although it has helped several people on this list.

[OakLeaf]

Humidity gets me, but what gets me a lot worse is the mold that high humidity brings. In hot weather when the humidity is high, there's literally less oxygen in a given volume of air. But if you have pollen allergies, it's likely you have mold allergies, too.

Really. Everyone with asthma should at least get tested for allergies, and if any part of the asthma is allergy-induced, get immunotherapy. Training your body to deal with the allergens is SO much more effective, and so much healthier, than throwing drugs at it. (Not that drugs aren't helpful and in some cases necessary, just they shouldn't be the first strategy.)

[Natural Beauty]

I was diagnosed with asthma after college. I was doing the Albuterol thing but not getting better. My attacks would happen if I were working pretty hard almost anarobic but breathing in cold air. Warm air, I'm fine. weird.

I started going to a chiropractor for something else; my shoulder I think. And with the adjustments I saw improvement in the number and severity of the attacks. I'm still careful with crazy amazon exercise in cold air and I have to stay away from allergens (cats, smoke, mirrors... LOL). I haven't used my inhaler in ?????

I'm going to be trying that breathing out trick for sure. I miss cross country skiing.

[TahoeDirtGirl]

Oak- how funny, the asthma topic came up when I was out to dinner with some people from work. The wife of one of the managers is a respitory therapist and was telling me how everyone in the hospital gets albuterol (she was making a joke about a doctor that just knew one inhaler- albuterol) and I told her about my asthma. She said "well you know, it's not that you can't breathe in, it's that you can't get the air OUT that is the problem..." I guess I never thought of it that way...I guess I never thought of it at all because when it happens all I can think about is sucking that nasty gas in to get everything to relax.

I think that is one thing that helps me too is I don't panic. I think tensing up you hold your breath in and then that can't be too good....

As for allergies, I just couldn't do the immunotherapy thing. When the doc said I had to wait in case I went into anaphalaxis (I can't spell) I said "no thanks". I have a diverse group of friends, one of which is very into natural medicine and she told me to start eating honey made from sage (I was allergic to sage). After two weeks, it worked. I thought it was just I got used to sage, but after many years of doing this, if I miss that first week in April when it gets bad, as soon as I start the honey, two weeks, it's gone. I did it out here, finally found "local honey" and yep, allergies gone. I had to find cranberry and wildflower honey as well, there are alot of cranberry bogs here. I didn't think they would be flowering then but hey, it tasted pretty good. I usually tune up every Sunday by eating honey or when I feel a little congested. It's very hard to find local honey so stock up when you find it.

[Crankin]

I've had allergy shots 3 times in my life and 3 times I quit. In high school, I would get a mild asthma attack and generally feel awful afterwards. I tried again in my thirties when all of a sudden I developed food intolerances and asthma. Same thing. Eventually, when I calmed down a bit and moved from AZ (can you say dust and mold spores?) to MA I became much healthier.
The shots did help my son when he was small. He had awful allergies in AZ. The poor kid would start sneezing and wheezing from the Bermuda grass on the pre school playground and at home. And, we had his tonsils taken out, which although it's not a common thing to do today, totally cured him of the allergies, ear infections, bronchitis. He's really a healthy adult.
But, I agree, if you treat the allergies, the asthma often goes away.

[brigitte]

hi all fellow asthma sufferers -
I also have the diagnosis of EIA (and am a nurse). When I found out I knew what the condition was but thought, "OK, now what?" As stated earlier in the thread asthma is critical when it comes to exhaling and not inhaling.

If I may suggest the following. Find out what your triggers are. For me it is larger weather/humidity changes, smoke, acacia blossoms and emotional stress. If I know that I will be riding under those circumstances I use an inhaler. A byword on inhalers. Most often Albuterol is used - causes big time tachycardia (thats when your heart starts racing) and you can get terrific cotton mouth. I have been using Xopenex with great effect since about a year (no tachycardia, no cotton mouth). Research the side effects well!

When having trouble breathing you want to stop and very consciously start exhaling completely , almost exaggerated, with control. It might feel like your heart will explode in your chest but it is the quickest way to get your breathing back to normal.

Most importantly don't freak out. Asthma is worsened if you panic. Pay attention to your breathing as you go and as you reach maximum effort/exertion, again concentrate on complete exhalation. If you can feel it coming you can slow your pace a bit, control your breathing and be safely on your way.

[LoriO]

The tip on the exhalation really works! Chest started to tighten up on me the other day and I just stopped and really concentrated on exhaling and pushing the air out instead of struggleing to get it in. It really helped a lot. Thank you for passing on that great information!