I now have to make myself go for walks in winter. I know perfectly well that walking is good, and in the warmr seasons it is fine, but the cold really can affect my breathing, and often does. I do wrap a loose scarfe round my face, and sometimes take ventoling before I go out, and I also deliberately walk very slowly, but even with all this sometimes that breathlessness comes on, and then it often leaves me exhausted for the rest of the day. I know others, too, have this problem. How do you manage it, in addition to carrying a reliever and wrapping that scarfe?
Problems going for walks in winter - Asthma Community ...
Problems going for walks in winter
Written by
Wheezycat
To view profiles and participate in discussions please or .
40 Replies
•
I always try to plan my route now so I can find a cafe that I can stop to have a sit down and a tea or coffee until I get my breath back. In warmer weather I go to places that have benches I can rest on and watch the old people speed walking 😆 how do they do it? Lol
That is a very good plan, but unfortunately if it is going to happen, it comes upon me rather sooner. And my daily (or frequent) walk is rather too short for it, anything between 15-20 mins and 45-50. The longer one has no coffee places at all. But for longer walks, away from here, a café is a must!
in reply to andy121
Yes it's definately an eye opener to see elders doing their speed walks & cycling passed while I cough and weez my way around. Bless 'um!
Homely2Administrator
A lot depends on how my underlying asthma is. At present I am on a four week pred course to get it under control. This means I can walk properly for 30 minutes.
When my asthma starts to get worse I shorten the walk, and walk with somebody, or I walk at a gym on a running machine. A gym is boring, but safe.
I find it a bit scary when I am walking. I had a heavy attack on a walk, four months ago, and could not move or talk, luckily a lady saw the inhaler in my hand and knew what it was and called an ambulance. So always walk in populated areas.
If I cannot walk for exercise I then depend on my swimming, which seems to even soothe the asthma, so is brilliant.
Thank you for your response. It soounds as if you do very well with all this compared to me, in spite of your clearly quite significant asthma. It is wintertime and cold that really makes it so much harder for me, and recently there seems to have been one event after the other, with me getting very breathless, followed by terrible exhaustion that can go on for hours. That I find hard. I don't use gyms, as I find it a really uncomfortable environment, and it is costly. Swimming is better, but I really do dislike lanes - my preference by many miles is 'wild' swimming (or as i think about it 'normal, natural swimming') which is peaceful and quiet and has some greenery around. I suppose I was spoilt with it when young, when there were plenty of sea and lakes around, but no swimming pool anywhere. What I do do is circle dancing and yoga when they are on, and also some bits of training at home, but I could do with more, of longer duration.
would it suit you better to exercise indoors in cold weather? Swimming or gym? I react to the cold as you do so I swim and gym. The bonus of swimming for me is the warm, humid air and the warm sauna though I know it’s not the same for everyone.
Yeah, it makes sense, but I find gyms really off putting (I have been going in the past), with often very loud music, and a very unnatural environment. And costly. Swimming is better, and I have tried to find somewhere that is not full of lanes so you can swim in circles if you want, and not hideously noisy, and no loud music! It is a work in progress for me, as I don't want to sign up anywhere with a significant cost factor and then not use it properly. Without a doubt I prefer walking, with trees and birds etc, but....
yes I understand. The swim gym I use has no music in the pool area. It used to but people didn’t want it so they turned it off so worth asking. Usually there is a mix of lane swims and open swims to suit everyone. Off peak gym sessions are usually only attended by a handful of people and again no loud music these days. I guess you just have to bite the bullet and do it. The thought of these things is usually more off putting and bigger than doing it in real life. You can always ask for a trial session. As Nike always says “just do it”!
>>>Swimming is better,
No issues with chloramine/chlorine? Even one breath of bleach sends me running for cover.
Gyms can be OK, but covid is still there, plus there is the rubbery smell from all the soft flooring which I sometimes can't stand.
