exercise induced asthma - Asthma Message Board

karatecat · 09-23-2003, 12:14 PM

I am wondering if anyone has advice for me. Four months ago while training for my black belt I noticed I was having a hard time taking deep breaths. Whenever I would try to beathe in I would cough(non productive).It seems to be worse when it is colder air. I felt I had lower energy levels. I went to the doctor who did an ekg, slightly abnormal. I saw a cardioologist who did an ultrasound, vqscan stress test and mibi scan. all of this they found I had a slightly elevated pulmonary tension. I was sent back to my family doctor put me on ventalin before exercise.The ventalin does not seem to help at all. I have been sent for pulmonary function test . I am awaiting results for these. These tests seem to be time consuming when all I want is to be able to work out without coughing.

Has anyone experienced this and can help me out.
PS I have also been having increased incidence of heartburn(not sure if there is any revelance)

pagelsr · 09-23-2003, 12:37 PM

About four months ago, I noticed that I had some similar occurrences that was diagnosed as asthma (after about 3 months of testing and Dr visits). I to had similar tests done and all came back relatively normal, outside of a slightly enlarged right side of the heart. In my case, my Dr told me that I had more than likely dealing with the asthma for a lot longer than I was aware of and that caused the enlargement. Supposedly, with treatment, it will return to regular size (not to large to begin with)

However, until this april, I had been a runner, close to 40 miles a week, and since, have not been able to continue the work out regiment. Only now am I beginning to return to feeling like I did before the onset of this.

Like you said, I would cough heavily during workouts, espescially in the colder weather. At that point, due to never having asthma before, I just felt that this was the result of a hard workout and was normal.

While the tests do seem time consuming, pinpointing the problem could be a big help, as I wish that I could have caught this earlier, as I would not have been incapacitated for a whole summer. If your case is at all like mine, then it will get worse until you find medication that works for you. It seems that I initially had excersise induced asthma that has gradually worsened over the last couple of years due to lack of recognition.

I currently take flovent and clarinex, and this has seemed to help a lot for me

Good luck

wrin · 09-23-2003, 05:32 PM

If the pulmonary function tests come back on the end of normal (normal volumes, especially low-normal volumes, and normal flows, especially high-normal flows,) a high resolution CT scan might not be a bad idea.

Have you had a chest x-ray?

The prescription of ventolin is not entirely unfounded -- asthma (among several other diseases) can cause a mild increase in pulmonary blood pressure. Key here is MILD.