Exercised Induced Asthma (Read 875 times)

Does anyone have this and what do you do to cope with it?

I use an albuterol inhaler before races/hard runs, and antihistamines for my allergies when they get bad.

I'm fortunate that my exercise induced asthma tends to go away when I exercise on a regular basis. I still carry my albuterol with me on really cold or damp days though. FYI: There is a new group for Asthmatics over in the groups section. Although there are no posts yet. http://www.runningahead.com/groups/asthmatic/

I use an Intal inhalor which is, according to the packaging, cromolyn sodium. I take it 20 mins before a run and it makes such a huge difference--almost immediately after I take it I'm like, "So this is how normal people breathe!" I've used it for about 6 years...before that it was albuterol as a preventative inhalor but it made me so jittery. Now I just keep an albuterol inhalor around in case of emergency.

I was diagnosed 5 years ago. I need pulmicort daily as a preventative measure, but still need to use an albuterol inhalor before each run. I find that I need to carry the inhalor on runs over 10 miles, and especially during marathons when I need to use it at least once more on the course. In the winter when the temp. drops below 20 degrees a face mask will also help. Once a year my pulmonary doctor (I'm lucky, he's a runner) does a full work up with breathing tests to see if any adjustments need to be made with the meds. You really need to keep on top of EIA as symptons can change with the seasons.

Short version of story. After 3 sinus surgeries in 8 years, I started seeing an allergy specialist. Apparently my sinuses have ideal conditions for growing polyps. This specialist told me that my allergies, asthma and sinus problems were all connected. I started immunotherapy shots at the start of 2007. The first year really sucks since you have to get the shots once a week while they gradually build up the dose of serum. (Did I mention I hate needles? ) After that you only have to do the shots every three weeks. So anyway, the net result is in the past 16 months I have only had one sinus infection, no colds, and no flu. It's one of those things where you really can't feel it working, but I just can't understand how I have avoided getting sick in the last year. It's not like I'm a hermit and avoid people. My coworkers have been a sick bunch and I know I have been exposed to everything they passed around the office. So here's the cool part. On my last office visit they gave me usual the lung function test to check my breathing and it had improved about 10% in 6 months. The allergy doc even suggested that he might consider eliminating one of my asthma meds if I continue to improve. This was before I started running. Needless to say, I'm looking forward to that next test to see if how much I've improved. In the mean time I'm still taking singulair, advair and nasonex. I don't mind the singulair or nasonex. The advair makes me moody when I take it twice a day. Disclaimer: I have no pets, no carpet in the house and try to avoid allergens where I can.

I had the vents cleaned in my house shortly after moving in. I think it cost me about $350 but I think it was worth it. You should have seen the amount the junk they removed! They had to change the filter twice. I was kind of concerned about the commitment to the shots considering my insurance barely knocks much off the price. My doc suggested that I may not need the shots after 4-5 years when I build up the immunities. I don't think I've ever had a doctor suggest a limited time frame for a form of treatment. For me the big savings is in not needing sinus surgeries. My last one cost me over $2000 and that was with insurance.