I’ve booked myself in to the docs next week, just interested in other people’s experiences, and what treatments are available.

4 ish years ago I had serious Pneumonia which lasted some weeks, and literally too over a year to get over. Last winter I got it again. However just a few weeks after getting it, it returned again.

I couldn’t exercise until June this year, but now I am fitter than I have been for 6 or so years.

My symptoms prior to June was during any exercise bringing up lots of clear thick mucus. No power in the legs, but breathing ok. After finishing though I would start coughing, deep irritating coughs. I’d be lucky if I went a week without a cold too.

Through the summer I’ve been fine. However on some very early morning rides, or when it’s been very cold I’ve had what I would describe as burning feelings in my chest, and some feeling not quite right.

I’m worried that if I don’t do something now, when Autumn does arrive, my fitness will go again.

Are these symptoms other people get?

What medication do you use? Is anyone on Montelukast ?

Brown ‘preventer’ inhalers made a massive difference to me, was getting similar symptoms to yourself – fine in the summer but coughing and burning as soon as the colder damp months set in, not getting colds though and no pneumonia.

I keep using it year round so I’m not playing catch up when I really need it. I carry the blue ‘reliever’ to help get over the harder efforts but don’t need it so much when I’ve been using the preventer regularly.

Also take more time to warm up, will help avoid the burning.

I should have said, after I had the big bout of Pneumonia I was given a brown inhaler. After about 2 weeks I had to stop using it as it was badly irritating my throat and causing a weird choking reaction. Even the GP was puzzled.

That’s kind of why I am curious as to any alternate treatments

^^^ nothing to add to this.

I’m not sure I’d describe the feeling as burning, more a restriction on the depth of the breath you can take, but then I don’t get it too badly.

Is it only exercise induced? Or do you have the symptoms at other times? Ever wake up with the symptoms in the night?

I think with a little attention to the meds there’s no reason why you can’t continue to exercise to the max.

Are you okay with the blue ones? Quick blast before any hard efforts might help, though not exactly convenient…

Or keep the efforts down during winter, maybe try to maintain fitness by saving the harder efforts for turbo/rollers?

I never have issues at night with breathing/coughing etc. When I saw the doc last winter they said that maybe colds give me reactive airways. In some ways I don’t actually get full on asthma I don’t think. More just that my airways get irritated by either exercise or colds and then it just all perpetuates

Haze – came in tonight and stated coughing. I used my sons blue and the coughing all but stopped and I felt more comfortable.

I’m thinking I need something to keep me ticking over all winter long though, and that’s not what blues are for. I really don’t fancy Pneumonia again

Besides which I’m doing the 3 Peaks CX then end of September, but I already feel that unless I get this under control now, that won’t be happening.

I think you’ve just described almost the exact issues I have with asthma. I have it so mildly I feel a fraud going to the local asthma clinic (this morning I got a 790 reading on the peak flow 😳 ) but when I get it (during exercise mainly) I recon it easily knocks 25% off my peak power output.

You do know it has a strong hereditary indicator don’t you? If your son’s got it then he must have got it from somewhere.

Edit: interestingly, both my parents have been diagnosed with asthma in the past 6 months at the age of 76 and 73!

Yep sounds familiar. I don’t get full on wheezing asthma attacks very often but do get the mucus build up thing which leads to coughing fits and lots of chest infections, and just a difficulty in taking the deep enough breaths that you need while riding/climbing. The brown inhaler has never really worked for me either and it also makes me cough lots. I also have a constant nasal drip, which got worse when I got a dog 4 years ago (dog is going nowhere before anyone suggests it…..he’s the most amazing dog ever!)

Three winters ago I ended up very poorly which made me push the docs for more treatments, I’ve kept that up til last winter, when after seeing something on here I asked for Montelukast tablets. Doc said yes and it’s made a massive difference. It’s like someone has totally turned down the volume on the asthma.

Different results for different people obviously but my experience has been that I’ve constantly had to push for better treatments and continually felt fobbed off and told just to accept it. I’m now the fittest I’ve been for about 20 years.

Yeah, I tend to see the blue as an ’emergency’ that doesn’t really get to the root of it.

Was thinking it might be enough to help you keep your fitness for 3 Peaks if we have a mild couple of months…

It’s no big deal

Brown is the one to use, keeps you off the Blue.

Mine is bad in thick heavy days / nights

Doesn’t get in the way of cycling but exercise doesn’t trigger mine.

Chest infections tend to linger / be more common

Did the Fred Whitton thus year with pneumonia though

After 40-odd years of asthma medication, I went to an asthma clinic for the first time about 5 years ago (I got told I had to attend before they would renew my prescription). I had got used to taking my blue one before doing any exercise whatsoever, and taking a blue shot in the night when I woke up with asthma. It was a revelation to me, as I’d always ignored the brown inhaler – I just used the blue one.

