Chesty cough brought on by exercise

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Andrew_Culture

Internet Marketing bod
I'm not asthmatic and I haven't been a habitual smoker for years, but sometimes when I push myself extra hard on a bike I develop a chesty cough, not unlike the smokers' cough I'd get the morning after a good night out in my 20s.

Am I dredging something gunky up that is normally undisturbed when exercising only moderately?

When I say 'extreme exercise' I mean the type that makes your heart leap out of your chest!
 

Garz

Squat Member
Location
Down
Seems to be the body getting up the crap from yesteryear. I wouldnt worry about it too much, how long have you been cycling like this (intensity) for?
 
OP
OP
Andrew_Culture

Andrew_Culture

Internet Marketing bod
Cheers you lot! I cycle to the point of getting the heart beating properly six days a week, but only really thrash myself about once a month. Maybe I should push harder :smile:


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Sent from a Victorian Terrace house, red brick, 1882 build.
 

Rob3rt

Man or Moose!
Location
Manchester
You may not have Asthma in the everyday sense, but you may have exercise induced asthma and you should speak to the doctor, quite frankly even if you don't have exercise induced asthma, the doctor will likely just give you a blue inhaler anyway based on the symptoms, this should hopefully help with the issue when it comes up.

I have a blue inhaler for exactly the same issue. Never been "tested" or dubbed as asthmatic, but occasionally I will get a "tight" chest and cough and hack, sometimes perpetuated by running where there is a lot of pollen, the blue inhaler is a godsend. As soon as I feel any hint of anything abnormal in my breathing while running, I take a puff and then usually feel great.
 

Manonabike

Über Member
I didn't feel breathless, I just cough when I breath deeply, or is that the same as a symptom of asthma?

I'm asthmatic and the nurse changed my medicine last December..... in June I saw the doctor and the first thing he suggested was the asthma medicine, I insisted my asthma was fine, in fact better than ever :-) but the doc was right. Change of medicine and after 4 weeks the cough disappeared. The thing is that I feel just as well of my asthma with the new medicine but no cough which is what I wanted.
 

Rob3rt

Man or Moose!
Location
Manchester
I didn't feel breathless, I just cough when I breath deeply, or is that the same as a symptom of asthma?

Breathless is not the description I would use for a light "attack", when you inhale deeply it sort of tickles and you might sort of react with a little spontaneous cough. As it progresses, you might feel a bit wheezy, cough up a bit of goo (I guess this is your body's reaction to the inflammation in your lungs, producing more mucous to clean the air you are breathing of irritants) then as it gets worse still, it might feel like when you breath in, you seem to glean little oxygen from the breath and even as if you have something tight around you preventing you from breathing in deeply.

I have never gotten worse than this stage so don't know how a full blown asthmatic might feel when having a proper attack.
 

Rob3rt

Man or Moose!
Location
Manchester
I wouldnt worry too much, I had one episode of the most severe I described above when on a long run, I was 4 mile out from home and managed to complete the run, although at a reduced pace. My girlfriend who is asthmatic told me to huff the blue inhaler, and I was fine. I went doctor a couple of days later, described the symptoms, he said, probably "exercise induced asthma" and signed off a prescription so I could have an inhaler and that was that. Occasionally I feel it coming on, huff the inhaler and it immediately dissipates.
 

Arsen Gere

Über Member
Location
North East, UK
I discovered I am asthmatic at 52. It's not stopped me doing anything and I take the preventative brown inhaler and a lot of the coughing and clearing my throat has disappeared. It's exercised induced, worse in cold weather. I don't get breathless I just cough myself inside out.
Loads of people have it but it does not manifest itself unless you create circumstances for it to occur, Paula Radcliffe has it too. It's nothing to worry about and preventable. It's up to you whether it bothers you or not.

http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/asthma/Pages/PaulaRadcliffe.aspx
 

lulubel

Über Member
Location
Malaga, Spain
I am fully asthmatic (diagnosed as a baby, hospitalised 4 times with "life threatening" attacks) and the only cough I get when I exercise is a loose cough in cool, damp conditions. The first sign for me that my asthma isn't great - nowhere near a proper attack - is that my chest doesn't feel as if it's got as much room in it as usual. I ignore that because it usually goes away on its own, and only use the blue inhaler if my breathing is impaired to the point where it interferes with something I want to do.

If you find you're struggling to breathe in, it isn't generally a problem with breathing in as such, but that you're not emptying your lungs properly when you breathe out, so they're full of stale air that's stopping new air getting in. Concentrate on breathing out when you're cycling, and you'll probably find it a lot easier.
 
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