This morning I woke up at 4 a.m. for no apparent reason, and since I couldn’t get back to sleep, I decided to take advantage of the unwanted wakefulness and bike the 10 miles to work along Lake Michigan. Yes, I was probably an idiot not to use my albuterol inhaler first; I was told ages ago that my (generally mild) asthma is partially exercise-induced, so I’m supposed to take a couple of puffs 15 minutes before exercising. Usually I don’t bother, and I’m fine – I have biked much longer distances at higher speeds even in the past couple of weeks, along much of the same terrain, with no breathing problems at all. In fact, I hardly ever use the darn inhaler – I can go weeks or months without needing it at all.
However, I haven’t biked at 6:30 am in a long time; I am just not a morning person, so I don’t commute that way. The doctor who initially diagnosed me with asthma in my early 20s told me that early morning is when the flowers are opening up for the day, and so maybe biking at that time will cause me to breathe more pollen than normal and add an allergy trigger for my asthma on top of the exercise trigger.
So is there anything to this theory? How would I test it out, other than not biking, since it’s something that I enjoy and should do more of, and bike commuting is an easy way to fit it into my schedule? Is there a way to rule out other possible causes?
Well, IANAD but it seems that what you need to determine is which factors seems to trigger the allergy - the exercise, the morning time period, the asthma etc.
Perhaps a series of tests in your immediate area, with your inhaler on hand? Perhaps over multiple days you could:
note the pollen count and time of day
briskly walk around your neighborhood for while (to get a good sample of pollen without really exerting yourself)
evaluate
and then next day:
note the pollen count and time of day
run or bike around your neighborhood for for long enough to get your heart rate up to your target rate.
You could do this for a week or two, using different times, and then plot out your results. I’d imagine you’d at least get a good feel for whether the exercise, time of day and/or pollen counts were the dominant factor.
Also, time of day might help confirm/eliminate pollution due to traffic, depending upon where you live. Of course, a commute to work along heavy traffic roadways will most likely be more likely to induce asthma.
last summer I biked 13 miles to work and back across Madison for 5-6 days a week, from late-April to early October (when I quit that job)
I often had issues with breathing, especially on colder and/or more humid days. at the time, I was a moderate smoker as well.
the best things I found for avoiding any breathing issues were:
a quick 5 minute jog around the neighborhood with the dogs to warm up - really any way to get the blood flowing quickly - sometimes I did calisthenics instead. Followed by some good stretching, of course!
if it’s cold out - a scarf/bandana/balaclava around the throat/mouth really helps
a steamy hot shower prior to going out seemed to help a lot ) - this did not help Althea at all - so it might be just me
not going all out initially, but allowing myself time to ‘get into the rhythm of the ride’ for the first 5-10 minutes or so.
Hmmm…given that I can’t really avoid the environmental factors, I don’t know how much sense it makes to do all this process-of-elimination stuff. I should also mention that due to an old ankle injury, I can’t do anything high-impact to warm up, like running, which is one of the reasons I’m trying to bike more – it’s one of the few forms of cardio exercise I can really do at this point. (Oddly enough, I can do 50-60 miles biking with no problems most of the time.)
A hot shower first might help – I might give that a try. But then I’m going to have mercy on my co-workers and take a shower on the other end anyway, so maybe I should just use the inhaler first instead, no matter how much I hate taking drugs if I’m asymptomatic. Or maybe I should just take Claritin as a preventive measure - at least it doesn’t make my hands shake, unlike the inhaler.
Geography note: Chicago has a bikepath that runs along the lakefront, so I’m not biking in heavy traffic – first of all, I do have to get from my apartment to the lake, but that’s probably under a mile and only takes a few minutes, and there ain’t much traffic at 6:30 am anyway. I left home about 6:45-ish and reached downtown by about 7:30, even with a stop for inhaler and water and a few minutes of slow biking until my lungs cleared up a bit, so I can probably do it in 45 minutes under ideal conditions. And there isn’t a whole lot of traffic at 7:30, even downtown.
However, Lake Shore Drive, a major road, does run (as the name would suggest) along the lake shore as well – how much auto exhaust is likely to bleed over to the bikepath, which is about 50-60 yards away for most of my route?
I would think that any kind of warm up would significantly help. I’d suggest just a good brisk walk around the block, as fast as your ankle will safely allow without risk of injury. Maybe a quick wrap on the ankle, too? I’d also imagine that this would help strengthen the ankle a bit.
What really matters is ‘getting the blood flowing.’ I’m not a doctor or exercise physiologist by any means, but I guess that the increased heartrate and need for oxygen during your warm up both gets your muscles a little looser and ‘opens up’ the lungs a bit. YMMV, but any warm up has always helped me immensely - to the point of not having to use my inhaler at all 95% of the time.
If you’re on a dedicated bike path, but adjacent to Lake Shore Drive, I’d guess you’ll get some exhaust, but not nearly so much as riding in traffic.
Here in Madison (which is a lovely biking town, BTW,) there are tons of dedicated bike lanes, but only about 1/4 to 1/3 aren’t directly adjacent to or actually part of the roadway. I don’t believe we have quite the vehicle traffic of Chicago, though.
The ankle issue is primarily bone-related, not muscle or soft tissue. A wrap isn’t going to strengthen anything useful; I have a plate and screws on my left tibia for that. Walking doesn’t create any problems, unless I’m on my feet for several hours or more.
I may chat with my doc next time I see him about the whole warmup idea, though. If anyone else cares to provide their own anecdotal experiences, that would be great.
I’ve been doing a ton of reading on this very subject.
I’ve always known I had asthma, I just never admitted it to myself and never sought treatment until a few months ago, when I became significantly more active than I’ve been in the last 5 years or so. I also have terrible, terrible allergies. And I’m no morning person.
As far as everything I’ve read, picker’s advice is spot on, wear a scarf or bandana if there is low humidity or it is cooler, like in the morning. Try to do some kind of warm up.
I don’t know about the early morning flower pollen theory, but I suppose anything is possible. Personally, I’ve noticed the allergy-inducing asthma seems more signifcant for me in the afternoon, particularly when the winds are picking up.
I try not to test theories too much, when I know I’m going to be on a trail, I load up on Claritin, Flonase, and pack my Patanol.
As another Chicago worker-bee, and also another person suffering from mild, intermittant asthma (yeah, I go months without hitting the inhaler, too) I feel compelled to point out that on Monday I had to hit the inhaler before getting to work and I wasn’t even exercising. Tuesday was better, but the air quality has been iffy
It’s hot. It’s humid. The air is full of brown sludge. No doubt there is ozone rolling about the area as well. It may not be the time of day but rather the day itself.
Granted, yesterday was better - at least where I live, but I’m waaaaaay south and a little east of the Loop. The storms cleared some of the gunk out of the air, but perhaps enough remained in your area, or perhaps several days of breathing smog left you more vulnerable to an attack. Certainly, when I was up in the airplane last night around 7 pm the “dirty goldfish bowl” effect was back in full swing around the Loop area. You mean I breathe that stuff? Yuuuuuuuuck :gag:
It might be a good idea to hit the inhaler prior to exercise when it’s hot and humid - but I am not a doctor and that is not intended to be medical advice, as always, consult your physician.
And no, I’m not a morning person, either. However, my employer pays me a decent wage to, among other things, pretend I am a morning person by showing up at a specified early morning time.
Walking doesn’t create any problems, unless I’m on my feet for several hours or more.