Asthmatic fighters?

Winterfell · Post by **Winterfell** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 7:12 pm

I have a friend who feels that she cannot fight since she found out that she has asthma. I was wondering if there were any fighters here or anyone you know who has asthma and how they deal with it.
Thanks.

Blaine de Navarre · Post by **Blaine de Navarre** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 7:28 pm

Herzog (Duke) Dietrich von Vogelsang is asthmatic. He gets kinda winded in a bear pit, but one fight at a time he kicks some major bootay.

Cunian · Post by **Cunian** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 7:41 pm

Connor -

Suzanna Grey - who fights locally, and quite well - has asthma. She will occasionally ask for a breathing break, but seems to manage fine. Perhaps your friend can talk to her and get some encouragement and advice.

Noe · Post by **Noe** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 9:30 pm

<cracks knuckles>

Funny you should ask about this. Starting last spring, I found myself having increasing trouble with my wind during practice. As the temperatures rose, it got increasingly worse until I was truly suffering after only 4 or 5 bouts. I was exhausted, chest burning, and had developed a persistant hacking, wheezing cough. At Pennsic I got to take a nifty trip to the hospital after a severe attack (mold in the rental tents, of all things). Eventually, after a few false starts, I was diagnosed with adult onset asthma. The real eye opener came when they measured my lung capacity and found out that I was down to something like 59%. Now I have my meds and about 4 different kinds of inhalers, and I am feeling much better.

The point of all this whining is this: no matter how bad I felt, I never considered giving up fighting. Unless your friend thinks she might die or be permanently harmed, I think she can fight if she wants to. As I understand it, there are some olympic athletes who have asthma. Keep your medicine and O2 on hand, and you might want to be careful about what kind of armour and helmet that you get. I live in fear that someone might try to cut my chain shirt off of me. I'm thinking of getting a medic alert bracelet that says, "Just bury me in the damned thing."

Alcyoneus · Post by **Alcyoneus** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 10:19 pm

Yes, they do. They take their inhalers with them, and use when necessary.

Know your limits, and your abilities. This is fun, but it isn't worth dying over.

Lucan Dux · Post by **Lucan Dux** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 10:26 pm

Greetings,
I have been an asthmatic my entire life, but don't allow it to stop me from my activities. Everyone's comfort level is different. Your friend will have to determine that for themselves. I have found breathing exercises, caffeine and my ever present inhaler have been sufficient to maintain myself or recover from asthma issues while fighting. It certainly does affect my skill level and endurance but I am not always having episodes while fighting.

On the whole I have found staying away from triggers & keeping my living environment relatively trigger free has assisted me in living a descent life and having some success in our martial sport.

Please feel free to ask specific questions if you need to. Meanwhile I need to go grab my inhaler. :lol:

Stephen du Bois · Post by **Stephen du Bois** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 10:31 pm

About 2 years ago I was diagnossed with excersise induced asthma. I went to the docter about only after one of our local Knights (who has asthma) asked what I was taking for mine, because of the way I was weezing..I told him that I didn't have asthma..I served 4 yrs in the Marine and 3 yrs in the Army and in my youth had been an olympic caliber wrestler..I had aways breathed that way and thought it was "normal"

I now treat it with an inhaler prior to strenuous excersise and my god what a difference!!

Stephen du Bois · Post by **Stephen du Bois** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 10:31 pm

About 2 years ago I was diagnossed with excersise induced asthma. I went to the docter about only after one of our local Knights (who has asthma) asked what I was taking for mine, because of the way I was weezing..I told him that I didn't have asthma..I served 4 yrs in the Marine and 3 yrs in the Army and in my youth had been an olympic caliber wrestler..I had aways breathed that way and thought it was "normal"

I now treat it with an inhaler prior to strenuous excersise and my god what a difference!!

Alcyoneus · Post by **Alcyoneus** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 11:51 pm

Teddy Roosevelt whipped his asthma out of his body with exercise.

But Hell, John Wayne wanted to be Teddy, and Chuck Norris fetches him donuts. ;-)

Oswyn_de_Wulferton · Post by **Oswyn_de_Wulferton** » Fri Apr 14, 2006 12:12 am

A friend of mine has exercize induced athsma, and we were wondering where people keep their inhaler. Is it on your person, in you day pavilion, with the Chiurgeon, etc?

Angusm0628 · Post by **Angusm0628** » Fri Apr 14, 2006 6:24 am

My lady as well suffers from Asthma as does my step-daughter. Both however do Fight. Their inhalers are always in a "keepers" hands and if they have a problem just signal for it and the inhaler arrives within a very brief period of time.

Adriano · Post by **Adriano** » Fri Apr 14, 2006 7:32 am

I keep an inhaler in my pouch at events, even in armour on the field. I'm hoping a good deal of the asthma will go away as I lose weight and get in better shape. It seemed to help a bit when I stopped drinking milk.

Has your friend had an official diagnosis? Her doctor should be able to give her much more specific advice about athletic activity than we can. But let her know that lots of us can and do fight in spite of asthma.

Nissan Maxima · Post by **Nissan Maxima** » Fri Apr 14, 2006 8:42 am

I have excercise induced asthma and have been fighting for 33 years. I deal with it by breathing like darth vader.

Baron Alejandro · Post by **Baron Alejandro** » Fri Apr 14, 2006 9:22 am

You ain't my daddy.

Edwin · Post by **Edwin** » Fri Apr 14, 2006 10:05 am

Have been diagnosed with asthma for about 20 years. Exercise is the most common trigger, but pollens, molds, dust mites, tobacco smoke, and respiratory infections also trigger it.

