I competed at a high level of distance running (college and open) in the late 70s and early 80s.  In large part I walked away from the sport after repeatedly witnessing runners' abuses, in particular the use of asthma meds and various pills.  

As ONE example, a runner on my very large and high-ramked (then) college team, with whom I routinely ran against, with, and ahead of in practices, ONLY used his inhaler on the once-weekly hard workout day and then again right before his competition.  He never seemed to wheeze much at other practices and definitely not more than the avearge runner.  When questioned about the drug, he SOMETIMES claimed he had asthma while other times he had some other basis for taking the drug.  I clearly recall checking out his inhaler one time while I was doing a different practice and was astonished to find both his name on the RX and his father's...his dad was the prescribing doctor...by the runner's own his own admission and my research then , his father was a podiatrist.  Go figure. 

I had a valid breathing problem resulting in severe, frequent, and loud wheezing.  It was the result of scar tissue from oral surgeries after severe trauma and lead to hyperventilation at times.  I went to personal and university docs.  My condition wasn't considered asthma so I was not permitted to get or benefit from use of any inhaler although the doctors said that the medicine would benefit me.  Apparently you had to  have some reaction to tests that I didn't have.  I should have went to a podatrist; s/he would have been able to get me o past those tests.  The university doctor's warned me of the drugs legality if I did obtain it elsewhere.  Later after gathering more facts I reported the obvious abuse in my eyes and violation of use by the other runner to the doctors and the school.   Later, I was reprimanded and after a few MONTHS of investigation I was told the RX for the runner was from an ENT.  I said that may be true at that time but not before.  Next thing I knew I was dropped from races despite possessing better times than my teammates.

A few years after graduation I was given a dose of the asthma med by my ENT because I had a broken nose and total blockage through my nose and was awaiting surgery.  It became clear that despite not having asthma I could breathe easier for hours through my throat.  That doc told me the benefits of the med for those who did not have asthma and assured me that my beliefs about the college teammate were well founded...he was a cheater and stole opportunities from me and other competitors.

So, dear author, next time you write about a topic, use common sense and do research (I see no footnotes in your article).  I now wonder what you have to hide. 

Exercise induced asthmatic athlete

2/17/10 7:51pm

Hey loser . . . yeah you who blames your lack of performance on the fact that you competed against an asthmatic.  What a joke.  As far as you whining that "there is no scientific support" for the original post that made the point that enhalers such as Albuterol doesn't provide a competitive advantage to non-asthmatics see here.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8781870

 

Its right there in plain english.  If you don't have asthma the enhaler DOES YOU NO GOOD!  If you have asthma, the enhaler simply levels the playing field.  Your problem is you were just to slow or too lazy to train hard enough to be competitive.

Barry Satoro

2/ 8/11 6:40pm

"Next thing I knew I was dropped from races despite possessing better times than my teammates." He never said he wasn't able to compete. He was pissed that someone who didn't seem asthmatic at all was using a product to keep their airways open during tough extended training sessions. From my experience, if there was cold weather involved, it gave the offender an even greater advantage. http://jap.physiology.org/content/89/2/430.full http://www.pponline.co.uk/encyc/salbutamol.html Non-sponsored athletes should not be allowed to use any drugs while competing. If that increases the roster of benchwarmers necessary in order to continue a competition through injuries and bouts of illness, then so be it. Doping is unfair and we know precious little about how most drugs affect us in the long term, to say nothing of the unlisted side effects. Pharmaceutical companies had cures and remedies for everything under the sun for as long as there have been pharmaceutical companies. So they came up with new horrors to push out onto the people and scare them into needing their *new* cures and remedies. These "diseases" and "cures" have gotten so outlandish that most new drugs come with warnings of death, sterility, blindness, suicidal tendencies and brain damage. It would not surprise me to find out that big pharma has put the quash on anything that could be construed as a side effect, adverse or otherwise that would embarrass the companies or the athletes that have achieved "greatness" because of them. People like Jackie Joyner-Kersee certainly wouldn't wish to find out that using albuterol and/or cortical steroids for her asthma gave her an extra kick or endurance that other athletes weren't getting. Big pharma will see to it that that information will never come to light. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/31/business/31trials.html?_r=1 http://preventdisease.com/news/09/111909_WHO_on_big_pharma_payroll.shtml