Asthma Puffers are RAMPANT in Pro Cycling... so I trained with one myself | My Experience
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- Äas pĆidĂĄn 27. 07. 2024
- Explaining the inhaler issue in pro cycling and my experience trying one out.
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0:00 Intro
0:28 Legality
2:04 Use in pro peloton
5:46 Does it work?
7:14 My experience
8:26 Should it be banned? - Sport
Jesse your description of what happened when you took Salbutamol on a cold day while doing hard efforts, is exactly what happens in exercised induced asthma. Your breathing fire hose gets constricted and you feel like your are breathing through a straw when your lungs are under load and hit a trigger (for you cold, for me smoke is the big one). All the Salbutamol does is it removes the restriction (ie opens the straw up back to the firehose). In other words you probably have an undiagnosed exercised induced asthma triggered by cold weather.
It is not only "rampant" in cycling but all endurance sports, cross country skiing and swimming are two heavily mentioned in the literature.
The reason puffer use in "rampant" before a race is current medical advice. My respiratory specialist's advice take two puffs before you go for a ride, because prevention is better than suffering an attack. Do you really want to be reaching for an inhaler, while breathing through a straw and a major move is happening. Common triggers, cold, heat, rain, pollen, smoke, exhaust fumes ie lots of things that happen during a race.
I use Symbicort again on medical advice both as a preventer and reliever. Current research has it better than Salbutamol for relieving. But only available on prescription.
Don't want to see inhalers restricted as all asthma medication does is attempt to reduce the restrictions on the airways and get it back to a normal size. Plus how do I prove I have exercised induced asthma, my respiratory specialist says I have no markers of regular asthma and the only way to prove it is to cause an attack, ie put me on a bike, set fire to something and measure what happens.
This is a great insight, thanks for commenting. In a sense I think we all assume heavy breathing is always going to be restricted to some degree in certain conditions like the cold, but it's true that may be considered to some degree exercise induced asthma. I never thought of it like that... interesting
As someone with sport induced asthma, people donât understand that thereâs a massive psychological aspect to not having it, and slight panic occurs which sometimes creates an asthma attack (sounds stupid, but it happens)
I would never use my preventer and just the inhaler as a last resort, using it somewhere from (like 0-3 times a day), but if youâre using it 8+ times a day cause it *feels good*, then you got some problems đ€Ł
Agree totally.
I have used Salbutamol most of my life. I doubt I'd have used 8 puffs in half a day many times.
Exercise doesn't bring on my asthma, it is more environmental, but I do panic if I don't have it with me for a ride. Particularly as I live in a rural area with big hills and could be a while from home or help sometimes. Get memories of staying at a mates house as a kid and forgetting an inhaler, being awake all night struggling to breathe.
My feeling was that as a kid, asthma gave me an advantage somehow. Not from using an inhaler, but as if my body was adapted to stress of low oxygen exercise.
@@tjhumpty Yeah; Iâve had to run and work outdoors without my puffer and have suffered and came close to an attack a few times but still had to perform with low oxygen. Now I donât make that mistake anymore but smoke and dust cause my asthma itâs not exercise induced but environmental. If I ride through a place and people are doing burn offs zone 2 for me can feel like 4
Hi,
I know a year old but just to point out a few things. So, firstly wrong inhaler to really test this, you want to use salbutamol sulphate (powder) not the aerosol, your lungs will pull in to hard to produce a nice mist and it will all accumulate in you upper airway, hence the hose pipe effect which doesn't actually do much apart from create that great sensation. This hose pipe sensation also acts a placebo rather than a massive performance gain. Until I was swapped to salbutamol sulphate I thought the hose pipe effect is what you wanted which my doctor made very clear you didn't, you wanted your chest to feel less tight and more that air could just move in and out.
A lot of the issues relating to the use of salbutamol currently is to do with salbutamol pills which help recovery and are banned without a TUE which is very hard to get. For example the levels found in Froome's sample were consistent with a pill and not an inhaler, to hit the volumes banned in your bloodstream you would probably have to dump a whole inhaler into your lungs.
The other inhaler which does have an impact on sport as it allows you to exhale faster and harder is Terbutaline which is (or was) banned without a TUE, it would be interesting to see if this is what pros are actually using.
However, I agree at a pro level for any ailment each athlete should be required to get a TUE. This would mean that athletes and coaches would have to make conscious decision to use these drugs making them less likely to do it, and if it was found to be part of an actual doping program their would be a clear paper trail of responsibility.
