Is it possible to train your body out of Asthma? I thought I got myself trained to the point that I no longer needed my inhaler but recently it started to kick in again.

Over the past season, I've reduced my Asthma episodes to zero. I've used albuterol inhalers for probably 15 years. My doc(s) were recommending 2 puffs/ twice per day. Last winter, I began reducing my use-frequency, slowly. No undue shortness of breath or wheezing, so I kept reducing how often I 'blasted' with the inhalers..This past racing season, I've continued to carry one along, but I have yet to 'take a hit' because I seem to have lost the asthma. As a result, my HR is much lower. That albuterol would make my max HR just over 200bpm and now I max out at about 187.

Did I "train myself out of it"? Probably not. I've not been training more diligently or harder lately. Asthma seems to be pretty complex and can, it seems, be triggered by all kinds of things. About 6 years ago, I began using one dose of a product called Flovent, which is said to reduce inflamation, which may cause an attack..That helped me reduce the frequency and severity of my episodes some. Making sure I avoided as much dust as possible (I am a carpenter) also helped. Doing a very slow and careful warm-up for every race really helped..

But in the end, I am not sure why I no longer have the episodes. I still carry my inhaler, just in case. I recently did a race in California..base elevation around 4500' and repeated climbs to 10,000'...Never felt like I was going 'asthmatic'...but I did sound like a steam engine!
Don Hanson

There is no such thing as training yourself out of it, a trigger is a trigger is a trigger. You just got lucky and didnt run into any triggers.

Excercise induced asthma is going to hit you no matter what. The only way to help yourself is to get your asthma undercontrol and reduce the triggers.

IE get on a daily med that will help you avoid the triggers and that will eventually get you away from having asthma issues.

Mine was gone for 15+ years and came back with a vengeance this spring. Once I was on the new meds it took about a month of having to also hit the albuterol every ride before I was able to see the changes. Now I have not had any issues in months.

We will see next spring when whatever triggered me so bad last spring comes out again as to how I am really doing. But wow I feel so much better now even not riding a bike.


I suggest you go see a doc. For the record im on singular and advair and have albuterol for emergencies but no longer need it.

I was diagnosed after a month of wild fires....the fires went away but the cough and wheeze did not. My doctor gave me a steroid inhaler which cleared it up, but left me feeling awful. My boss mentioned there are often 3 things can trigger asthma...wheat, dairy and high fructose corn syrup. The only thing in my diet out of those 3 were some food bars containing high fructose corn syrup, that I had started using about 2 months prior. I didn't believe they could have caused the asthma. In the meantime, I got a new inhaler, read all the warnings, then decided it would be a lot easier to cut out the food bars than to expose myself to the drug. 3 days later, asthma was gone. A week later, I ate a browie (high fructose corn syrup) and the wheezing came back the next day and lasted 2 days. So, I have adjusted my diet to read labels and haven't had any coughing or wheezing. I know that asthma can be triggered by other medical factors, but its worth a try to stick to whole, unprocessed foods to see if that helps.