Yet another new member!

Hey guys, I joined the forum after enquiring about running the Great North Run for Asthma UK.

25 year old male from Sunderland in the North East.

I have had Asthma most of my life but got diagnosed when I was around 13. I have never had chronic asthma however I had two nasty attacks in the past 24 months, once on holiday in Tunisia due to what I think was an allergic reaction in a Banana plantation. I think it was spores in the air from from the banana plants. Hayfever makes my asthma worse in summer too.

The second major attack was new year 2006 due to an allergic reaction to my girlfriend's brother's cats! We went to his place in Scotland for a few days and I had to come away after the first night due to the reaction.

My asthma kicks off mainly to allergic reactions and exercise is fine if I take a drag of my easy breeze first.

It is under control at the moment due to my keeping fit by running 4 miles most nights of the week.

Just checking the forum for fellow runners, interested in how people deal with exercise and asthma.

...looking forward to a smoke free britain! ha!

Nice to meet you all!

John

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Hi

Hi and welcome to Asthma Uk

Emma x

[KateMoss]

Hellooo!

Welcome to AUK! Great to see that you are Running for AUK! I used to do cross country and long distance - now do all that in a car cos lungs very knackered!

I spent 3 years in Sunderland at the University back in the early 90's! great place!

A smoke free ' Tap & Spile' (Hendon) would be even better!

There are some 'runners' here!

Take care

Kate

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I went to Sunderland Uni too, graduated in 2003 though.

I have not joined the Asthma UK GNR team yet but am seriously considering it. I think I would have to do a long run to see if I am up to it first. Don't think it would be a problem though.

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Hello John,

Welcome to AUK.

As a runner or, to be brutally honest, ‘a jogger’ these days, it’s good to hear from other runners who also suffer from asthma.

I’ve been running for approximately thirty years, at many levels of effort and success, and have always suffered from asthma at varying levels of severity. But have managed to maintain some sort of continuous training, even now.... although NOT in cold foggy weather!

Perhaps the best advice I can offer is that you don’t run in… cold foggy weather, that you always warm up in a traditional sort of way, that you use a ‘preventer’ med if you suffer from EIA.

Using a ‘reliever’ med is good before any sort of exercise, but the downside is that this sort of drug only opens up the airways, thus allowing ‘inflammatory’ particles deeper into lung tissue which you will notice some time after exercise.

The positive side of running is that you will benefit from superb aerobic /heart conditioning which in turn will allow you to cope with asthmatic exacerbations.

Running off road is even better if you can… so much more to see, so much less stress on joints, so good for strengthening of major muscle groups such as quads..

Went running today and finished as a ‘Swampy’ sort of character.

(Hmmmmm. Maybe you are too young to remember this person who deserves ‘null points’ for his carbon footprint….) But it was SO muddy, and so funny!

Good luck in the Great North Run. Maybe you could try some ‘warm up’ events like the AUK Lake Dorney 10k run. I’m taking part in this event in preparation for some longer events. But all in warmer weather!

And roll on ALL smoke free environments....

Mia

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Welcomeb aboard