Greetings Weezycat, I am also experiencing this, and wear a scarf, plan a rough route, and walk slowly, needing to take inhailer along the way. Walking seems to increase the sensation of dizziness that I experience and a excessive increase in burning upper back pain as walk, lately I'm managing a couple of walks a week and I have to force myself to do this. I walk more than 15mins to 30mins stopping for a sit down when I feel I need to, If I walk for more than 2-3 days in a row I need to be restful due to fatigue for 3 days aprox. It's difficult to gage energy levels at times, definately Autumn and winter are having a negetive affect on my breathing, I also experiencing this similar increase in wezziness and tight chest when we had a heat wave in the summer. Docs do tell me I also have COPD/Emphysema as well as Asthma.
Bless hope you find a solution that works for you.
Wheezycat in reply to
Today, when the air doesn't have that chill bite to it, and the sun was half out, we went to a local walking/fishing/swimming set of lakes very close to us, but only recently opened. We just had a walk and then the cafe', and it was bliss! Of course I am slow, but no need to see as an threat today, as long as I was slow enough as I certainly was. got slightly wheezy, but really not to suffering level. It was so lovely and peaceful, and I will certainly be back. There is also a café, unfortunately with a wood burner, but I could keep my distance, and just not stay so long. It gave me hope in the joy of walking again. I have no idea how long we walked, but that didn't bother me in the slightest. Certainly longer than I usually manage just going round the block or our local park.
I have the same problem. Sometimes I find it better to take two short walks with a good rest in between. Also I feel safer if I do a circular walk around my local area so I’m not too far from home at any point.
\that does sound like a good idea! I have found an exercise guru thingie on Youtube which I will explore further for those days I feel I haven't moved my body enough. (It's in Swedish which I understand, but no point sharing. She seems more fun than most, though. )
sadly don’t know any Swedish! I do like yoga withAdrienne though, she’s fun too, some of them are so serious.
Yoga with Adrienne? Please share details. I am always glad of more ideas.
she does YouTube videos, which are free and very varied. Often there will be a theme to the classes eg yoga for back pain/ yoga to relax / breathing exercises etc. so you can always find something suitable. The classes are between 15 and 45 minutes.
It certainly is good to know of her. The more variety the better.
Heres a link that may or may not be useful, yoga for when feeling tiredness. It's from Maddie Norris (Rockaway Park Temple Cloud) , I think she also does online yoga sessions, as well as in person sessions:
I found that a scarf is not enough -- I wear an FFP2. One can always put a bandana on top to hide the mask as not to provoke anti-mask people unnecessarily. This solves both the cold problem (no wind chill) and the pollution/wood smoke/fertilizer_smell/manure_smell which the "fresh country side air" is not famous for. A mask w/o a valve is warmer (better for the winter), a mask with a valve is better for the summer (cooler).
Yes on ventolin.
To stay in shape for walks to enjoy them more I spin at home on a stationary bike breathing clean air which I condition to 90% humidity and 35C. This allows to keep exercising for up to 45 min (w/o the conditioning I would not last for 5 min).
The spinning sounds very ambitious. Unfortunately I would struggle for space, and as I used to have a small cross trainer, I know it would also stand there neglected.
As for masks, generally I have found FFP2 masks rather heavy to breathe through when walking. Not impossible, but uncomfortable. But I have used a silk one that I got during the pandemic - I think the recommendation came from Which before FFP2 became THE thing - and I have indeed used that for walks! The only drawback is that it become somewhat soggy from my breathing. But it works, and helps.
What you said about increasing the humidity to exercise more in very interesting. I have only recently realised the full effect dry air has on my asthma but do love exercising. I am going to try this! Why does a high temperature help, do you know?
Just be aware that for some asthmatics high humidity is the very opposite of good! But it is always worth carefully experimenting. Carefully, mind.
I've read reviews on exercise-induced asthma before building this breathing machine. Experimental studies showed that exercising in a controlled environmental chamber in which purified air was kept at 37C at saturated humidity has eliminated bronchospasm during exercise. The believe it's the combination of cooling and drying of the airways (or re-warming and re-moisturizing afterwards) that provokes the twitchy mast cells.
Environmental chambers are very expensive to run and own (millions). I wanted to rent one "just to try", never got any response from anyone who rents them out. So I just rigged a machine that blows air into a CPAP tube at 400 LPM, purifies it trough a HEPA filter and a charcoal filter, heats it through water coils, and humidifies it (two 600W sous vide machines). Stainless steel and teflon/PTFE was used for making the rig -- to avoid odours and off-gassing.
