Exercise induced asthma?

[Zoiders]

maybe your doc is that kind of waster. mine isn't. most aren't.

Oh stop having a flounce.

Asthma is nowhere near as common as people think it is.

 

[Ravenbait]

No fighting please!

Thanks everyone. Shall await the warmer weather and in the meantime work on a steady recovery.

Sam

 

[ColinJ]

Asthma is nowhere near as common as people think it is.

Well, how common is it? In the 60s and 70s, I can only remember being at school with one child who suffered from asthma.

20-odd years later I was at work when a panicky message came over our PA system. Somebody was having an asthma attack and didn't have their inhaler. It was an emergency, they were going blue, did anybody have an inhaler handy? About 20 of the 50-odd people in my office leapt to their feet with inhalers in their hands!

Either a lot of asthma wasn't getting diagnosed 40 years ago, or it is being over-diagnosed now, or something very odd has happened to the population or the environment.

 

[Zoiders]

Well, how common is it? In the 60s and 70s, I can only remember being at school with one child who suffered from asthma.

20-odd years later I was at work when a panicky message came over our PA system. Somebody was having an asthma attack and didn't have their inhaler. It was an emergency, they were going blue, did anybody have an inhaler handy? About 20 of the 50-odd people in my office leapt to their feet with inhalers in their hands!

Either a lot of asthma wasn't getting diagnosed 40 years ago, or it is being over-diagnosed now, or something very odd has happened to the population or the environment.

The helicopter parents came into being.

 

[ColinJ]

The helicopter parents came into being.

Helicopter parents - I like that term. I don't like the concept much though.

Some college professors and administrators are now referring to "Lawnmower parents" to describe mothers and fathers who attempt to smooth out and mow down all obstacles, to the extent that they may even attempt to interfere at their children's workplaces, regarding salaries and promotions, after they have graduated from college and are supposedly living on their own. As the children of "helicopter parents" graduate and move into the job market, personnel and human resources departments are becoming acquainted with the phenomenon as well. Some have reported that parents have even begun intruding on salary negotiations.

Blimey!

 

[GrumpyGregry]

The helicopter parents came into being.

That is your evidence base? Wow. Case closed then.

And there was me thinking something that kills 1200 people a year in the UK, some of them extremely active and very fit, was a serious medical condition as oppossed to the figment of a neurotic parent's imagination.

 

[Zoiders]

That is your evidence base? Wow. Case closed then.

And there was me thinking something that kills 1200 people a year in the UK, some of them extremely active and very fit, was a serious medical condition as oppossed to the figment of a neurotic parent's imagination.

1200 is an extremely small number.

So small that it makes the chances of dropping dead from something that you shouldnt have mentioned to Sam.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

3000 road deaths per annum. Another extremely small number. Is that something else we shouldn't mention?

 

[Ravenbait]

Sam is no shrinking violet apt to bouts of hyperchondria and panic attacks about impending fatality on the basis of a comment on an internet forum, but thanks for the concern, Zoiders. I'm grateful for your consideration of my sensibilities and potential for anxiety, however unnecessary it is.

But I'd really appreciate it if you chaps would refrain from hijacking my thread about my dodgy breathing in order to conduct a P&L style debate on the state of the country's healthcare and hypervigilant, risk-averse parents.

Sam

 

[ColinJ]

But I'd really appreciate it if you chaps would refrain from hijacking my thread about my dodgy breathing in order to conduct a P&L style debate on the state of the country's healthcare and hypervigilant, risk-averse parents.

Oh, er, right!

Back on topic - I sometimes get very wheezy on cold early morning rides (not that I do many of them these days).

 

[Garz]

Either a lot of asthma wasn't getting diagnosed 40 years ago, or it is being over-diagnosed now, or something very odd has happened to the population or the environment.

I would say it's a bit of both. The chief concern is that with high levels of pollution, allergens and other irritants triggering it, it seems to be prevalent. The reasons to explain it's rise could be genetic, childhood exposure or through workplace conditions.

I rarely suffer from it enough to impact my lifestyle too much. I have the blue inhaler and brown (for prevention) issued every couple of years. The main trigger for me seems to be hay fever and normally effects my sleep when it happens.

 

[Holdsworth]

I have had asthma since I was young, diagnosed at quite an early age and have had to cope with it as I have gotten back into cycling.

I can usually get by with 2 puffs of the inhaler if I have no large inclines on my route, but as soon as I hit a hill I get breathing trouble and have to take a top up. I had to stop after a climb up to a canal bridge near Church Minshull this afternoon because of it, it was quite steep for at least 100 yards and my body was working hard to get up it and it is that kind of exertion that triggers my asthma.

A bit of a pain TBH, I don't know how this will affect me if I do the Cheshire Cat sportive in March.

 

[Fiona N]

I can't add much advice besides saying - chose your GP carefully in respect of asthma, especially exercise-induced asthma.

Both my sister and I were diagnosed with EIA as fit, sporty adults within a few months of each other - by our GPs. Our symptoms seemed curiously diverse so we both (independently) looked into it. My sister decided the EIA wasn't a correct diagnosis and paid privately to see a specialist who agreed and looked into her breathing difficulties which turned out to be a thyroid problem! I persisted with the inhaler etc. for a few months before going to live in Italy. While there I noticed that my symptoms were much worse on the WIndcheetah than on a upright. It got to the stage of being frightening with chest pains (like a stone pressing down on my chest) and wheezing even hours after cycling. I decided to see a local doctor as I was getting worried that things were getting worse. It so happened that he was a specialist and pretty quickly organised some tests and from the results decided it wasn't asthma of any stripe but a chronic lung inflammation which appeared to be caused by, and certainly 'attacks' were triggered by, exhaust gas and particulates - thus the greater problem with the low Windcheetah. The treatment was pretty simple and avoidance of cycling in traffic helped. By the time I left Italy 2 years later, I was back to (better than) normal with no symptoms and I've been symptom-free ever since.

 

[Sheffield_Tiger]

and quite a few buggers and their canine's labour for years under the misaprehension that it is their lack of fitness causing them problems until asthma is diagnosed. Lack of fitness probably won't kill someone on its own. An asthma attack can.

Sam, get down the quacks....

Quite...and not all quacks will diagnose it

I remember footballer-now-turned-pastor Stuart Elliott who was banging in goals for Hull City so much that the label of "one man team" was applied - then he lost performance and fitness - many assumed that it was simply that promotion to a faster better division was a step too far - it took quite a few medical opinions to finally get it down to an exercise-induced asthma.

We're talking a professional footballer here too with supposedly top notch medical care, not your average Joe complaining of a bit of a wheeze to a disinterested GP*

(not saying all regular GPs are disinterested but they must get fed up of some of the "the home doctor"-toting hypochondriacs pesterign them for every twinge and sniffle)

 

[slowmotion]

I dimly remember reading an article which claimed that one of the reasons for the increase in asthma is the growing popularity of diesel cars. Their exhausts emit greater quantities of PM10 particulates which trigger the condition.

I may have this all scrambled.