Running with asthma

dtsbrown

i am a runner, I run several days a week and have done several 5 and 10ks. Looking to do a 10 mile race in the fall. I run with asthma. It kills me every time. It feels do suffocating but I continue to run because it is so good for me and quite frankly I love the runners high after a successful race. I do use and inhaler, have seen a pulmonologist and was recommended additional medicine but I did not care for the effects. The reality is my asthma mostly only bothers me when I run. So I did not want to take a daily steroid, figure I would rather suffer thru the effects than have side effects daily from a steroid. So my question is, who else suffers with this and what strategies have you used to manage the breathing struggles when running. I'm very active aside from running I rock climb, bike and hike so I have the lungs of an athlete. But it sure does not feel that way when I run.

katarina005

I'm having a similar problem except my problem is that I'm a former smoker. I am going to look online and see if there's a breathing exercise or something that can help

Nizzmog

The wind and cold affects my asthma when I run, so then I might use a scarf. If you can wrap it loosely around your mouth without discomfort and suffocation. As the weather gets warmer I find it gets better. I also make sure I have two puffs of my preventer inhaler before I go running (or in the morning). A major thing which has helped my asthma in general, so that I rarely have asthma doos/attacks, was having a free inhaler technique check-up at my local pharmacist. 20+ years I had been taking my inhaler wrong, and the improvements since that check-up are crazy!

dtsbrown

Thank you I will try the scarf. I do notice it is worse with the wind and cold. Thankfully my pulmonologist showed me proper inhaler usage too. I'm glad your doing better with it as well. Thanks for the feedback