The nurse basically told me that by not taking the brown steroid one, and taking the blue one when I needed, I was reducing my lung capacity over time….. The brown one is a topical treatment that clears up the ‘lesions’ in the lungs, by not treating these she told me that scar tissue built up over time and basically reduced the elasticity of the lungs. The blue inhaler merely eased the symptoms of having those ‘lesions’ in place.

I have no idea if what she said was true, but by heck I took the brown one after that and after 3 months I put it away and have never has to take it again…..yet.

Incidentally, I also used to suffer from the feeling that the brown inhaler worsened the feeling of having asthma for the first few minutes after taking it – I recall telling the doctor that I thought it actually gave me asthma taking it!

The nurse told me today that I should be taking the brown inhaler with a spacer. She told me that a squirt in the spacer followed by a SLOW, STEADY in-breath was much more effective and that not so much hit the back of the throat, cutting down on throat irritation and reducing the amount that just remained in the mouth.

^ sounds promising?!

Be good if you could get the brown one to work for you.

I’m on Seritide a combination of the brown and blue together but works a lot better for me than just the brown and only use the blue as and when I need it. My asthma nurse did try me on something else but made me worse. I also use a spacer with the seritide.

The cold weather can give me a burning sensation in the throat and chest especially on a frosty morning but usually goes as I warm up.

It doesn’t sound like asthma to me.
Certainly i dont recognise your symptoms as the ones i have.

interesting to hear what the brown v blue does.

You might have COPD

Thanks for all the helpful advice. After using the brown by itself the doc did give me a big spacer thing. It didn’t make any difference unfortunately.

What I might do is start using the brown now whilst I am cold free, then at least I can see just what the brown does without any interference. When using the brown do people rinse their mouth etc after every use ? I was doing this and it made no difference, and just was a bit of a pain

Kuco – interesting what you say about the burning sensation in the chest/throat. Last winter I got a lot of what I though was heart burn, which again I haven’t suffered from at all over the summer.

Has transformed my Asthma and keep cycling, certain cleaning chemicals and pets do me in.

I’ve had asthma all my life, and as long as you take the correct inhalers, it is manageable. Only problems I have is when my hay fever kicks in (usually about now), if I have a cold, and when I first start cycling on a cold winter day.

I use Ventolin (blue inhaler) when I have an attack. I used to use the Becotide (Brown inhaler) but suffered from a lot of sore throats, plus I never found it that good. I went to an asthma clinic at my docs a few years ago and they put me on Seritide (Manly Pink inhaler), which has completely transformed my asthma, and I have very few issues now, even in summer.

Lifelong asthmatic here. Not sure about your symptoms, but your GP will get the bottom of that.

There are a wide variety of drugs available. The important ones are the ‘preventers’, which you take every day regardless of whether or not you are having an attack. If you control asthma properly, you should hardly need to use the ‘reliever’ (salbutamol) at all.

I’m currently on seretide – which is better than any other preventer I’ve had before. Becotide did nothing for me.

I recently got given Monteleukast to try. Not convinced at the moment. Apparently it works brilliantly for some people, not at all for others. But I would be surprised if you got given that straight away, it’s more of a backup treatment if others are starting to fail.

Have you ever smoked?

Never smoked, no family history of Asthma.

Just got proper flu 4 yrs ago, then got Pneumonia about 2 weeks after that as obviously my immune system was compromised. Took me a year to get over Pneumonia before I could exercise again, but I wasn’t that bothered about it. This last year and a half I’ve wanted to get fit again, and that’s when problems started.

Asthma here, classic exercise-induced.

No burning or mucus. It just gets very hard to breathe.

(Like trying to breathe through a straw).

By coincidence, I’m off for my check-up in half an hour. No doubt the peak-flow gadget will play a part, let’s see if I can get close to 500!

Still not convinced that’s asthma, but even if it is, it’s normally eminently controllable. Might be worth picking up a peak flow meter from your local pharmacy, learning how to use it, and recording your values at morning, night, plus pre and post exercise.

I know where you’re coming from in terms of fitness though, when I’m bad my legs feel dead. I’d give anything for a PF of more than 600.

Asthma here, classic exercise-induced.

No burning or mucus. It just gets very hard to breathe.

(Like trying to breathe through a straw).

Me too although my breathing isn’t quite that bad an gets better after Salbutomol. Two Chest infections in Dec/Jan left me with 20 min uncontrollable coughing fits after a bike session, or short coughing fits on the bike particularly when stopped after a period of cycling. It wasn’t until I went to the docs that it occurred to me that the latter had be happening in a more minor state for years.

Now, Salbutomol before a ride and I rarely need it during. Living in London, the doc says that this year has seems a rise in these cases as air quality has been particularly poor in 2014/15, cyclist being most affected for obvious reasons.

