I have exercised induced ashama but refuse to take medicine. I've seen the long term effect these drugs have on you and WILL NOT subject myself to spending the rest of my life on medication. Ashama is a condition that does not get better with age and tends to get worse causing you to need stronger medication with higher doses.
Lets see. A doctors visit in New York City is about $175.00 and the medicine is another $90.00 - $150.00. All this expense just to ride a bicycle is crazy. Even though I have health insurance, these drugs cause other problems like loss of sleep, heart problems, neverousness, on and on. If you read the instructions of these drugs, you'll see a host of problems they create so you don't want to stay on them forever. But guess what. Ashma has no cure so once you get on these drugs, it usually ends up being forever. Furthermore, these powerful drugs conflict with other medication and if you have a medical history of high blood pressure or heart disease, watch out. What the doctors don't tell you is that long term use of these drugs cause permanent respiratory lung and heart damage.
This year alone, thousands of ashma sufferers will die not because they didn't have medication, but because the drugs STOPPED WORKING after years of overexposure. I do not under any circumstance want to become dependant on these or any drug because your body will need more of it as you get older. Some people can walk away from these drugs but many won't. I'm not going to fall into that trap.
Here's what I do.
I ride at a leisurely pace so the condition doesn't flare up. In the winter, I come to a stop after 2 miles. If I have to caugh, I do it. There's nothing wrong with caughing. This is natural and your bodies way of extracting a foreign object. As you ride more, you'll expand your lung capicity and that will enable you to ride longer. You don't need to drugs to do this. Lets face it. If you're an ashma sufferer, your dreams of becoming the next Lance Amstrong are pretty much over and taking drugs to do it is folly. City riding is always going to have a negative impact on the ashma sufferer and you'll just have to deal with it. The other day, I inhaled some pollutant that caused me to caugh but the last thing I needed was an inhaler.
Bottom line. Spending $200 - $300 for drugs to ride a bicycle, is the wrong way to solving a simple problem.