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asthma inhalers not performance enhancing?

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sniper

Oct 16, 2010
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As far as I can tell, it's a bit of an individual thing.

A friend of mine is not asthmatic, but he uses a salbutamol inhaler each time we play a game and he says it clears his airways and gives him extra stamina.
I've tried it myself a few times before a game (two to three puffs max), and it did have a bit of a boosting effect, although the negative side effect was that it made me thirsty as hell, so I stopped using it.

But yeah, that's my experience from soccer, not cycling.
Personally, I don't doubt that it's performance enhancing for cyslists, even if they're not asthmatic.

On a side, I would assume inhalers have more enhancing effects in areas with high air pollution than in areas with low air pollution.
 
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sniper

Oct 16, 2010
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agreed, that is most definitely possible.
It's what I would suspect Froome was doing in the Dauphine, when he was sucking the life out of that inhaler.
Just a salbutamol shot?
 
DirtyWorks

DirtyWorks

Feb 10, 2010
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Weight loss is the performance enhancement, not breathing. It's a very old PED. The number of cyclists "cured" of "asthma" would be a medical revolution... If only it wasn't a PED.

Imagine an endurance athlete able to train 10's of hours a week able to shed a kilo or two by just puffing on an inhaler regularly.

I'm not the bio-chemist. I think they are generically called beta agonists. Clenbuterol being an excellent example.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clenbuterol Clen is also handy for recovery.
 
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sniper

Oct 16, 2010
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Re:

DirtyWorks said:
Weight loss is the performance enhancement, not breathing. It's a very old PED. The number of cyclists "cured" of "asthma" would be a medical revolution... If only it wasn't a PED.

Imagine an endurance athlete able to train 10's of hours a week able to shed a kilo or two by just puffing on an inhaler regularly.
Click to expand...
yeah good point.
but froome sucking the life out of that tiny bottle in the dauphine suggested that on that occasion, whatever was in it, it was giving him a direct boost.
 
doolols

doolols

Dec 23, 2011
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Re: Re:

sniper said:
yeah good point.
but froome sucking the life out of that tiny bottle in the dauphine suggested that on that occasion, whatever was in it, it was giving him a direct boost.
Click to expand...
This is an old subject, and has been done to death previously. So now Froome is using an inhaler as a transport system for another PED. Great imagination.
 
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scurrrr

Jul 15, 2016
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But for asthmatic athletes salburamo is performance enhancing right, because they already have a loss and with that stuff they can compansate that?
 
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movingtarget

Aug 5, 2009
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I think the jury is out on the benefits of Salbutamol. Much research indicates that non asthmatics receive little benefit or none at all. How much you would have to take to lose weight I have no idea but I never noticed any loss of weight when I was competing as an asthmatic or trying to while regularly using Ventolin. With Salbutamol the benefits are even limited for asthmatics. A short term fix which sometimes does not work well and the more you use it the less effective it is. The real revolution in asthma drugs were the preventers which meant that the need for Salbutamol was lessened and the chance of asthma attacks was minimized.
 
DirtyWorks

DirtyWorks

Feb 10, 2010
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Re:

scurrrr said:
But for asthmatic athletes salburamo is performance enhancing right, because they already have a loss and with that stuff they can compansate that?
Click to expand...

ACTUAL asthmatics? It moderates an attack and maybe some bonus weight loss. Hardly a PED if you actually suffer from asthma.

There are so many users of asthma meds elite endurance sports it is impossible to know who actually has the issue and who is using it to lean out.

I don't know what was going on with Froome. I'm sure the inhaler thing was exhaustively covered in some thread at the time.
 
M

movingtarget

Aug 5, 2009
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Re: Re:

DirtyWorks said:
scurrrr said:
But for asthmatic athletes salburamo is performance enhancing right, because they already have a loss and with that stuff they can compansate that?
Click to expand...

ACTUAL asthmatics? It moderates an attack and maybe some bonus weight loss. Hardly a PED if you actually suffer from asthma.

There are so many users of asthma meds elite endurance sports it is impossible to know who actually has the issue and who is using it to lean out.

I don't know what was going on with Froome. I'm sure the inhaler thing was exhaustively covered in some thread at the time.
Click to expand...

With so many people suffering from asthma now especially children but interestingly adults can also develop it later in life I tend to think a lot of it is caused by the environment. Some people think that over use of chemicals within households plays a role which also plays apart in the number of children now that have allergy problems and then you have the usual pollution and pollen issues. Others say plastics and some of the more modern materials also have an effect. Different climates also seem to play a role. It seems that dryer climates are better for asthmatics.

I remember that Petacchi got banned for having a massive amount of Salbutamol in his system. I would say an unhealthy amount or maybe the test results were flawed ?
 
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Lyon

Apr 7, 2015
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If enough athletes in diverse enough sports have kept on using it for long enough periods it is bound to have some kind of an effect. Forget about scientific research, the athletes and their coaches don't have the time to sit around waiting for something like that - it is word of mouth and the willingness to try anything once that is the driving forces here.

And results.
 
rick james

rick james

BANNED
Sep 2, 2014
7,677
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Re:

sniper said:
As far as I can tell, it's a bit of an individual thing.

A friend of mine is not asthmatic, but he uses a salbutamol inhaler each time we play a game and he says it clears his airways and gives him extra stamina.
I've tried it myself a few times before a game (two to three puffs max), and it did have a bit of a boosting effect, although the negative side effect was that it made me thirsty as hell, so I stopped using it.