550!

Not *quite* as impressive as an England/Australia score-card, but I’ll take that.

I would ask to get an xray of your lungs, seriously it doesnt sound like asthma

OP how are the pollution levels where you live ?
Pleurisy ,a few nasty chest infections and commuting in London got me on the Asthma treatments.
Moved from London and never needed to use my inhalers again.
It’s also been years since I have had any chest infections.

I really don’t get the peak flow readings. On a really bad day like if i’m ill or like when the asthma nurse altered my medication it dropped to about 500. Average reading for me is between 700-750 and my last asthma test a couple of months ago was just below 800.

what’s not to get?

‘really bad day/ill’ = 500

‘average’ = 700+

?

Bad day for me – 350
Good day – 550+

There should be an algorithm on Strava to adjust my times!

Kuco must be super human. Peak flow never goes up, unless your a growing kid ?!? Avg is about 600 I think, and from what I understand, you have what you have ie you can increase capacity by training etc.

I’m not super human i’ve just got my asthma under control, while I was on the brown inhaler I always got a low peak flow reading and had massive improvements when I went on to Seritide. No more waking up in the middle of the night wheezing and no longer need to use the blue before I exercise. So rather than bitch I must be super human try getting you’re own asthma under better control.

Kuco – wasn’t bitching ! You are unusual to say the least of you can get to 800. It’s outside the normal range

<Life story alert>

I was diagnosed with Asthma as a small child. Through my younger and teenage years I suffered quite badly at times and I was hospitalised countless times and with hindsight had a number of possibly life threatening episodes where emergency services were called and I received treatment in Ambulances and then Hospital.
I started “jogging” when I was about 19 to lose a bit of weight and the Asthma had subsided a bit. I took medication daily and I found that although my Asthma was exercise induced, if I took my Blue inhaler (Ventolin/Salbutomol) then I was able to run without a problem. I carried on running then competing etc (I am 50 now) and I can blow the peak flow meters of the scale and my lung function is very good. My doctor puts this down to 30+ years of intensive exercise.
Other than occasional symptoms during the season changes I seldom have symptoms now but I could not run 400m without taking my inhaler first. Once I take it I can run for hours.
Brown ones never provide any benefit for me.

Sorry FunkyDunc I get a bit wound up when my peak flow gets questioned. When I moved to a new surgery a few years ago the new asthma nurse I saw was a bit shocked with my reading but as I said she saw the other side of how it dropped when I tried a new medication which didn’t suit me.

I spent a bit of of time with my previous nurse to get my asthma under control and she suggested seritde after I spent a night in hospital after a server attack and it did the trick for me though I know someone who never got on with it.

I hope you get sorted with the docs next week.

My peak flow is 650 and I am an asthmatic 50 plus, overweight, unfit, slow riding wheezing short arse. So, I can safely say there is no correlation between having a higher than norm peak flow and being super human.

I use Seretide at the highest dose and it keeps my Asthma well controlled. But, then again so it should as it is in a completely different class to the old school foul tasting brown inhalers ie . Becotide.

All that said every couple of years my Asthma will flare up after a bad virus and require a course of oral steroids and antibiotics.

Severe bout of flu few years back left at below 350. Tried all the inhalers with propellant and reacted badly- could not talk without wheezing. Given symbicort daily and briccanyl instead of ventolin. On a good day peak flow between 650 and 700. Took ages to get back to riding at decent level. Try to hike in winter rather than ride these days.
My asthma is the horrid cough guts up with mucus type. Rather than strangle me own throat dibbler type.
Doc was pants – eventually saw asthma nurse who is awesome.
Annual review few days back– been to see doc for feeling lousy- pain in side when I get a chest infection. See docs takes 3 trips to get them to do anything. Asthma nurse treats it like a military assault. Will now take 2 lots of antibiotics when it could have just been nipped in bud. Flu jab each year. Pneumonia jab every 5. Normally works well. But not this year. Not cold enough to kill off the nasties.

I’ve had asthma all my life and gradually grew out of it. Had a bad flu and chest infection about 5 years ago (lots of hard coughing) and after thought my asthma had come back – turns out the coughing had caused or exacerbated a hiatus hernia and the breathing difficulties were the result of reflux (breathing acid vapours) which has a similar effect – worth getting this checked.

I have ventolin and qvar (dark red) inhaler. A word of advise to anyone given q-car I was never told, wash inhaler after each use as bacteria builds up and gives you mouth thrush. I’m sure it’s on the instructions and all… But I learned the hard way…

Anti allergy bedding pretty much drew a line under mine.

I use a Ventolin but never got on with the steroid Becotide etc inhalers.

Get a cylinder like a Volumatic to use with your inhaler.