Interesting vid. If you donât have asthma, then I donât see it as the same as ibuprofen or Panadol. Those drugs are addressing an ailment, whereas salbutamol is being taken for performance enhancement.
I would feel weird puffing away in a local race when I donât have asthma.
Also, if inhalers are so widespread in the pro peloton, why are they only in the bus? Why arenât we seeing everyone puffing away in the warmup area or during the race? My conclusion is that riders know that the public wouldnât be ok with it.
People like you would not be ok with it. And they do it on the bus NOT because people like YOU are not ok with it, but they don't want to explain themselves to people like you. Why would they want to spend energy doing that?
I took 15 puffs of my sons puffer before doing a lot of climbing in cold weather to see whether it works.....it works, definitely some placebo, but definitely some positive effects, although I did take twice the recommended dose !!!!!
I feel that cycling's dark history of performance enhancing substances means that people are overly focused on a relatively innocuous medication. Comparing salbutamol use to EPO etc is ridiculous. I highly doubt so much is made of puffers in rugby league, AFL or other mainstream sports
Asthma puffers and the substances in it are used to cover up the prove of enhancing products... I would think that the whole world would know this by now....
i have an asthma puffer since being 6 years old, because of allergic asthma.
I can definetily spot a diffenrence when there is a need for usage,
but when there are no weeds or seems in the air i donÂŽt stress the factor of
getting used to it.
You can a performance boost (clinically significant) from a good dose of caffeine. From what I know, that isn't limited by UCI
The UCI would prefer not to have their headquarters torched by irate rioting cyclists after three days of decaff.
Not sure I agree with you entirely. I am an asthmatic and carry an inhaler around with me everywhere, ever since I was a child. I only use my inhaler when I need and have never found it to enhance performance. I agree only riders with a genuine diagnosis of asthma should have and use one though.
Thanks Jesse.
The reason why inhalers are prevalent is exercised induced asthma which is heavily linked to car pollutants. If you train 30+ hours a week, youâd be unlikely to not develop asthma. High doses of salbutamol would basically make you dizzy and possible fall over, no performance benefit. When you read a scientific journal, be careful about how you interpret the word âsignificantâ. This is mathematical statistical terminology commonly used when drawing conclusions from medical or scientific sampling. When they say â no significant benefitâ this does not mean a bit of a benefit but not hugeâŠ. it means no benefit.
Yeh I understand how to interpret statistical significance, my point was more than even though the research showed no performance improvement, my personal experience suggests otherwise.. at least for me. Perhaps because I have some degree of exercise induced asthma in certain conditions. Or perhaps because the study has some limitations.
Which is kind of reflected in the observation that it's seemingly ubiquitous in the pro peloton, and I doubt every pro cyclist has asthma.
Lot's of questions here though, which makes it interesting!
As someone who has had asthma since I was 4 and also very active in sports my whole lifeâŠ.(and almost died from it)âŠitâs bloody horrible and feels like your breathing through a straw and there is a big disadvantage to people who donât have asthma. And itâs not just exercise induced asthma eitherâŠ.itâs in everyday life and no way they should be banned.
Im curious could anyone suggest if its possible to put anything else in these inhalers that may improve performance e.g. some sort of pain blocker etc as the puffer would be a great way to disguise what they could be doing???
Tramadol is not banned but it has clear evidence if being a strong pain killer. Not all drugs are banned.
Tramadol is banned by the UCI in cycling (thankfully, bloody dangerous to have half conscious zombies in the bunch at the end of a race)
If anyone can use them within specific limits that evidence suggests doesnât have a benefit, the risk analysis would suggest not banning them would be of more benefit than banning them.
If everyone can use them, or up to rider discretion, then there shouldnât be any unfair advantage, if it makes your early morning rides feel better, so be it!
How were you using it like dosage wise. Did you only use it before an effort or every 30mins or so during the ride
Salbutamol effects last a long time, 3+ hours. So just used two puffs before certain rides when doing hard efforts. I don't use it anymore FYI, was only testing it for the experience.
how many puffs did you do before riding?
I have exercise induced asthma and I take a puff before a run or bike ride. Opens up my airways.
60 percent of Liverpool players apparently have Asthma (using salbutamol through TUE's) đ€Ł
Cycling is so bloody hard these lads are toiling for three weeks straight in all weather conditions and as spectators we want epic mountain finishes with ridiculous gradients, let them have a puffer haha. Jks aside yeah should probably only be using an inhaler if you have asthma
Whatâs your opinion on steroid inhalers ? Can they increase performance and are they common among pros ?
