I’ve been having breathing difficulties lately, so I went to the doctor. She thinks I have asthma (probably exercise induced), and I’ve currently got four different medications I’m trying out so I can breathe normally again.
I just want to know what it’s like for other people who have asthma – if they eventually grow out of it, what helps them, what makes their breathing worse, etc.
I do and mine is adult-onset, a result of smoking for too many years. It tends to be triggered by allergy attacks and any sort of upper respiratory thing like a cold. If I don’t get on my albuterol inhaler right away and stay on top of it, it’ll turn into bronchitis or pneumonia.
It does not affect my ability to exercise all that much. I pole dance and have no trouble keeping up.
Occasionally, I’ve had some distress from being in a smoky environment and could not get to my inhaler. I strongly recommend breathing hot steam if you can get to it, and strong black coffee. The caffeine seems to help and the steam you breathe while drinking the coffee helps open up the airway as well. Little road trip tip for ya: in a pinch, order strong, hot coffee.
My understanding is that once you have asthma, you always have asthma, but I’m not too clear about that. The medical professionals I’ve seen all seem to think that someone else took the time to educate me about it, but nobody really has, so my knowledge is based on personal experience and Google Fu.
Have never been hospitalized and have only taken the steroid inhaler once when the flu triggered a particularly bad attack. Two or three times a year, something triggers an attack and I drag myself off to the walk in clinic for a nebulizer treatment. I don’t have that happen often enough to justify actually buying one and keeping it in the house.
I also understand that, if I quit smoking, although I will still technically have asthma, I’ll probably have even fewer attacks and my lung capacity will improve over time.
And yes, I am planning to quit over the next couple months. I’m starting to see a nonsmoker who does not want to watch me die a horrible, painful death and I kinda like him so I don’t want him to watch me die a horrible, painful death either. 
Welcome to the club! Had it since I was a kid. When I was little I was on three nebulizer breathing treatments a day and was hospitalized a few times as well (yeah, fun times).
I grew out of it a bit. Now I take Advair daily (and probably will for the rest of my life) and keep an inhaler handy I work out, especially in winter. I played a ton of racquetball in college and still work out routinely, but exercising in cold air will usually get me. Mostly though, I never even think about it.
If it’s controlled through inhalers, it’s not a problem and you just have a routine of taking your inhalers like a person with contacts puts them in and takes them out.
I agree with Dogzilla. I have hot chocolate or coffee every morning and the caffeine seems to help. There are studies that both confirm(cite), and deny (cite) this though.
Allergies can also set it off, which is why I keep a ten foot pole to beat cats with.
I had asthma in the past, and when I smoked and had a cat it was very bad. Just smoking with no cat was mostly ok. Having two cats after I quit smoking didn’t cause any attacks. Guess this means the real problem was the smoking. So, Dogzilla, good luck with your plan to quit. If you need any moral support, let me know.
I don’t smoke, but my boyfriend smokes at least a pack a day. I think seeing how his smoking affects my health is helping push him to quit, though. He tries not to smoke around me, but the smell lingers in his car and on his clothes.
Cigarette smoke is a huge trigger for me. If people aren’t actively smoking but reek of smoke it will set me off. There are some cigarettes and smokers that don’t bother me as much but I’ve never bothered to take a poll to see what people are smoking. I have a co-worker who’s a chain smoker and always reeks of smoke but even more so after a smoke break. I can’t be around her right after and have told her numerous times to stay away from me right after she has a smoke break.
I am able to maintain on Singulair and a rescue inhaler so my asthma might be considered mild but I also learned what my triggers are and avoid them like the plague.
Thank you. The nonsmoker guy is a HUGE incentive already ;), but thanks. I will definitely let you know.
I had asthma as a child/teen. I don’t remember taking anything for it–when i had an attack, they’d just sit me down and tell me to relax. That seems really odd, now. Perhaps i had some little white pills, or maybe there just weren’t inhalers and such available in the '60s. Or, it could be that i remember that as poorly as i’m remembering everything else these days.
Oddly, the only times i ever had trouble as an adult were when i quit smoking. Would have attacks and difficulty breathing for 6-12 weeks each time. I quit again in October, and it hasn’t bothered me this time.
Well, my condolences on your joining our club.
