Curious about those who have breathing issues, exercise induced asthma. Do you find swimming more difficult than running? I’m assuming swimming only because breathing is such an issue, but want to know what others experience.
Thanks
Yes, compared to slower running, at ~threshold, then asthma becomes ~equal problem for both. Swimming at elevation with asthma is simulated drowning…
There is actually a bit of literature on this topic and I might suggest a search on pubmed with the string “exercise induced bronchoconstriction and swimming” I have not reveiwed all the literature on the topic but of note:
- swimming is thought by many to be the least problematic for EIB
- swimming has been shown to have beneficial effects on pulmonary function in childern, but not necessarily in bronchial hyperresponsiveness.
- swimmers tend to have a higher incidence of reactive airway disease ( at least in some populations tested) there are several theories to this, and can be looked at as a chicken egg kind of situation.
Pretty interesting literature really, but the only experience that really matters is the one particular to you. If you have a concern for swimming causeing EIB then I would consider bringing your peak flow meter to the pool and the track so you have an objective measure of how you are responding.
1992 Dec;14(6):397-405.Swimming and asthma. Benefits and deleterious effects.
Bar-Or O, Inbar O.
SourceChildren’s Exercise and Nutrition Centre, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
AbstractSwimming is a common pastime activity and competitive sport for patients with asthma. One reason for such popularity may be the low asthmogenicity of swimming compared with landbased activities. Review of available evidence suggests that swimming induces less severe bronchoconstriction than other sports. The mechanisms for this protective effect of swimming are not clear, but there is some experimental evidence intimating that it results in part from the high humidity of inspired air at water level, which reduces respiratory heat loss (and possibly osmolarity of airways mucus). Beneficial roles of horizontal posture and of water immersion have been tested but not confirmed. Swimming poses two potentially deleterious effects to the patient with asthma. One is the exaggerated parasympathetic tone due to the ‘diving reflex’, that has been shown to trigger bronchoconstriction. The other is airway irritation because of chlorine and its derivatives. Swimming as a training modality has definite benefits for the patient with asthma. These include an increase in aerobic fitness and a decrease in asthma morbidity. There is no conclusive evidence, however, that swim training causes a decrease in the severity or frequency of exercise-induced bronchoconstriction.
PMID: 1470792
I’ve noticed a big difference in my breathing since going from a salt pool to straight chlorine pool. Not sure why, since from what I understand they both contain a form of chlorine. Its truly caused a knee-jerk reaction to my swim training too. Example - during the height of my Ironman training, my longest swim is 3,000 yards once a week, max of 2 swims per week and most only last about 30 minutes. I just can’t stand to do more unless its open water. I also sit in the sauna for 10 minutes after each swim to sweat the chlorine out.
I’ve had been diagnosed with asthma when I was ten, but I’m not subject to sudden attacks. For me usually allergies provoke it and it is a slow trip to getting worse and then to getting better. Day to day I don’t think of my asthma very much.
I just started doing tri last year, and through the spring training in the pool was fine. As early summer came and I started open water swims, I started to have breathing difficulties. At first I thought it was my wetsuit was too tight (I’m 245# and the XL suit is tight) because I only felt issues with my breathing in my chest during swimming . Eventually I realized that something else was going on and made a trip to the doctor. My doctor prescribed Symbicort and using a peak flow meter. Tracking peak flow in the morning was a revelation. Compared to the chart that came with my meter, my peak flow was at about 73% of what I could be running. Three weeks later I was within 5% of what was on the chart and had no issue with breathing while swimming any more.
During that time, I felt I didn’t have any issues with running or the cycling.
Do you think it could have been the colder water? I worry about that now, as I can see cold has an effect. At least with a wetsuit, I swim better than in a pool.
It looks like I have asthma. The technician who did the Pulmonary Function Tests said, she is not supposed to tell me, but did say it is definite asthma. I got a call from my Doctors office to come in on the 28th, though I still have a Methacholine Challenge on March 9th. I think my Doctor finally got the PF tests and I assume there is an issue, otherwise he would just tell me on the phone. At the end of my runs, the wheezing is very loud and horrible. Felt crappy in the swim today too.
Well, better than the supposed heart issues that were considered a few months ago.
so far only intense running have induced bad attacks for me, though I have noticed swimming or biking causing a bit of wheezyness.
however when I am on my meds (once daily anti inflammatory inhaler) nothing can touch me…for now. whew
Thanks. Is your asthma allergy related, or exercise induced? What is the name of the medication you take?
Thanks. Is your asthma allergy related, or exercise induced? What is the name of the medication you take?
both? I have always had horrible allergy problems, but never asthma until it started happening about 3 years ago, almost always during medium to fast paced runs.
I think the introduction of cats to my home may have triggered it.
flovent is the medication I am currently on. advair also worked, but is more expensive, contains two drugs, and is possibly riskier.
