# Chesty cough brought on by exercise



## Andrew_Culture (29 Jul 2012)

I'm not asthmatic and I haven't been a habitual smoker for years, but sometimes when I push myself extra hard on a bike I develop a chesty cough, not unlike the smokers' cough I'd get the morning after a good night out in my 20s.

Am I dredging something gunky up that is normally undisturbed when exercising only moderately?

When I say 'extreme exercise' I mean the type that makes your heart leap out of your chest!


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## Garz (29 Jul 2012)

Seems to be the body getting up the crap from yesteryear. I wouldnt worry about it too much, how long have you been cycling like this (intensity) for?


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## HLaB (29 Jul 2012)

Quite often if I've pushed myself hard when I get in start coughing, I think its just the body trying to replace the oxygen debt faster, I'm fine a bit later.


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## Becs (29 Jul 2012)

Andrew_Culture said:


> Am I dredging something gunky up that is normally undisturbed when exercising only moderately?
> !


 
Yes - lungs have a large reserve and you're probably not using them to their full capacity until you are really pushing it. I get the same thing. I wouldn't worry unless it persists for days or is bloody.


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## Andrew_Culture (30 Jul 2012)

Cheers you lot! I cycle to the point of getting the heart beating properly six days a week, but only really thrash myself about once a month. Maybe I should push harder 


__________________________________________________________________________________
Sent from a Victorian Terrace house, red brick, 1882 build.


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## Andrew_Culture (30 Jul 2012)

The back of my ribs really hurt today so I must have been expanding my chest cavity a lot more than usual!


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## Rob3rt (30 Jul 2012)

You may not have Asthma in the everyday sense, but you may have exercise induced asthma and you should speak to the doctor, quite frankly even if you don't have exercise induced asthma, the doctor will likely just give you a blue inhaler anyway based on the symptoms, this should hopefully help with the issue when it comes up.

I have a blue inhaler for exactly the same issue. Never been "tested" or dubbed as asthmatic, but occasionally I will get a "tight" chest and cough and hack, sometimes perpetuated by running where there is a lot of pollen, the blue inhaler is a godsend. As soon as I feel any hint of anything abnormal in my breathing while running, I take a puff and then usually feel great.


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## Andrew_Culture (30 Jul 2012)

I didn't feel breathless, I just cough when I breath deeply, or is that the same as a symptom of asthma?


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## Manonabike (30 Jul 2012)

Andrew_Culture said:


> I didn't feel breathless, I just cough when I breath deeply, or is that the same as a symptom of asthma?


 
I'm asthmatic and the nurse changed my medicine last December..... in June I saw the doctor and the first thing he suggested was the asthma medicine, I insisted my asthma was fine, in fact better than ever :-) but the doc was right. Change of medicine and after 4 weeks the cough disappeared. The thing is that I feel just as well of my asthma with the new medicine but no cough which is what I wanted.


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## Rob3rt (30 Jul 2012)

Andrew_Culture said:


> I didn't feel breathless, I just cough when I breath deeply, or is that the same as a symptom of asthma?


 
Breathless is not the description* I* would use for a light "attack", when you inhale deeply it sort of tickles and you might sort of react with a little spontaneous cough. As it progresses, you might feel a bit wheezy, cough up a bit of goo (I guess this is your body's reaction to the inflammation in your lungs, producing more mucous to clean the air you are breathing of irritants) then as it gets worse still, it might feel like when you breath in, you seem to glean little oxygen from the breath and even as if you have something tight around you preventing you from breathing in deeply.

I have never gotten worse than this stage so don't know how a full blown asthmatic might feel when having a proper attack.


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## Andrew_Culture (30 Jul 2012)

Now I'm getting scared! If it happens again I'll book a doctors appointment.


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## Rob3rt (30 Jul 2012)

I wouldnt worry too much, I had one episode of the most severe I described above when on a long run, I was 4 mile out from home and managed to complete the run, although at a reduced pace. My girlfriend who is asthmatic told me to huff the blue inhaler, and I was fine. I went doctor a couple of days later, described the symptoms, he said, probably "exercise induced asthma" and signed off a prescription so I could have an inhaler and that was that. Occasionally I feel it coming on, huff the inhaler and it immediately dissipates.


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## Arsen Gere (30 Jul 2012)

I discovered I am asthmatic at 52. It's not stopped me doing anything and I take the preventative brown inhaler and a lot of the coughing and clearing my throat has disappeared. It's exercised induced, worse in cold weather. I don't get breathless I just cough myself inside out.
Loads of people have it but it does not manifest itself unless you create circumstances for it to occur, Paula Radcliffe has it too. It's nothing to worry about and preventable. It's up to you whether it bothers you or not.

http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/asthma/Pages/PaulaRadcliffe.aspx


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## lulubel (31 Jul 2012)

I am fully asthmatic (diagnosed as a baby, hospitalised 4 times with "life threatening" attacks) and the only cough I get when I exercise is a loose cough in cool, damp conditions. The first sign for me that my asthma isn't great - nowhere near a proper attack - is that my chest doesn't feel as if it's got as much room in it as usual. I ignore that because it usually goes away on its own, and only use the blue inhaler if my breathing is impaired to the point where it interferes with something I want to do.

If you find you're struggling to breathe in, it isn't generally a problem with breathing in as such, but that you're not emptying your lungs properly when you breathe out, so they're full of stale air that's stopping new air getting in. Concentrate on breathing out when you're cycling, and you'll probably find it a lot easier.


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## Andrew_Culture (31 Jul 2012)

Thank you, that's helpful. I'm pretty good at controlling my breathing when hill climbing on a road, but off-road I'm usually too busy going faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaark


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## swampyseifer (31 Jul 2012)

Becs said:


> Yes - lungs have a large reserve and you're probably not using them to their full capacity until you are really pushing it. I get the same thing. I wouldn't worry unless it persists for days or is bloody.


 
As far as I am aware you NEVER use your full lung capacity, if your lungs empty completely they collapse flat and wont reinflate!

When I was first at the gym and I found the intense stuff like jogging or steep climbing on the treadmill made me cough a lot...the gym guy told me I need to drink more as its my throat and lungs "drying out" because of the fast raspy breaths. TBH I now always drink little but often when doing intense stuff and I dont get the cough at all...


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