Let me point out that everyone with asthma has a different asthma, so to speak. As this thread has shown, for some it came with smoking, for others since infancy, some with exercise… It’s important to figure out how YOUR asthma works. Managing exercise induced asthma is different than managing that induced by, say, a food allergy.
You need to figure out what provokes your attacks. If it’s exercise you’ll probably need to take some sort of medication prior to exercising. If it’s an allergy you need to avoid that trigger as much as possible. So on and so forth. It’s also possible to have more than one trigger, and for this to change over time. So, for example, mine are strongly connected to my allergies. If I keep my allergies under control my asthma is under control. However, upper respiratory infections can also be a trigger. Cold air never used to bother me, but I’ve noticed the past two winters it’s starting to be a problem.
This is why you need to see a competent doctor, so your particular situation can be evaluated.
Once you have asthma you always have it, in a sense. For some people it may be possible for it to go into remission of a sorts for months, even years at a time during which they show no symptoms but the susceptibility is always there. People who had it as children and “grew out of it” may well find it returning in middle years.
Some people have chronic asthma. They typically wind up taking daily medication. Others, like myself, have “intermittent” asthma, so we can go a long time without medication and symptoms, but if we encounter one of our triggers yep, we still have asthma.
If you have a chronic form take your medicine. That’s how you stay healthy. If you do this religiously and can eliminate triggers in your environment you may at some point be able to take less. Or maybe even none for a while. But as long as you’re showing symptoms you need to take the drugs. There is merit to reviewing your medication on a regular basis and question if you can reduce the dosage and things like that, but be aware that not everyone is going to be able to live drug-free. Personally, I’d rather take something every day, much as I loathe medications, than to live feeling half choked and half smothered.
Regardless, if you have asthma you are at higher risk of complications from any upper respiratory infection. You may have standing orders to increase medication. You may need to see a doctor sooner than someone without asthma. Get a flu shot if you can (as it happens, I’m allergic to them… I so hate the flu season…)
Avoid dust and smoke. As it happens, I was working with drywall this summer - yeah, great combination, asthma and drywall dust, right? I went out an bought a really good dust respirator. My lungs were quite happy. There are very few things asthma will prevent you from doing, but sometimes you have to protect yourself a little more than other people.
Now, I mentioned my asthma is intermittent. I have, at times, gone years without symptoms. Nonetheless, I carry a rescue inhaler with me. Sometimes they even expire before being used. I still carry it, because that one time you need it you need it RIGHT NOW and it’ll probably be 2:30 am Sunday during an ice storm or otherwise really inconvenient for obtaining the darn thing. Also, although my asthma is classified as “mild” and “intermittent” I have, nonetheless, wound up in the ER twice from really bad attacks. It doesn’t mean it will happen to you, but you need to keep in mind that no matter how well controlled things are there is the possibility of the condition suddenly getting worse.
None of this is meant to scare you, by the way. Despite all this, I have done things like play bagpipes, fly airplanes (the FAA is picky about pilots being healthy), and exercise outdoors in the winter time. I can do these things because I do what I need to do to keep this annoyance under control. I’d rather not have asthma, but since I do, I take care of the problem.
Like so many health conditions, asthma is one of those things which can be a real danger if uncontrolled but, if you’re on a regular regimen and you stick to it, can for most people be reduced to mostly just an annoyance. The smoking, in my experience and that of others I know, is a huge, huge thing – the change in your breathing when you’re no longer regularly exposed to cigarette smoke will be astounding.
Meme Chose. the medications for asthma have changed dramatically over the years. When my mom would get attack back in the late '50’s, she was prescribed rest. In the '80’s, the docs gave me some pills, while she and my cousins were on the early inhalers. Once my asthma got more common I went on an inhaled steroid regimen in the '90’s, and I’ve been on Advair for the better part of a decade now. And my asthma is a much more controlled thing, even though I’m older and heavier than I was back then.
–Cliffy
I have asthma symptoms that started manifesting when I was about 34 years old. I have some allergies to grass and cats but for me the real trigger is eating before exercise. If I eat a really big dinner, and then have to walk uphill in the cold to get the car, I’ll be Mrs Wheeze-o-rama.
As others have said the best thing you can do is keep your emergency inhalers with you all the time, and learn your own triggers.