I have an albuterol inhaler that I use prior to exercise, including fighting.

I have conditioned my body to function comfortably with decreased volume of oxygen. IMO, that is the most important part of living an active life with asthma. It is both attitude and physical conditioning. The constrictive, choking, out-of-breath feel prompts most people to become anxious or panic... which aggrivates the inflamation of the lung tissue.

The conditioning began when I joined the swim team in high school, and continued via SCA practice and also Judo (sparring on the mat or working through a choke hold). The result is that I can continue physical activity comfortably despite decreased oxygen supply to the cells; I don't freak out or panic. I learned during swim competitions that I can sustain 100% sprint speed for approximately 25 yards (12 to 15 seconds) once I've entered the anaerobic respiration phase. Doing so hurts a lot; I had to be helped out of the pool a few times due to not having the energy to pull myself out. I would lie on the deck for up to 30 minutes before I could sit up. My lungs would recover faster than my body would recover from the anaerobic effort. But the conditioning for that means that I can maintain 75% to 90% output for far longer. I also know when I should leave the field in SCA activities prior to the on onset of that long-recovery-effort. The recovery time isn't worth the benefits of staying on the field for those few more minutes.

Asthma hasn't ever stopped me, and infrequently slows me down. Some days I've only practiced for 1 hour instead of 3 if it was a bad pollen day, but that was a choice I made because I didn't want to push the envelope that day.

Koredono · Post by **Koredono** » Fri Apr 14, 2006 10:43 am

One of my squire brothers has exercise-induced asthma; she's been fighting for 10+ years, and before that, was her high school and college lacrosse team's goalie, and did crew in college (which required other sorts of exercise, like running, to stay in good enough shape to do crew), and AFAIK she's never had any significant incident from asthma in any of those activities.

She takes a hit from her inhaler before she begins fighting for the day (as in, once she's all armored except for her helmet and gauntlets), and that appears to do her well enough for quite a while. For when she's on the field, she has a separate little leather pouch for it on her belt, that she usually keeps at the base of her spine - everyone in the unit is aware of where it is, should there be an urgent need for it at an inconvenient time (like, say, in the middle of the Woods Battle), and I'm sure that if her hubby didn't think it was safe for her to be doing that (overprotetive MD), I'd have at least heard something about it by now.

igelkott · Post by **igelkott** » Fri Apr 14, 2006 6:37 pm

I've had asthma all my life. I've been fighting since 1980. I used to need the inhaler several times a day, especially when fighting. A few years ago, my doctor switched me to advair. Now I can fight all day without needing the inhaler. I still keep it with me, and store it in my armor bag on the field. Life has been much better since I switched.

Chris

Noe · Post by **Noe** » Fri Apr 14, 2006 6:57 pm

I have conditioned my body to function comfortably with decreased volume of oxygen. IMO, that is the most important part of living an active life with asthma. It is both attitude and physical conditioning. The constrictive, choking, out-of-breath feel prompts most people to become anxious or panic... which aggrivates the inflamation of the lung tissue.

I agree that this is a useful trait with one caveate: be aware that those are messages from your body telling you that something is seriously wrong. I came a little too close to getting myself if serious trouble because I was use to ignoring little warning signs like black spots in my vision.

Samuel · Post by **Samuel** » Fri Apr 14, 2006 7:18 pm

Id been on provental inhalers since childhood. once I moved to colorado and started fighting here in 99 my asthma actually improved enough to the point where I dont bring inhalers with me anymore.
took some classes on controled breathing, I was on prescriptions but dont take them anymore either.. now when I have an attack I just concentrate on breathing. most the people in my life know to leave me be unless I stop breathing:D but so far Ive not passed out in six years.. it was rather tough getting aclimatized ..

generally I do fine at wars and such since I live 5000 feet above sea level again.( pensic I might breath four or five times the entire time in there:D)

about the only thing that triggers anymore is mold and dust.. so when you see a hay bale pop open and people kicking through it.. give em a beatin....cause im about to leave the field..
:lol:

WilliamThomas · Post by **WilliamThomas** » Mon Apr 17, 2006 9:36 am

I also suffer from asthma and it has greatly effected my fighting. I have been looking for ways to help me better deal with this issue, though I canÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t say I have a handle on it. I know there are many successful folks out there that do well in our game that have asthma. I believe you just have to find what works best for you. For me it has been a long enduring process, but I feel I am getting closer.

William Thomas

FrauHirsch · Post by **FrauHirsch** » Mon Apr 17, 2006 5:47 pm

I just use my flovent and serevent in the morning and then use my albuterol for emergencies. I end up using it several times during most war fighting days due to the dust.

My asthma is pretty bad. Sometimes it tires me out so I don't fight as much as I should.

Juliana

Oswyn_de_Wulferton · Post by **Oswyn_de_Wulferton** » Mon Apr 17, 2006 8:06 pm

Thanks all for your responses to the question. She isnt one to panic from an attack (used to do Judo) but I was wondering if people carried it not battle. Not sure how durable they would be if they happened to catch a hit.

Edwin · Post by **Edwin** » Mon Apr 17, 2006 9:13 pm

I do not carry my inhaler on the field. I leave it with my armor box. I've learned to recognize when I'm approaching the fatigue-inducing-last-reach, and will take a breather, which gives me plenty of time to walk back to my bag to use it if I were to need it. The physical conditioning generally means I'm recovered during the walk, and don't need it again. ONly need several minutes to rest before I'm good to go again.