I'm not too sure on this, haven't tried or looked into inhalers like Symbicort which contain a corticosteroid & a B2 agonist. They aren't banned either, so I'd have to assume there's people using them, not sure if they improve performance though.
"steroid inhalers" are Corticosteroid inhalers. Corticosteroids are anti-inflammatory. Cortisol probably best known, they are only performance enhancing when injected basically as pain killers. Anabolic Steroids bind to a completely are completely different hormone receptors (and used to build muscle). The only thing they share in common is the "steriod" part of the name as the bind to hormone receptors.
@@nickobec itâs a cortico but has nothing to do with pain killing
@@fatduck8244 it is an anti-inflammatory, to reduce inflammation of the airways. Everybody hears steroid and thinks anabolic. There is no science to say it is performance enhancing (unlike paracetamol for hot TTs) the current science says it is a more effective treatment than salbutamol in asthmatics.
And that asma pump is so dangerous for the heart... thats my emergency asma pump...
What do you mean by âhaving asthmaâ? From memory it is aspecific threshold on inhalation capacity. Supposing that itâs x, you create a difference between (x+ a little bit) and (x- a little bit). Also, the conditions of measurement donât particularly reflect near zero temperatures on mountain tops, or exercise induced asthma in general: you blow into a machine in a GPâs surgery and that determines your status... regardless of how much youâve adapted your breathing capacities through training.
So I can see the virtue of what youâre saying, but pragmatically it just doesnât work. Iâd also agree with the comment that comparing salbutamol to EPO is just a massive confusion of effect sizes. The people who make these rules are not actually idiots...
(actually exhalation)
Iv had asthma since I ran track in highschool it was really bad until I learned how to treat it. Doctors are mostly shit and never gave me good advice. I rarely need an inhaler, maybe a puff or two every 6 months to a year. but If I were to use one for performance it would make my asthma worse, I like to breathe so I wouldn't use it unless I had to.
the pros arent using puffers just for the fun of it. lets put it that way
it sucks that riders may end up feeling they need to use it, same with the pain killers.
You based in Vic?
Sydney âïž
If you need 16 puffs in 24 hours then your asthma isn't under control and it's either abuse and you're an idiot or a legit attack and you should be in the emergency room....yes I'm asthmatic and any legit condition can be controlled without resorting to emergency inhalers, which salbutimol is intended for.
Replace puffers with Gels, and those questions about riders on the team bus become hilarious.
If it kills you in a week or so then should be banned, otherwise take whatever you want.
I completely disagree with them being used if not needed medically. Cycling has a dark history with pharmaceutical abuse. If its not performance enhancing, then why do most World Tour riders(ref Willie Smit) take them. And the most glaringly obvious point, do people really think ALL riders are going to adhere to the the recommended amount of puffs daily. Professional sports will push the bonderies anywhere given opportunity. No TUE no inhaler please.
Sorry... Great chanel
I understand your point. I just see it differently, I don't think it's productive to shame riders for taking something that is not banned. It's too subjective, what about caffeine? or paracetamol if you have a headache? Or ibuprofen if you have a sore back? If WADA say anyone is allowed 16 puffs per day, then it's not fair to shame someone from taking it, it's not against the rules!
If riders go over the allowed amount of puffs daily they riskstesting positive in a drug test, just like any other substance (like what happened to Froome).
@@nerocoaching good points. But there's a reason Froome and Ulissi etc chose to abuse ventolin. If you offered a pro cyclist looking to gain an advantage excess caffeine, paracetamol or ventolin it'd be the latter. Substances aren't like for like. You can garuntee they're being abused, on the sheer law of averages if Willie Smits info is right. As for testing, I'd love to see the data on how many riders get tested for this. I'd say very little at World Tour and minimal at Conti and Pro Conti.
Your vid on fueling was outstanding. Very practical. Been on the sugar water and its perfect.
Asthma puffers are mainly used in pro sports to cover up the use of performance enhancing products... Which is the reason why an abnormal percentage of sporters does use them.... I did think that everybody would know this by now ?!?! You give cycling as example, but maybe go a bit in depth in the sport of speedskating....About 85% of all Dutch speedskaters have asthma... đ€Łđ€Łđ€Ł