Help Running with Asthma

[citicati]

Hi everyone. New here and wanted to talk to people in a similar situation to me. I have exercise induced asthma. The only time my asthma is a problem is when I'm exercising and when i'm unwell.

I have just started running regularly. I am quite "fit" anyway as I go to the gym 3 times a week but have avoided running until now.

I usually take my preventer before starting but when I'm running I feel as though I can't take a deep breath and need to stop within a few minutes. I also start yawning (to get in oxygen). It's so frustrating as I really want to compete in a 5k soon but I haven't improved in over a month

Has anyone experienced this? Do you have any advice?

Thanks,

Catrin

[risabel59]

If you can work in a 10/ 15 minute easy cardio gentle warm up before the race getting your heart rate up and then using your reliever inhaler that might help.

I run and I take a lot of medications for asthma. I sometimes get very tight after the first 10 mins of a race, so I try and take the start easy and then I use more reliever about 15 mins in and that keeps me going, then my chest relaxes when really warmed up and I get in the groove.

If you are aiming for a 5 k race work out a race profile that you can manage and practice it a week before the race.

I can't run if my peak flow is more than 30% down on my best. So it may be worth keeping a peak flow diary for a while to see if you would benefit from some other asthma medications. Recent research suggests that Exercise induced asthma may not be different from other asthma, but just triggered by exercising.

If you are up for it you could go to your doctor, talk about this and ask to try a steroid inhaler for a while and see if that makes a difference.

From my own perspective, I didn't realize that my own tightness from running was from asthma and it's only been since that I started using a combination inhaler that I have been able to run long distances. Even though I was crazy about sport as a kid!

Good luck with this. RBH is doing an exercise induced asthma research trial at present. And are still recruiting. I think the details are on the Asthma UK web site. The chief researcher is Matteo Bonini.

R