I’m nearly 60, and I’ve had severe bronchial asthma for pretty much my whole life. I started on Isuprel around 1960, which I used a lot. The inhaled cromolyn sodium powder introduced in the 70s was an improvement, but I still needed Isuprel often.
I began using the inhaled steroids when they were introduced in the 80s. That was a major improvement. I’m now on Qvar (steroid) and Xopenex (albuterol). This allows me to lead a normal life, and I use the albuterol for very rare wheezing. I haven’t had a real asthma attack for decades.
Very occasionally I forget the Qvar, and my asthma does return, causing coughing and some wheezing but not as severe as in my childhood.
I have had asthma since day one. However, it has now reduced to the stage where I rarely use inhalers- and I have had inhalers since they were introduced which I believe was some time in the 60’s.
Of course they are far more advanced now and more varied. I still have Symbicort which I am supposed to use daily and ventolin should it be necessary.
Thanks all of you. Most of what’s written above has been reassuring: if I take proper care of myself, things should improve over time.
A follow-up question: A lot of you talked about recognizing what makes you trigger. Do you then have to actively avoid those triggers, or just take extra precautions?
Depends on the trigger.
If it’s something very specific, such as cats or a food, then you should actively avoid it. If, however, it’s something impractical to avoid, such as cold air when you live in Chicago, you take extra precautions prior to exposure, such as covering your mouth with a scarf or pre-medicating before going outside in the winter. Sometimes both - maybe you normally avoid all cats, but you know you’re going somewhere they can’t be avoided so in that case you pre-medicate.
Some people have lungs that are chronically irritated for no one reason anyone can determine and not only have to take daily medication but also need to avoid any situations that are irritating to the lungs, such a smoke filled areas or going outside on ozone alert days.
I’ve had asthma for the last 20 years, and the thing that really took care of it the most was a daily Singulair (in conjunction with Allegra). I did use Advair for a while, but my symptoms were not really significant enough to justify a daily steroid inhaler. I do keep a rescue inhaler though.
Now my son is just 6 years old, but we started him on Singulair and Flovent last year and that has kept it under control. He really does not like using Albuterol though, and would prefer to use a nebulizer with Xopenex if it came down to it.
The difference between us is that I suffer from environmental and pet allergies, and if I go off my aforementioned meds and antihistamines for a short time, it’s difficult to cope with all of our pets. My son though has no environmental allergies, but is allergic to nuts. He also tends to get really bad asthma when he’s sick and recovers slowly. Both of us are pretty satisfied with our control meds.
I’ve had asthma since I was a kid, but it’s WAY better than it was then, so yes, you won’t necessarily always have asthma as bad as you do now.
Mine is ‘stage 4,’ meaning that I’ve experimented (under doctor’s advice) with reducing my medication but still have regular attacks. I have seretide for preventing (contains the steroid and the long-acting beta 2 antagonist) and ventolin/salbutamol for short-term relief. I presume they’re similar to the medications your doctor’s trying you on.
Because I’ve had asthma for so long, my doctors are quite happy with me self-regulating - they don’t expect me to ask them every time I need to increase or decrease the dose. If I’m going somewhere or going to do something that I know is a trigger for me, I’ll increase my preventers a couple of days before - they don’t work straight away.
For example, I know that visiting a different city often worsens my asthma because I haven’t acclimatised to the pollutants and pollens there, so I’ll up my intake before I go on holiday.
If you keep a diary, you’ll notice triggers like these a lot quicker than just by going on your memory.
Interesting point about the coffee; I had to give it up for a different health reason (sleep) and my asthma has been a lot worse since then. It does make sense, though.
You avoid what you can, but some triggers can’t realistically be avoided. I can avoid running, and hay, and have some luck avoiding freshly mowed grass.
But other things, like getting a cold, a high pollen count, and high humidity, aren’t exactly things I have a lot of control over. Not going outside when both the pollen count and humidity % are high helps a little, but you can’t completely avoid being outside. Likewise, even though I wash my hands a lot and get colds a lot less often than I used to, I did still manage to get a cold a little over a week ago.
You know, every asthmatic I’ve ever met either is or has been a caffeine addict at some point. Either coffee or tea or some other caffeinated beverage. Can’t help but think some of it is self-medicating behavior.
Not me. I don’t drink coffee or tea and average about 4 liters of soda a year.