Originally Posted by
CliffordK
Here is an interesting article about Asthma and Sports.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4933613/
The interesting thing is the large number of athletes with Asthma in endurance sports, and they in fact do VERY WELL in general. Various theories about Asthma and sports are entertained in the article including micro damage to the lungs during extended training efforts.
Having experienced exertion related asthma attacks many times over the decades, my best guess is that it's related to a pesky but non-fatal auto-immune disorder I've been battling for years (Hashimoto's thyroiditis). I'm betting it's provoked by the body's overreaction to mold and other allergens stirred up along some roads, particularly in rural areas.
So in bad conditions the harder I ride, the harder I breathe, the deeper the stuff gets into the airway, and the stronger the reaction after 30 minutes or so into a ride.
And it doesn't necessarily correspond with daily reports of airborne allergens. Airborne pollen, etc., may not be the problem. Some of us seem to respond more strongly to stuff that's accumulated along the roads, then stirred up by wind, passing vehicles, etc., particularly in dry conditions.
Several years ago my then-wife and I met her father in the mountains for a camping trip he'd already begun a few days earlier. As soon as we arrived we noticed he was very ill, unusual for him -- he was a big, strong, healthy ox of a guy. But he could hardly breathe and looked gray. I was concerned it might be a pulmonary embolism, which I'd seen in my grandmother when a blood clot that formed in her legs during a long automobile trip broke loose and lodged in her lungs.
We took him to the nearest ER and discovered he'd had a severe allergic reaction, probably to mold stirred up by vehicles passing on the gravel road near his tent. They gave him a steroid injection, a week's worth of predisone and some inhalers. He was okay the next day and well again in a couple of days. We moved the camp farther from the road to avoid a repeat.
I also have problems with airway constriction in cold dry air. I often feel my best on cool or moderately warm humid days. So on cold dry rides I wear a disposable paper medical mask, and occasionally carry one on hot dry days although so far I haven't used one in hot weather. I'm more concerned about overheating than asthma since I can use my inhaler and ephedrine tablets in an emergency.