Albuterol, the [not so] PED
 

So.... on breathing treatments for some nasty sickness again... this time not in the hospital. I am dosing myself (with my PCP's script) with a home nebulizer kit and I feel like I could charge up Col du Tourmalet out of the saddle the whole way in 53-11.


Discuss.


Note: I do recognize that double blinds have proven albuterol has no measured performance enhancement for non-asthmatics.... so apparently I, at some marginal level, suffer from asthma.

Not sure what there is to discuss. If it makes you breathe easier that's great.

This part.

As an asthmatic, I can confirm that albuterol is a PED in every sense of the word. However that's only compared with a baseline of airways that are partly, or nearly completely closed.

For normal, healthy people, it won't do anything because you can't open fully open airways any further.

FWIW - over the years I've found that an albuterol dose roughly 1/2 hour before riding works preemptively and prevents asthma flareups pretty effectively. I've found this to work put better than managing attacks if they occur mid-ride.

How long does the benefit last before you need to resort to an inhaler?

Seems natural if your breathing, which was previously restricted, is suddenly freed up you'll feel like a stronger rider. Whether that feeling persists 30 min into a climb is another story :)

In all my years of riding I've never had a major attack after the first hour riding. Usually, if I have an attack it'll be in the first 20 minutes or so, or on some climb. Once I get past that, I seem immune to asthma for 24-48 hours. That's been the pattern for decades, starting before albuterol existed. I've been using the preemptive approach for about 10 years and it lasts long enough to get me past that critical 1st hour, then the normal pattern takes hold.

That said, I do sometimes have attacks during rides, but feel them coming on and can get past them either with a dose, or often without with mind control.

However, everybody is different, and has different pathologies. Other than being set off by certain allergies, such as cat dander, and seasonal pollen, my asthma is generally "exercise induced". Other than certain weeks, there's no triggers for me outdoors, which is probably why my system works. Feel free to give it a try, and best of luck with it.

I agree with FBinNY. After nearly a lifetime of making do I was diagnosed with exercise-induced and cold temperature-induced asthma. Very mild but there nonetheless. The albuterol inhaler used before riding makes it possible to perform without distress at my age-adjusted "normal" level. I don't ride far enough at a pop to know whether the effects would wear off during a ride, but as he said, the distress occurs mainly at the beginning of a ride when warming up. I haven't had any issues later in a ride.

I hit an inhaler before going out. Had fun the other day by using one that was 'empty' on the counter on the back of it but still actuated. Went into a climb chasing some random dudes that were on the road. Made it to the top, couldn't breathe at all. Cycled home at 1/2 speed to look at inhaler to see that it was at 000 for the counter.

I've always felt that there's a 'post albuterol' slump if anything. Basically an hour or so into your regime if you've hit the inhaler you kinda feel a bit sluggish where as you wouldn't if you didn't need it. Truly, a ****ty 'disease?' to have.

Definitely have always felt some of the effects even after hitting an inhaler. There's some things that you can't win 100% on.

I've had asthma since childhood and use Ventolin, and I find it to be quicker acting than Albuterol.

I've been a runner off and on for many years, and when I'm starting back up (or if I'm sick), I use it right before I start my run. Once I've built up over a couple months, I no longer need to start with it (but take it with me). Agreed with whomever said to start, versus having to stop to use it. With biking, I carry it with me, but rarely have to use it. With the running, it seems like a PED, but I think that's like someone else said - when you can't really breathe to begin with, being able to breathe is pretty amazing... I've also found that those counter things don't work very well at the end. IMO, if you get down around 30 or so and below, it's not nearly as effective. Could be dangerous for a more serious asthmatic.

Will throw em the fk out at 30 and under.

I'm not quite sure what is "normal", but somewhere around 200 to 300W (estimated), I start wheezing and just can't move any more air. Really, it is just hill climbs, and high power riding on flats that I hit the threshold. It doesn't significantly impact anything else in my life.

If a drug could allow me to move just a little more air at maximum effort, then I would assume it would be "performance enhancing". If there is a threshold effect for some riders, then I'm not surprised that a higher than average number of pro cyclists are treated for exercise induced asthma.

There's a big difference between being out of breath or simply lacking heart/lung capacity with high effort, and not being able to breath because of constricted airways. Besides the immediate effect (try breathing through a small tube while riding) there's the continuing or worsening constriction after the level of effort drops back to normal.

Yes. It's been a long time since I had my last Asthma attack - probably 17 years. But I remember it vividly.

There have been plenty of times when I've done a ridiculously hard effort, after which I have had to get off the bike while gasping for air, but that is a totally different experience from an asthma attack.

Part of the reason is that you get EIA by doing exercise, kind of like certain allergies that are caused by exposure to the allergen, instead of just being susceptible.

I had childhood asthma, but grew out of it, but it means you do have a higher chance of ending up giving yourself EIA. Mine showed up doing hill repeats last year when Canada was on fire and exporting all that smoke to the northern US.

It can take 15 minutes for albuterol to take full effect, make sure you're taking it early enough - I use it as a preventative now, whether I think I'll need it or not. Doctor's recommendation was 30 minutes prior to starting.

Unless it is colder (below 45F) I usually don't have a problem unless I'm doing something high intensity like hill repeats. About half the time I end up with a little constriction for the first ~30 minutes of hard effort if I don't use the inhaler or use it too late.

The annoying thing when it showed up I needed to file a new medical form for SCUBA and had to get signed off. GP wasn't fully confident signing off so she sent me to a specialist who was also a diver and was extra careful about it. I hate spirometry to begin with and got assigned a methacholine challenge. Should be classified as torture even if you don't react.

If you have severe asthma there are other things you do, you can predict it with some degree with some simple airflow testing. It's interesting to track, the specialist asked me to do it for a while to get some "normal" numbers to give me one more way to have confidence before dives, even though the risk for me personally is extremely small.

Heh. I see what you did there.

Albuterol is made from Chuck Norris' tears. It can cure anything. Two puffs and any average rider can climb Alpe D'huez in under 5 minutes. Twice.

Sometimes heart issues seem like asthma .... I found out (harder to figure for me, since I also have asthma.) If your HR is okay and you just can't bereathe fast enough, ignore this post.

Thinny, there is only one problem: Ventolin is simply a name brand for albuterol. There are actually several such brands of albuterol inhalers, but the effects should be about the same.

^^^ I didn't know that! lol with egg on my face.

Disregard everything I said then! I was comparing the red pro-air thing that I got from Walgreens versus the blue canistered item I get from CVS. I thought they were different drugs altogether.

I learned something new today!

Well they do say that red is faster.

Funny thing is I just took a guess and looked it up to confirm. Albuterol is so pervasive, I just couldn't believe there was a common alternative on the market that wasn't just a rebrand of IT. That turned out to be right. In allergy therapies you see the same few drugs over and over again in different guises.

+1 for Ventolin. Asthma runs throughout my family. I've never been diagnosed with it but have been using Albuterol when necessary since a doctor gave me a prescription to get over a nasty case of bronchitus. My dad gave me a Ventolin inhaler when my last Albuterol ran out and I find it much more fast acting.

Wut?

Or it could just be the placebo effect. Dang I really thought the ventolin was better