Originally Posted by
FBinNY
Try being more careful about winding down and cooling off. Or you might try bringing an inhaler and taking a dose of albuterol when you're 5 or 10 minutes from home.
Also, consider that your home may have allergens or other triggers at a level low enough for you to manage, but when you come in with the higher breathing rate from your ride, the combination brings you over the top. You might do an experiment by coming home, but staying outside until you've fully recovered, or at least close, and seeing if that improves things.
The key is to learn the patterns that cause attacks, then find workarounds. It takes patience and experimentation, but it's been my experience that it is usually manageable.
FB, many thanks for the reply. I have become careful about 'warming down' after rides, but the hacking still kicks in about 10 to 20 minutes after the ride. I'll try warming down a bit longer to see if it helps...
Your comments about allergens at home don't apply to my situation, as I usually drive to the start of a ride - and there are many different start locations, all over the county.
However a dose of albuterol 5 to 10 minutes from the end of the ride is a "blinding flash of the obvious", yet I hadn't thought of it. I always ride with an inhaler, and will definitely try that. Thanks for the idea.
The patterns that cause the attacks are pretty similar to many others in this thread: Cold, dry weather is worst, whereas I can often ride in warm humid weather and - as much as I
hate the clammy heat - there's often no after effect at all. Maybe my answer is to move to Florida. (Now - I need my pulmonologist to convince my wife that I need to move for health reasons.
)
Originally Posted by
Hot Potato
My exercise asthma kicks in an hour or two AFTER a hard ride. I think the catecholamines and stress hormones of hard riding keep it at bay until after. So I took some beta agonists before riding and felt like crap while riding. Seems those "selective" drugs aren't too selective in me, and having a baseline tachycardia saps my energy. What I found worked was low dose inhaled steroid daily. Then use a beta agonist inhaler only after those rides that symptoms start to appear after stopping, which is way less frequent now. Gotta give inhaled steroids weeks to work?
Unfortunately, cold weather will cause symptoms during a ride, and just taking it easy seems to be the only effective treatment then, with or without a beta agonist inhaler. my move to Phoenix next month should fix that!
I've tried the daily low dose inhaled steroid (Advair) - and I'm not convinced that it helps. I Googled "beta agonist inhaler" - and I think Albuterol is one of them..?
I think your move to Phoenix is the answer!