But yeah, that's my experience from soccer, not cycling.
Personally, I don't doubt that it's performance enhancing for cyslists, even if they're not asthmatic.

On a side, I would assume inhalers have more enhancing effects in areas with high air pollution than in areas with low air pollution.
Click to expand...


Lol I doubt very much it gave you a boosting effect

And how the hell can it give you extra stamina?
 
doolols

doolols

Dec 23, 2011
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Isn't it all a bit like cream for saddle sores? They are something that will affect your performance if you have them, but the sport's ruling bodies have decided that they can be treated. Same with asthma. The ruling bodies have decided that you can have a TUE for an inhaler, and you can use it a limited amount. Too much, and you'll get done. There is a clear line, and anyone operating below that line isn't doping.
 
python

python

Sep 25, 2009
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Re:

movingtarget said:
I think the jury is out on the benefits of Salbutamol........
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respectfully, i tend to believe the opposite. note the word i used. imo the various medical and scientific (particularly those applied in anti-doping) hard numeric thresholds for the class of meds are essentially other opinions that happened to morph into loose guidelines b/c some studies prevailed at this stage.

in other words, we don't know ENOUGH yet on the all-important triad (the doze, the frequency and the route of administration) to draw the definitive conclusions re. many anti-asthma meds. more - many more - good quality studies are needed to close this chapter in the medical textbooks...

the real effect is all over the place...sorry for a personal example, but a cold climate i grew up in seem to NEVER give me the asthmatic symptoms many of my compatriots seem to fall a victim to. even in my immediate family 2 of my 5 siblings take the meds while none of our parents did. more over, i just returned from a high-mountain vacation where the air was both dusty and filled with 'whatnot'...still. a perfectly normal breathing then and now.

the trick of our individual biochemistry and the COMPLETE effect of the anti-asthma meds is yet to be discovered.

think, why else would wada consider it doping vs not (and the criteria has moved) ? why many studies point to the anabolism and imo particularly poorly understood stimulating effects ?

in one word, undoubtedly there are some athletes there that could take the stuff in the allowed dozes and forms and to clearly performance benefit ! discovering the effects, they will lie and use the anti-doping uncertainty to dope legally.

i have to proof, but i do believe that sundby is an example. good for him but i am glad he was caught during one of his acts of overdosing. that the norwegian medical staff and their fed did their utmost to cover him, spin and actually fight wada tooth and nail may point to a very ugly reality....
 
B

Blaaswix

Jan 3, 2016
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Re: Re:

t
in other words, we don't know ENOUGH yet on the all-important triad (the doze, the frequency and the route of administration) to draw the definitive conclusions re. many anti-asthma meds. more - many more - good quality studies are needed to close this chapter in the medical textbooks...
Click to expand...

Agree. But in the meantime, my personal opinion is that the use of asthma meds should not be allowed until they are *proven* to not be performance enhancing. As you say, the triad is a hard thing to fathom.
 
DirtyWorks

DirtyWorks

Feb 10, 2010
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Re:

doolols said:
The ruling bodies have decided that you can have a TUE for an inhaler, and you can use it a limited amount. Too much, and you'll get done. There is a clear line, and anyone operating below that line isn't doping.
Click to expand...

In most cases, it is not a matter of "too much." That's what the TUE covers. If a podium place gives a sample and it comes back positive, the TUE should have been documented at the time of the test, so the positive is not enforced.

A little more on this:
Let's use the case of an asthma TUE. salbutamol and salmeterol were taken off the banned list in therapeutic doses. Detection of less than 54 micrograms is non-positive. Greater than that needs a TUE. I could be reading that wrong, so please correct me.

https://wada-main-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/resources/files/wada-medical-info-asthma-5.1-en.pdf

I think Phil Gaimon's book talks about him visiting a team doctor and being offered an inhaler because of heavy breathing after a workout from just climbing stairs. So, as rigorous as WADA's documented process is, it doesn't seem to be in use at all by the federations.

In this way, "asthma" TUEs are a perfect example of how thorough the process should be, but no one that matters follows it and WADA has no authority to force it on the federations. Again, we're back to the federations permitting doping.

Bottom line: plenty of doping going on. Other than using asthma drugs for weight loss, it's not a revolutionary PED.
 
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robin440

Jun 22, 2015
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so salbutamol is a drug for weight loss and not for increasing your poweroutput? I always thought people who suffer from asthma can take salbutamol to compensate that handicap?
 
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movingtarget

Aug 5, 2009
15,637
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Re:

robin440 said:
so salbutamol is a drug for weight loss and not for increasing your poweroutput? I always thought people who suffer from asthma can take salbutamol to compensate that handicap?
Click to expand...

For asthmatics it is for opening the airways but it only gives temporary relief as any asthmatic can tell you as for what it does for non asthmatics apart from the reported weight loss I don't know. You would think it would benefit a track sprinter more than an endurance athlete from noting the effect on myself as over time the effect wears off, it all depends on how many inhalations are allowed. I have never heard of Ventolin in pill form and it would probably take longer to work anyway. But if it gives athletes any sort of edge I guess it's a cheap option for pushing the margins. A lot of people seem to take prescription drugs when they are not really needed but for athletes they can't claim ignorance or they could try, as most athletes have doctors, know what is permissable etc.
 
Alex Simmons/RST

Alex Simmons/RST

Mar 10, 2009
2,973
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11,485
Cyclists have been inhaling substances during races for a long time. :)

PWyJuwe.jpg
 
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