If you really need an inhaler, can you use one when competing? Or is that considered doping? If so, being a professional athlete is definitely not gonna happen.
If you really need an inhaler, can you use one when competing? Or is that considered doping? If so, being a professional athlete is definitely not gonna happen.
pa2co wrote:
If you really need an inhaler, can you use one when competing? Or is that considered doping? If so, being a professional athlete is definitely not gonna happen.
No, it is not doping. We are talking about whether healthy runners can benefit from using an inhaler.
Inhalants are doping. Chemicals are used to open lungs to improve performance.
Anyway, earlier on this thread were some studies suggesting that it's not an ergogenic aid (with a significant benefit). The power of those studies was criticized, but it also appears that there isn't sufficient evidence that inhalers *are* performance aids (other than some documents on somebody's computer).
Yeah, asthma rates are going up: in general, "we don't know" why:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=why-are-asthma-rates-soaring&page=3
Possible increased (over-)diagnosis, comorbidity with obesity, air pollution/traffic density, etc. But it is increasing in noticeable rates far greater than possible "abuse" by young athletes.
*
On to anecdotes: like another poster, I've had "legit" asthma for years (actually much better now in adulthood), and I was actually frustrated with a lot of the "exercise-induced" kids I saw who were (seemingly) more likely overweight. I *wanted* to play sports, but my lungs were absolute crap.
Now I don't need an inhaler except when trapped in dusty Midwestern houses with shag rugs, closed windows, and a cat or dog or two; OR after racing a mile or running a hard 800 in cold, dry weather, sometimes.
There's a point here, eventually: I'll only take it /afterward/, when my lungs are severely constricted, because the overall increased heart rate and lightheadedness is a side-effect I want to avoid at all costs.
Beginning a workout or race like that would be even more uncomfortable. Personally, I find any of the effects, besides lungs that don't hurt, to be a noticeable detriment.
Are they allowed at the Olympics for legit medical breathing issues?
Allowed? Should be banned unless ALL athletes are allowed to use them. Everyone who runs hard has "breathing issues." 100% use, or 0% use, nothing allowed in-between.
The verdict is no, they provide no benefits based on all the studies posted and the studies I looked up myself. We only have one person saying they help and his sources are his top secret PDF's on his computer that no one is allowed to see but him.
No evidence, no benefit
This thread is just bringing out the best of the older, over weight, or for whatever reason, slow as f'ck runners who are butthurt about people constantly dominating them in races. Some guy started hating in inhalers, and a huge flock of 25-15 minute 5k'ers flocked to bandwagon this hate on inhalers. Its hilarious how thick some of you are. "Waaahhh some guy lapped me in a 2 mile this weekend and he had an inhaler its not FAIRRRR wahhh mom!!"
I'll keep refreshing this to see what else you idiots can come up with.
The verdict wrote:
The verdict is no, they provide no benefits based on all the studies posted and the studies I looked up myself. We only have one person saying they help and his sources are his top secret PDF's on his computer that no one is allowed to see but him.
No evidence, no benefit
So because YOU couldn't find any studies searching on the internet there's no evidence? Maybe YOU have no idea how to search for research.
There's also more to evidence than research. Anyone with an understanding of PEDs (i.e. their education comes from places other than the internet) knows that research is very limited anyway for ethical and study design issues. Why don't YOU read a few text books and talk to some people who are experts? Why don't YOU get an inhaler and test is out yourself?
turbotax master wrote:
This thread is just bringing out the best of the older, over weight, or for whatever reason, slow as f'ck runners who are butthurt about people constantly dominating them in races. Some guy started hating in inhalers, and a huge flock of 25-15 minute 5k'ers flocked to bandwagon this hate on inhalers. Its hilarious how thick some of you are. "Waaahhh some guy lapped me in a 2 mile this weekend and he had an inhaler its not FAIRRRR wahhh mom!!"
not butthurt here just fed up with the coaches who encourage athletes getting inhalers for performance enhancers and the doctors who hand them out like candy while being ignorant to the side effects.
yes wrote: Why don't YOU get an inhaler and test is out yourself?
He doesn't need to. He knows inhalers open his lungs, allowing him to take in more oxygen, and therefor run faster.
But, no one has proven inhalers enhance performance. For now, he can continue setting PRs. They will one day become PRs*. *Known user of inhalers proven to help runners run faster.
No. It is a performance enhancer for someone who does have asthma however and in my opinion is a PED.
Has anyone every been around a group of inhaler using runners and seen how someone panics if they forgot to bring their inhaler to the workout?
what does i.e. mean?
Beta agonists (i.e. albuterol) as a drug class have one of the most BENIGN side effect profiles of anything in use today. "Body composition changes" that you keep bringing up are absolutely 100% NOT a side effect. This thread is absolutely FULL of quackery and pseudoscience.
Simply saying "inhaler" does not suggest what is being inhaled. An inhaler is a route to receive a drug, be it a short acting beta agonist, a long acting beta agonist, corticosteroids, or freaking airplane glue.
As for beta agonists in asthmatics... Asthma is characterized by a reversible airway hyperactivity (among other things). In a NORMAL person, when a stressor is encountered (i.e. increased O2 demand when running a race, going out in cold air, environmental irritants), the airways DO NOT constrict. In an asthmatic, this ABNORMAL bronchospasm can be countered with something that causes bronchodilation, like stimulation of beta receptors. It stands to reason that people that take these out of necessity are just put back to equal those with a normal physiologic response. No advantage gained (from a respiratory standpoint) for a non-asthmatic.
Please stop posting inflammatory things about medications you do not understand. And don't throw a bunch of garbage studies at me now quoting changes in expression of blah blah blah protein in mouse models given high dose albuterol...
You must be prescribing inhalers. They must be legal because no one has caught on yet.
Inhalers enhance performance. Deal with it.
In short: if you don't have asthma, you can probably give yourself more of an advantage by drinking a cup of coffee before a race/workout than taking a shot of your friend's albuterol. If your friend with asthma forgets his inhaler, he very well may not be able to compete/work out.
Yes, you're right. I can prescribe inhalers. I learned how in medical school
you're all a bunch of idiots. I'm going to bed. Yes - show me where you saw "body composition changes" as a side effect. seriously.
Of course the body composition changes aren't SIDE EFFECTS, they are PERFORMANCE ENHANCING EFFECTS. Why do you think fitness freaks use salbutomol as a alternate to clenbuterol?
I believe that you're understating the side effects. Have you read the list of sides of some of the commonly prescribed things for exercised induced asthma such as Salbutamol or Advair? Have you used these substances yourself? Any experiences you'd like to share?