I was a childhood asthmatic who outgrew the nocturnal and season changing attacks until I started smoking in college. I used Primatene(OTC) tablets during the spring season for a year and the symptoms abated and when I quit smoking, I only had symptoms when I was near cats for more than 30 minutes.
My problem, now, is with swimming. During the cold weather months and spring, it takes 15 or 20 minutes of slow warm-up to swim without losing my breath. I didn’t get a chance to warm-up before a tri yesterday, and, at about 200 meter of a 400 meter swim, I stated having problems cathcing my breath. Another 100 meters and I had to roll over several time to get air. I had to walk to T1.
I have 2 questions for any of you who have this problem:
Will using an OTC inhaler before a race help and is it legal?
Does your condition hinder your breath control in swimming, i.e., bilater breathing and flip turns?
Hello, I am also an asthmatic. Pretty chronic I might add. My doctor has me prescribed on Advair. I would say that this drug has worked like a miracle for me. I only use it once a day, in the mornings. But it prevents any kind of asthma attacks. If I did not have my asthma under control I would not be participating in any endurance sports. I would suggest talking to your G.P. about it.
I’ve had asthma for 30+ years. I’d recommend you visit the doctor and get a prescription for albuterol. This is an inhaler that you can take as a rescrue medicine when you need it, or you can take it prior to swimming or racing as a blocker. I take mine prior to a race, and bring it along for longer races. Primatene has side effects with heart rates, etc, so I personally wouldn’t use it. Albuterol is a generic, and is very inexpensive.
I believe asthma inhalers are perfectly legal with USAT, but I didn’t check.
I, too, have had asthma for 30+ years and am currently on a preventative inhaler (twice a day) and have a ventolin inhaler for “rescue” if I experience any difficulty breathing. The asthma doesn’t interfere with swimming for me-in fact I find the humidity of the pool somewhat beneficial. I have read several studies that suggest deliberately inducing and asthma attack (obviously a mild, exercise-induced one) prior to competition and then using one’s rescue medication to treat it. From what the studies said, exercise-induced asthma attacks have a refractory period that can last several hours after the initial attack has subsided. This prevents any recurring attack from interfering with the competition. I have used this approach several times with success. I should stress that I am not a doctor and every individual is different. I discussed my options with my doctor and he approved of my approach to dealing with my asthma.
For others benefit, albuterol is a generic of ventolin. Advair is a different kind of medicine used as a long term blocker. I also take a different long term blocker named Flovent on a daily basis, and use the albuterol only when needed. I believe the recommendation is if you need the rescue inhaler albuterol/ventolin more than “x” times per week or month, you should be on a blocker like advair or flovent. (I’m not sure what “x” is).
Go see a pulmonary MD or physician with an active asthma practice. All the other advice is good, but as you can see everyones triggers and extent of the symptoms are different. There is a cocktail of different meds that will control symptoms for you, you need to find out which is best for you. I have never heard a physician say anything good about OTC Primatine products. Thirty or fourty years ago they might have been acceptable, but there are a bunch of other meds that work much better. G
Plenty of good info here from others, but I’ll just add my experience. I’ve had EIA since my early teens, and recently (past year) I began having mild asthma attacks not related to exercise at all. So, I now take Advair once a day, and then pre-exercise, 2 puffs of Albuterol (ventolin). That usually does the trick, but I typically carry along my inhaler on long rides and for races just in case. Good luck.
Good advice above if this is asthma. What you describe above is not uncommon in people without respiratory problems, and may not be asthma related. Make sure you have some confirmation with pulmonary function testing before you are labelled an asthmatic.