Does anyone’s asthma get triggered from laughing?

[Mwall75]

Hi my asthma is chronic but I’m on preventers, puffers and occasional steroids. Always tight in cheesy and coughing but not a major wheeze. However if I laugh too much it triggers my asthma and I start wheezing. Does this happen to anyone else?

[LDloveslattecoffe]

On occasions I have known this. Thankfully not every time.

[flossiew]

Hi, yes, it's pretty nearly always guaranteed start me coughing. I didn't realise till some time after my diagnosis with asthma that laughing can be a trigger 😕

[Meliko]

Yup! At the moment I don't even really have a laugh, it is just a cough with a smile on my face. It happens but it doesn't mean it will happen every time or forever.

[frose]

Yes!

[Yatzy]

Only when my asthma is poorly controlled, or during an exacerbation. See how things go, should settle when you know your triggers (don’t think laughing is a trigger, more a side effect) and have settled on the right drugs for you. See what your GP/ consultant thinks. We’ve got to be able to laugh 😂!!

[Mwall75 in reply to Yatzy]

Thanks my thoughts have been it’s obviously not being controlled at the moment at all

[Yatzy in reply to Mwall75]

I think you’re right. There are so many different asthma drugs, and it’s sometimes trial and error to find what suits you, rather than your GPs favourite.

It should settle better eventually. I’m on Seretide 250, montelucast and Bricanyl, but tried several before settling to these a few years ago. I get some steroid side effects from the Seretide 250, which I wish I didn’t, but otherwise asthma generally ok. And I can laugh!!

[Mwall75 in reply to Yatzy]

Laughing is my goal! I’m on Seretide, Breo, ventolin and occasionally predisolone

[Yatzy in reply to Mwall75]

Which Seretide? 125. 250 or 500?? 125 didn’t work for me, so went up a notch. And yes, I’m on prednisolone when things flair, plus antibiotics usually.

Though I haven’t had pred since I moved house a year ago. Was about four times a year before that. Yippee!

But I can’t seem to reduce anything else yet. Still using Bricanyl reliever three or four times a week. GP won’t reduce anything till I’ve had three months without needing a reliever at all....can’t see that happening yet.

Best of luck with the laughing!! 🤣 It’s your test!!

[Mwall75 in reply to Yatzy]

Do you know what changed with the house move? I’m on 200/25 Breo

[Yatzy in reply to Mwall75]

It’s a long story but....With the house move, I’d been living across the valley from an mdf wood factory, all prevailing wind from that direction. I thought, it’s only wood production. Healthy!

But my asthma went into freefall once I moved there, just needed more and more drugs. Blamed everything except that. I eventually realised I was sensitive to salicylates, so I reduced them in diet, perfumes etc which helped quite a lot.

Then my nerdy new neighbour here, bless him, said there’s a huge amount of formaldehyde used in that production. Looked it up and he was right. And I found a main component of formaldehyde is salicylates. (As in aspirin and ibuprofen, which I’d know gave me asthma for a while) Your body can cope with so much of it but finds it hard to eliminate in larger quantities. It was the background to my living for 18 years. I moved to be nearer to family but thank goodness I did.

So that’s my story- so glad I moved, though by accident really. I think my lungs are probably permanently damaged.

No exacerbations for the last year, except triggered by perfumes etc, but as yet no reduction in daily asthma drugs either.

Here’s hoping! 💕

[Mwall75 in reply to Yatzy]

Ok thanks for that - I’ve now get asthma attacks from any wines so have had to cut those. Wondering if it’s the salicylates

[Yatzy in reply to Mwall75]

Could be but aren’t there sulphites or something in wines that upset some people.

My low-salicylate diet recommends no wine. Only alcohol that’s low in salicylates are the spirits, gin, whiskey, vodka.

I drink an occasional glass of wine but never tackle a bottle with a friend, like I might have done once upon a time!.

[Hidden]

When I was younger (late teens) I didnt have a preventer inhaler and just used a revealer (Ventolin). I slowly started using my inhaler more and more and would probably use it twice a day, nearly every day, and this seemed to cause me to have shortness of breath when I laughed or coughed or sneezed and made me use my inhaler even more. I made a conscious effort to reduce my usage and got a brown inhaler to use in the winter, this fixed it for me.

[Hamscoul]

All the time, also happens if I cry and if I eat ice cream. Emotion is a definite trigger for Asthma. For me it goes habd in hand and sometime when I am in the office we have to stop laughing because I get too wheezy. I still laugh all the time and just make sure I have an inhaler handy.

The ice cream cough is funny and my family and friends end up laughing and then I do too. Then I am dealing with being wheezy for laughing and eating ice cream.

[LittleMissFaffALot in reply to Hamscoul]

Yep emotion (or stress) is a trigger for me too.

I have been known to laugh myself into an asthma attack on many occasions :'D

The first time it happened in work (yes, we sometimes laugh in work haha) I tried to hide it "oh, it's just a cough" but it clearly wasn't getting any better so I had to take my inhaler. Now I don't care, pretty much everyone knows about my asthma so I just get on with it.

The funniest is when I get together with my also asthmatic friend and we end up both laughing ourselves into asthma attacks

Her partner just rolls his eyes at us when we start hahaha

[Meme63]

Yes! I was going to say the same thing as Hamscoul, eating ice cream, drinking cold drinks, laughing, crying and walking on a steep incline. The cold constricts the air ways! The laughing etc. is restricting airflow and stressing the airways. I have to use a rescue inhaler or the wheezing will turn into coughing and an attack.

[Mwall75 in reply to Meme63]

Yes this is me!!!

[9909fkw]

If I properly laugh it does trigger an asthma attack.