Warm humidified air as not the same as "warm humid weather". The weather a different b.c. it promotes growth of spores, plants, release of pollen, dust mites in the pillows etc. The warm humid air in my bathroom also triggers my asthma b.c. (I believe) there is plenty of humidity-loving stuff growing behind the bathtub and tiles which I can never get rid off. The composition of the air needs to be well controlled. At any rate, one needs to start slowly. My first test of the machine was for only 5 min at 100W, I liked the result, and then gradually built it up. I can now do 200W for 45 min (half of what I could do w/o asthma... :()
Wow, well done creating a system that works for you. So many people just give up on exercise which is a great shame. I do notice that low humidity is a real trigger for me. When I run outdoors my asthma is a lot less triggered by the exercise which must be the increased humidity. Indoors, my exercise needs to be less cardio OR as I have recently discovered, if I open a window my symptoms go because I am letting in more humid air. Thanks for sharing your journey and what works for you - it's very interesting!
It is a shame but as I've pointed out below, it can be difficult for many people with asthma to find a method of exercising in a real-world environment that works for them, even besides the everyday challenges anyone has, and potentially extra ones with chronic severe asthma.
I don't have exercise-induced asthma, but if I'm already struggling I will find exercise a lot harder, and it's actually quite hard to find helpful advice that works for my lifestyle etc as well. (My specialist asthma team *should* help but they don't at all, they just tell me not to get unfit but not to push myself too hard - sometimes at the same time.)
A lot of advice for asthma is 'get it controlled first' - I would if I could. I don't sit at home and do nothing, I do what I can, but I appreciate that there are many reasons people aren't currently exercising with asthma.
But realistically, most people can't exercise in a perfectly controlled environment like that or set things up at home in that way. Whether it's the temperature or other triggers - and very few people have just one trigger, as you say, it's likely to be there and potentially exaggerated by other factors.
I also find that pressure drops set me off, independently of other triggers, and that's often something that accompanies warm humid weather in the outside world eg before and during thunderstorms (staying inside doesn't help me there either). I suspect that may not be driven by mast cells and that there are potentially multiple mechanisms contributing to environmental triggers within people and in different people, but I don't have time to dive into the literature right now to confirm that.
I'm not going to attempt exercise in any environment that I actually have access to that is humid and heated to 37C, because I know that will not go well for me. SImilarly, I avoid steam rooms because even if it's not technically the steam, I've not met one I can handle, and the tendency to add fragrance doesn't help.
I hadn't thought about pressure changes and the potential effects there. That is something I will look into. Getting control of asthma is the hardest part imo because our triggers are often invisible we don't know what is triggering us. It's such a challenge! I have had to change the way I exercise now and give up certain exercises I used to do. I agree that there should be a lot more 121 help for people to find triggers and get control of their asthma.
I have removed all potential sources of perfume from my house like, cleaning products for home and clothes, no sprays in the house, no nail varnish, candles etc. Electric cooker, no gas. Air purifier, dehumidifier l, open windows if the air is dry, henna to dye my hair instead of other chemical smelling products, I'm lucky to work from home now so avoid train/car fumes, I use a spacer, always take my preventor, avoid heart burn. These changes have all helped me a lot.
All the best to you and I hope you get control and are able to exercise as you wish.
Thanks - you too. The majority of people can get control of their asthma, though it can definitely be more challenging for some. And then there's a few of us who really can't at least with current science - maybe in the future.
>>>But realistically, most people can't exercise in a perfectly controlled environment like that or set things up at home in that way.
I agree that what I have set up is not trivial to do. I had to do it b.c. I need exercise to stay sane. If a product like this existed, some people may use it. E.g. I do not see myself sleeping hooked up to a CPAP machine, either, and yet people use them. My machine is just a CPAP machine scaled up 10-fold, and for me exercising is as important as sleep. Some people sleep in negative pressure tents.
