Cam Levins Addresses Doping Allegations, Says He Takes Asthma Medication for Adult Onset Asthma

Can you imagine how fast Rupp and Levins would be if they weren't so sick? They probably would bring down the 10,000 record below 26 minutes. They are incredibly talented. I knew that Rupp was incredibly sick. Now Levins. Levins is therefore even more talented than I thought.

ENTer wrote:

My coach was aware of the issue but asthma didn't occur to him either because it only seemed to happen late in race when I was really pushing myself. Was Alberto just doing his job in IDing the issue? .

Alberto supposedly didn't "do his job" or anything elese with Levins as relates to his asthma . Cam said he started on the inhaler before he joined NOP. Right?

Is it me or does it seem like the NOP are all a sickly group of people. Seems all are on thyroid meds, asthma, allergies. And seems every season at least 2 or 3 pull out of a meet for being sick and never returning that season.

Wow what a bunch of sickly people

Vvhghgvvhggygg wrote:

Can you imagine how fast Rupp and Levins would be if they weren't so sick? They probably would bring down the 10,000 record below 26 minutes. They are incredibly talented. I knew that Rupp was incredibly sick. Now Levins. Levins is therefore even more talented than I thought.

However, that being said. It's looking like Levins is getting great treatment. I had a friend who had asthma and once in a while in XC or in indoor track, he would completely lose it. He would slow down almost to a walk, when he got attacks, in spite of regularly using his inhaler before races.

That hasn't happened to Levins yet. I'm happy for that. Furthermore, it seems to be so well controlled that I have never heard him talk about his illness until yesterday. I've been following each and every race of his. Probably listened to all his post race interviews and not once has he complained about his asthma.

Jesus Christ guys it's asthma not cancer. You can run at an elite level with asthma if you manage it.

Vvhghgvvhggygg wrote:

Can you imagine how fast Rupp and Levins would be if they weren't so sick? They probably would bring down the 10,000 record below 26 minutes. They are incredibly talented. I knew that Rupp was incredibly sick. Now Levins. Levins is therefore even more talented than I thought.

These guys are heroes. Blue collar runners who defy chronic illnesses and fight their way to the top. Respect!

xenonscreams wrote:

Jesus Christ guys it's asthma not cancer. You can run at an elite level with asthma if you manage it.

"Mortality

Each day　9 Americans die from asthma. There are more than 3,600 deaths due to asthma each year... "

Dr Screams wrote:

xenonscreams wrote:

Jesus Christ guys it\'s asthma not cancer. You can run at an elite level with asthma if you manage it.

\"Mortality

Each day　9 Americans die from asthma. There are more than 3,600 deaths due to asthma each year... \"

And 25 million people in the US have asthma. So each year only .000144% of Americans with asthma die from it....

exercise induced asthma is areal thing. this dudes lungs are probably shit from all that air and they spasm up. its legit.

darkwave wrote:

[quote]Just try it ya wimps! wrote:

We don't know if Cam is on a standard blue rescue inhaler which has immediate bronco dilatory effect, or red preventive anti-inflamatory steroid inhaler (Flovent, Pulmicort, Alvesco etc) which has no impact on bronchial flow, and can actually make it worse for 30-60 mins

I'm being pedantic here, but you've either got the colors reversed or it differs by region. My Albuterol rescue inhaler is red, and has been for the last 5 years at least. I've seen LABA (Long Acting Beta Agonist) preventative inhalers (Dulera) that are blue.

Just noting this so people don't assume that every red inhaler is full of steroids.

Good point! I thought the color of inhalers was a worldwide standard, but it's a bit of a mess according to this:

xenonscreams wrote:

Jesus Christ guys it's asthma not cancer. You can run at an elite level with asthma if you manage it.

Saying someone has asthma is almost as vague as saying someone has cancer. Huge spectrum of disability, treatment options, response to treatment and how life threatening it is. But as you say, if it's not managed, you won't be able to train/race well.

Unnmnnmm wrote:

Get ran the 10000

[quote]cough cough wrote:

[quote]Positive Contribution wrote:

No one is denying that asthma is a joke. What's a joke is elite endurance athletes getting on meds for a condition that if they truly had they wouldn't be any near elite in the first place.

I think the point was, if Salazar's athletes are all a bunch of asthmatics, why don't we ever see them suffer for it like Gebrselassie did? How come we never see them hunched over in a coughing fit after an indoor race? Gebrselassie missed out on his best chance for a final Olympic gold because of asthma worries, but how come asthma only helps Nike Oregon Project athletes?

Many people have asthma without coughing, there's a huge spectrum of symptoms. After hard race i rarely cough but it's a ton of work to breath, like someone has duct taped my chest, neck muscles exhausted from trying to help out diaphragm muscles. Sometimes it's easier to breath backwards (use muscles to push air out to create a vacuum in chest, relax to let air in), but you can't keep that up for long, and not while running!

When i saw Geb on TV drop out of a race due to asthma problems, i think his his hunched over pose and waving his hand in front of his mouth to get more air in was mostly an act because the cameras were on him. I have no doubt he was having breathing issues, but waving your hand in front of your mouth, come on!

ASTHMAMYASS wrote:

Also anon wrote:

There is a difference between running 25 mpw and 190.

29.00 10K 64 HALF RUNNER ACTUALLY

Mediocre on LR. Pretty everyone here could have run 28 if only they hadn't quit.

I call bullcrap wrote:

Tell me why nobody from the 80's or 90's or going back earlier was on Asthma meds despite it being a common problem in society. We now have a situation where something like 75% of endurance competitors at 2012 Olympics had exemptions for Asthma meds.... it's ridiculous. If your Asthma was so bad it required steroid medication and it only occurred when you ran would you still run??

aside from this Levins actually contradicts himself in the interview, listen again.

Because back in the day, we drank plenty of beer - and none of that craft piss -- to ameliorate the effects of high mileage.

adsfadsfasfasdf wrote:

Alex... wrote:

So lets take thyroxine, prednisolone, ventolin, l-carnitine and lets go running

I hear ventolin has some nasty side effects.

Tourette's syndrome being one of them.

Can someone post Cam's interview from a few years ago, where he mentions that he was having trouble in races and in training (I'm assuming in his last year at SUU, since this happened before he joined NOP), that he was diagnosed with asthma, got treated and was finally feeling much better as a result of the treatment.

He must have been relieved to finally find out what he had.

YES! well done

That was difficult to watch. He was clearly lying about something. Classic signs - swallowing before lying - brief break in eye contact before lying, hesitation, deep breaths...

I posted something similar in the other thread where someone was irritated the Brojos used the word "admit" in the Levins article. I'm not so interested in bickering about whether or not Levins has asthma because of inhalers but more because of the potential for him to take prednisone for his "asthma" and then need testosterone as a TUE when his testosterone numbers plummet because of the prednisone.

For those who are curious: a little bit of pred (7.5 mg daily, just above physiologic replacement) drops down testosterone levels. It's been known since the late 70s:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/488427

I'd like to see him on the record about what his asthma meds are and how often/how many times he's taken prednisone since joining NOP. And if he has ever taken testosterone or any other med for "low testosterone levels" since joining NOP.