I’ll be interested in what they prescribe as treatment. I have something similar, not athsma, because i can’t have that due to my job. Singulair, Advair, or just a rescue inhaler. I have never had any symptoms unless i’m excercising very hard, ie: 90%+ heart rate etc, and it’s 65 degrees or colder. Unfortunately i’m limited on getting any type of actual diagnosis.
Curious about those who have breathing issues, exercise induced asthma. Do you find swimming more difficult than running? I’m assuming swimming only because breathing is such an issue, but want to know what others experience.
Thanks
nope, #1 is cycling, #2 is running and #3 is swimming (sea). But running might be #2 because I do BarryP running of high quantity and slow.
I’ll be interested in what they prescribe as treatment. I have something similar, not athsma, because i can’t have that due to my job. Singulair, Advair, or just a rescue inhaler. I have never had any symptoms unless i’m excercising very hard, ie: 90%+ heart rate etc, and it’s 65 degrees or colder. Unfortunately i’m limited on getting any type of actual diagnosis.
I used Advair (and during Ironman month I’ll go back on it because I totally knocks out any attacks, but this is preventative and not rescue) and now use Pulmicort 1 puff BID as preventative. I have the turbohaler and LOVE it. I think it really gets the meds deep into my lungs (unlike the standard MDA). I do albuterol for rescue, 2-4 puffs BID and when it is really bad then I do a Combivent nebulizer (had a neighbor mule me down an OmniPro) q. 4-6 if the albuterol still isn’t cutting it. I do Combivent nebs instead of going to the ER (where they’d do the same).
So far, the wheezing is only when working out, though sometimes even a little effort starts to be noticed.
Last night, did a spin session, with the last set being 15 minutes TT with effort increasing every 5 minutes. I was mostly ok during the effort, starting to wheeze a bit towards the end, but the second we stopped, the wheezing was so loud and so hard it scared everyone.
I’m using Ventolin with an Aero Chamber before the workout, 2 puffs, it seemed to be helping early on, now not sure. Anyway, I see my Doctor on the 28th.
I notice it more when I’m swimming. I have full on asthma (attacks both when not exercising and when exercising). My asthma is pretty much controlled (I say pretty much because it was controlled up until September of last year when I had to stop taking the long term inhalers due to other health problems, and am just getting back on them). I swam today and would say I was “this close” to a small attack. I forgot my inhaler (which happens a lot because my asthma is usually very well controlled). I couldn’t ever take a deep breathe, but I was able to do the workout as written (when I got home I put an inhaler in my swim bag so it’s always there). I ran later on and had no problems at all (didn’t take anything between workouts). FWIW, both workouts had similar length intervals (30-40 seconds hard on varied recovery).
my asthma is definitely worse in cold water (or even cold temperatures).
Was diagnosed with asthma and it ended up being acid reflux…ya, go figure. My attacks were caused by acid reflux, not asthma but my primary doc got it wrong for two years.
Two years of taking steroidal inhalers, FML!
Anyone who hasn’t seen a specialist owes it to themselves to get the best respiratory doc you can. Lucky for me National Jewish is local to me and it’s the best in the biz.
I’ve noticed when the weather and water are cold, it tends to act up more when swimming. When it’s cold, 500m is a little tough, opposed to tonight which was warm, I swam 1650m feeling great. However, if some asshole is smoking right outside the pool, the 2nd hand smoke will stop me dead in the pool. The only time I have problems when running is when it’s voggy outside.
It’s supposedly triggered by the shock of the cold air. If you slow down the transition from warm air to cold air, it should mitigate the asthma a lot. Air close the the cold water’s surface is the coldest. Walking out of your warm house and starting running hard immediately in the colder outdoors is a great way to trigger an asthma attack. So is ramming cold air into warm lungs at 20 mph on the bike. Helpful advice for both of those situations is to wear some cloth over your mouth, like a bandana, during warm up to slow the transition and shock of the cold air. The hanky traps some of your warm moisture coming off of your lungs, slowing down the shock.
There’s not much you can do in the swimming situation except make sure that you warm up slowly, lengthening out the time from when you start to when you really start breathing hard. That helps a lot. Each attack scars your lungs a little bit, damaging their oxygen uptake and hurting your athletic performance for a long time, if not permanently. Rescue inhalers are a band-aid, but not really fixing the problem. Once I learned that, I started taking allergy shots and that stopped the asthma attacks from even happening in the first place. If this is happening a lot, you should go get allergy tested at an ENT and find out what you’re allergic to that’s making your lungs so sensitive.
Ever since my attack that led to 4 days in the hospital, I’ve not been sea swimming without a kayaker as if I get an attack out there I’m not sure what would happen. I"ve had attacks where I’ve continued both bike and run, but swimming seems a little scarier. Can you share with me how you get over that? I’ve had “issues” (but no attacks) swimming and I just a hit of albuterol and I’m good to go. But that is at the pool where I get the inhaler immediately.