Re: the effects of pressure, it is hard to draw the cause-and-effect w/o a controlled environmental chamber -- i.e. if it's the pressure per se, or some other environmental variables that the change of pressure triggers. This is why I built my machine -- it's particle free, VOC-free air with set temperature and humidity -- the parameters based on statistics I found in literature. I surely could have reacted differently than what the statistics shows (there are exceptions to every trend), but I was willing to experiment, and I am glad I did. I also used to think of asthma being "unique", but at the end of the day it has proven not to be much different from what the literature shows for most folks. Except, perhaps, anomalously high peak flows for my height (two standard deviations from the norm).
Hi, I too have many concerns regarding going out in the cold weather, I find that the cold air really brings on a severe asthma attack which leads to me being up all night coughing and wheezing, I have to use my nebuliser to try to get my breathing under some form of control, I am now 74 years old and I have had chest problems for most of my life.. Since I moved to Spain over 20 years ago, I was so bad I ended up going to see a specialist, since then with the amount of blood tests etc, the specialist found out that I had Esinophilliac asthma which is a very rare condition. I have had various medications to try to control my health problem…. Different inhalers, and now also I have to take an injection every 28 days for the rest of my life, I have been having the injection now for approximately 5 years, during the summer months I have been okay, and also for the last 3 years, I have not needed to use my nebuliser until this winter, I think the reason being is because we have had a very mild winter up to now, but the last 3 to 4 weeks have turned so cold as the sun goes down but the days have been really mild…. The change from warm air to cold air has really effected me and I have been suffering with really bad respiratory issues… so I do understand where you are coming from with your problem….. I hope you manage to get yourself stable, just as I do…. 🤞Good Luck 🍀 and best wishes to you….
It really sounds hard for you. Though I have been affected several times this winter, it isn't as bad for me as it is for you, but enough to make me feel really exhausted when it happens, or end up coughing more during the night. Like you I am also in my seventies, but I was only diagnosed in my sixties. That means I kind of accept feeling not the brightest at times as it has crept up on me gradually, and not seeking remedies, as I don't realise things are becoming issues. Or at least I didn't. I have got better at spotting it earlier, thank goodness.
>>>Different inhalers, and now also I have to take an injection every 28 days for the rest of my life.
May I ask what the injections are?
One thing I never said on here, is that the switch to Salamol also has played a part this year. I found it sluggish, not kicking in clearly after 10-15 minutes like Ventolin does. It added to my sense of huge reluctane going for walks. Luckily I still had some ventolin so I used that instead, and I intend to bring this up with the surgery. ( I did try Salamol once in good enough time before going out and it did seem to help, just that it is slow compared to Ventolin. As very many people have said it probably has to do with the propellant. )
I can't walk far but controlled breathing techniques do help
Do you mean breathing in through your nose and our through your mouth, or breathing in on two and out on four or something else completely?
In thro nose&exhale thro pursed lips,or slowly in& out thro nose.give it yr concentration so u focus on yr slow,deeper breathing technique.it does help x
Yes, I am quite used to that. Though I am a natural nose breather, when walking outside especially in winter I find I just don't get enough breath. But using scarfe plus my silk mask (when I remember) does help.
I really many of the responses above show is that there are so many variations on asthma. Mine seems not to be allergy induced at all, but I do react on cold (air, water), walking, especially uphill (can do it if I walk really slowly), also I suspect wind, as well as a variety of pollution, mostly indoors, but not only, and of course also respiratory viruses and infections. And, of course, I was a late starter, though it has always been in my family quite significantly.
Not what you're looking for?
You may also like...
Winter Cold Steriods Advice
yesterday. Turns out I have caught the winter cold going round and needed some steroids 40mg x 5...
GP won't increase my inhaler for winter
needing my blue inhaler more often and still not feeling quite right (you know that 'only just ok'...
Problems with alternative inhaler to Seretide
been on the Seretide inhaler for 3 years , it was fine. However now I Am told that the replacement...
Bras for people with breathing problems
several years as I find them constricting and affect my breathing. Getting measured instore is no...
Chronic Sinus problems -Goldenseal?
for many years, these usually occur following a cold or general illness; I have recently had Covid...
Recent diagnosis of late onset asthma and Winter
here goes with bad winter again daughter ill
Fostair and shakes does it ever go away?
Anyone else had problems with Salamol CFC-Free MDI Inhaler 100mcg
