Exercise Induced Asthma

[Magicme]

My 13 yr old has just been diagnosed with EIA today and am wondering if any of you have suffered or do still suffer from the same thing.

Despite playing football and basketball for at least an hour a day and being on both the school basketball and Monaghan United under 14's team, he always seems out of breath within a few minutes of going onto the court/pitch. His football coach last year used to give out to me that he wasnt fit but he is!

Thanks to the FAI's health questionaire for juveniles on their website I sat with him and discussed the problem and when he had to go to the doc today because he has a bad cough, I got him to bring the questionaire with him and discuss it with the doc. Thats when the doc said he has EIA and prescribed an inhaler.

Any suggestions or ideas on how to make things easier? I am a "proper" asthmatic! :D

[Poor Student]

Take a couple of puffs of Ventolin before taking the field?

[Ash]

I have both Exercise Induced Asthma and Allergic Asthma :(

Its a right pain in the nads. I get too knackered and out of breath when I go
training which results in me being severly unfit. Of course the beer and pies
have also contributed to it, but I'm blaming the Asthma ;)

I'm on Seretide and Ventolin. Always have the Ventolin inhaler with be at
training or matches and always take a blast of it before starting any exercise.
I also find that drinking water also helps, and also try to breath as much as
possible through your nose cos that warms up the air a bit more before it hits
the lungs!

[DIFChick]

My brother suffers from EIA and like Ash and Poor Student mentioned an inhaler is useful.

It might sound stupid but it's all about training/controlling your breathing. When we exercise, we tend to breath more through our mouth than through our nose, so focus on taking even breaths through your mouth when exercising.

My brother finds that a longer warm up before training also helps keep the EIA in check. He's got two different inhalers, one that he can take in the morning and the effect of that would cover him for 12 hours. The other inhaler is an instant relief type of thing.

[Danny]

I dont have EIA but i manage an adults soccer team and 2 of the lads on the team have it.... Agree with the longer warm up idea and always keep the inhaler in the club medical box. Both players have played nearly every game this season and bar a couple of puffs of the inhaler are not troubled by it all...
probably not much help but atleast you can tell your son he'll still be able to play ball when he's older

[Magicme]

Thanks lads. Have 2 inhalers myself but was kinda hoping to avoid him having that.

Have any of you heard of the Buketyo(sp?) breathing method? Its about taking small shallower breaths.

[jebus]

I have EIA and there's a few things that is helping me get back to jogging. First, always carry a ventolin as the lads said, second, rub some Vicks Vaporub on the chest of your top/jersey, it really does help you breathe easier, and third he should get in the swimming pool. I've just started swimming lessons and it's really helping I think. There's a form of yoga called Hatha Yoga as well that concentrates on your breathing techniques that I'm starting in January as well. I heard it works wonders so we'll see, not sure if a 13 year old lad would be into having a yoga mat though :p

[AidoM]

Sorry to hear about the lad but don't worry. You might look up the asthma society website at www.asthmasociety.ie for very good info on asthma. They also have an advice line 1850 44 55 64 on Tuesday Wednesday and Thursday from 10.00 am to 1 p.m.

[Magicme]

Thanks for all that.

[kingdom hoop]

ATTENTION Magicme, and all other asthmatics here !!!

You are going to become members of the Buteyko cult, a membership that will improve your quality of life by retraining your breathing technique, significantly reducing your asthma problems.

My mother used to be quite a bad asthmatic, guaranteed a couple of chest infections every winter, regular coughs, that kind of thing. But then she went to one of these Buteyko (Russian doctor who devised/discovered the method) clinics, followed the process through and since then gets sick very rarely and doesn't need to take as many drugs as before.

She undertook the course with one of my brothers who was the one who came across the method on the internet. To be honest he was in a very bad way, chronic fatigue, mental health not the best, and a ridiculous amount of allergies. After months of torture going from doctor to doctor, he figured out that the root cause of a lot of his ailments could well be because he was continuously hyperventilating. So he did the course, retrained his breathing, and slowly but surely got back to being himself. So that is the holistic benefit to it. Bad breathing can cause an amount of problems. But in relation to asthma Buteyko believed that when you over-breath your body reacts naturally to reduce the amount of air going into your lungs and that this in essence is what asthma is, a natural reaction to over-breathing. You don't need half as much air as you're trying to take in.

Needless to say the Hoop household owes a huge debt of gratitude to Mr. Buteyko. But I remember when they were going on the course how they used, as it progressed, report how much improvement the other participants were making. One person couldn't utter a full sentence without being gasping for breath but after a few weeks had made great strides. In other words, I certainly don't think it's a scam!

The process involves going to a clinic for I think six weeks, while you must do exercises at home for a couple of months. But I'm sure it'll be a small price to pay to be able to live your life as you deserve. A lovely man called Patrick McKeown introduced the technique to Ireland and used to run all the clinics himself, it may be bigger now though. Here's the website (http://www.buteyko.ie/index.html). Lemme know if ye've any questions, I'll try to get answers.


Oh by the way it stops people snoring as well so you might want to bring your partner along too!

[Magicme]

Thanks for that KH. Not sure if you saw in one of my posts above that I asked about this method. Heard about it about 2 yrs ago but was never sure if it was worth really doing. There is a clinic in Castleblayney and yesterday I was saying to my mum I might give it a go and take Dylan.

So you would highly recommend it then?

[Olander]

Sorry if this is abit off topic but Galway United's top scorer this year Derek Glynn suffers from asthma, you often see him running to the bench to take a puff of his inhaler, so your son can aspire to be a good footballer / basketball player! :) just like Derek even if he has asthma!

[Magicme]

Yeah he spent sometime yesterday googling it and seeing that loads of sports stars have it and are grand! Thanks Olander.

Actually thinking he mite be a better footballer now coz previously he was wrecked within minutes of being on the pitch so now if his breathing is sorted his body will function better for playing. He mite just make it yet!!

[Ash]

John O'Shea and Tommy Dowd are asthmatics

[kingdom hoop]

Magicme, I didn't do it (I 'grew out' of asthma myself) so can't personally 100% say to do it. But both my brother and mother did it and they give it their 100% backing. It definitely greatly improved their quality of life. And since then they've become evermore health-conscious zealots so it might be a cunning way of getting Dylan to appreciate his body is his temple and stay away from drugs. ;)

If your asthma causes you difficulty then I don't see why you wouldn't do it. I'd imagine that as one grows older that asthma would become more of problem too, harder to shake off colds, more risk to pneumonia etc. In fairness it will take dedication because you must do exercises at home for a while (including putting tape on your mouth going to sleep!), but if you've Dylan to do it with, and he you, then it should be a lot easier. Go for it, effort should be no barrier to health!

[jebus]

John O'Shea and Tommy Dowd are asthmatics

As is Paul Scholes

[kingdom hoop]

And Keith Wood too.