asthma in pro cycling

I'm not suggesting it's a clean sport, but the only testing done for which I can find results seem to show that there is no perceivable benefit to endurance athletes / cyclists even at acute levels. So rather than watch old videos, i'd prefer to read peer reviewed studies that counter the ones that I can find. The fact that the ones I can see show no benefit even after weeks of administration is hard to ignore, even given it's not identical to the real world usage. EPO has been shown in studies, to have a number of readily identifiable benefits at a range of dosages, where is that corresponding evidence here ? That's what's intriguing me...

tao24 wrote:

Trouble is that no-one has demonstrated that ergogenic drugs enhance performance in events like road cycling. Here the weight of an athlete is as important as the ability to produce power normally and hence while you may put on muscle mass, that may actually slow you down. Most of the studies I have seen with anabolic steroids look at very short efforts, similar to weight training.

The article discussed in the page crikey linked to is regarding muscle mass increase in resistive training, so that would fit in with what you're proposing. Still yet to find any consistent findings indicating salbutamol usage improves endurance athlete performance, particularly in cyclists. Quite the opposite. Still looking though.

daddyELVIS wrote:

Here's an interview with a coach from the Nike Oregon Project:

http://www.runnersworld.com/elite-runners/former-nike-oregon-project-coa...

A good read and gives some clues about modern doping. This comment is quite telling:

"For instance, getting a Therapeutic Use Exemption for an inhaler can be very easily done. If I take you and run your ass up and down the stairs five or six or seven times, then take you into the doctor, you’re going to be asthmatic and fail the test, and you’re going to be allowed to take an inhaler.

Don’t get me wrong—some of these drugs make life better for certain groups. But if you’re a healthy person, why the hell would you need an inhaler? I was somewhat concerned about that."

I think what we're saying here is that a inhaler for asthma relief is really not going to do any good to a healthy (non-asthmatic) pro-cyclist. That's what the science i've dug up so far says.

daddyELVIS wrote:

fukawitribe wrote:

I think what we're saying here is that a inhaler for asthma relief is really not going to do any good to a healthy (non-asthmatic) pro-cyclist. That's what the science i've dug up so far says.

That's what you're saying, I'm not!

Yes, fingers not following brain. Mea culpa.

crikey wrote:

I think, and I'm not being patronising, that you're looking in the wrong places...

Quite possibly, although the studies i've looked at have been in a range of general and sports medical journals - quite how 'reliable' some of the are, I don't know, but the message was consistent.

crikey wrote:

Read here;

http://www.steroidology.com/forum/anabolic-steroid-forum/54341-anabolic-...

Tah.

crikey wrote:

Salbutamol is well known as a performance enhancing drug, not just as a bronchodilator.

Like this ?..

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF02425500

The effect of salbutamol (S) on cycling performance was examined in 15 highly trained non-asthmatic male cyclists. A double-blind, randomized cross-over design was used with S or placebo (P) administered using a metered-dose inhaler and a spacer device 20 min before each testing session. The S dose was 400 μg (four puffs), which is twice the normal therapeutic level. Subjects were habituated to all the laboratory procedures in the week prior to actual data collection. The subjects performed four tests under S and P conditions on separate days over 2 weeks. These included measurement of maximal O2 uptake(V˙O2max) (cycle ergometry) with assessment of pulmonary function before and after, a submaximal (90% of ventilatory threshold) square-wave work transition from a base of unloaded cycling, a 60-s modified Wingate test, and a simulated 20 km time trial. No significant differences were observed in any of the dependent variables related to aerobic endurance or cycling performance between the S and P conditions. These results support other findings that an acute dose (400 μg) of S has no performance-enhancing properties.

or this ?

http://thorax.bmj.com/content/56/9/675.full

CONCLUSIONS Inhaled salbutamol, even in a high dose, did not have a significant effect on endurance performance in non-asthmatic athletes, although the bronchodilating effect of the drug at the beginning of exercise may have improved respiratory adaptation. Our results do not preclude an ergogenic effect of β2 agonists given by other routes or for a longer period.

or this ?

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21327796

β2-Adrenergic receptor agonists are believed to present with ergogenic properties. However, how combined respiratory, cardiovascular and muscular effects of these drugs might affect exercise capacity remain incompletely understood. The effects of salbutamol were investigated in 23 healthy subjects. The study was randomised, placebo-controlled in double-blind and followed a cross-over design. Salbutamol was given at the dose of 10 μg/min in 11 subjects and 20 μg/min iv in the other 12 subjects. Measurements included muscle sympathetic nerve activity (MSNA), ventilatory responses to hyperoxic hypercapnia (7% CO(2) in O(2,) central chemoreflex), isocapnic hypoxia (10% O(2) in N(2), peripheral chemoreflex) and isometric muscle contraction followed by a local circulatory arrest (metaboreflex), cardiopulmonary exercise test (CPET) variables and isokinetic muscle strength. Salbutamol 10 μg/min increased heart rate and blood pressure, while MSNA burst frequency remained unchanged. Peripheral chemosensitivity increased, as evidenced by an increased ventilatory response to hypoxia, but ventilatory responses to hypercapnia or muscle ischaemia remained unchanged. The effects of salbutamol 20 μg/min were similar. Both doses of salbutamol did not affect CPET. Only the higher dose of salbutamol decreased the anaerobic threshold, but this was not associated with a change in VO(2) max. Salbutamol increased the slopes of ventilation as a function of VO(2) (P < 0.05) and VCO(2) (P < 0.001) during CPET. Maximal isokinetic muscle strength was not affected by salbutamol. In conclusion, the acute administration of either low or high dose salbutamol does not affect exercise capacity in normal subjects, in spite of an earlier anaerobic threshold and increased chemosensitivity.

..and so on. The oral doses show some benefit in some studies - but that doesn't appear to be the issue here. There may have been a reason behind WADA removing it from the list of prohibited substances.

but your impression of a "performance boost" is simply your body actually responding to the medication and working as its supposed to if you hadnt been asthmatic.

that isnt the effect a non asthmatic would have taking the same inhaler, when I have an asthma attack and I have to use my inhaler, my performance boost is I can breathe again.

Ive taken asthma medication, and even corticosteroids, they certainly dont aid dieting, one of the side effects is water retention, there maybe some placebo effect pro athletes believe they are getting just because so many non asthmatics believe its a performance enhancing drug.

as to why so many pro cyclists get asthma, two reasons, firstly if you are diagnosed with asthma, cycling is one of the few sports its recommended you try because its low impact low-moderate intensity and having asthma does give you an advantage in learning to control your breathing properly, secondly pro cyclists mostly suffer exercise induced asthma, largely because of their training regimes, if you train in cold weather temps below 5C, and you breath that air in through your mouth which after x many hours training on the road is inevitable, your airways are very sensitive tissue that doesnt like 5C cold air being forced across it, and it constricts, or even scars, the airways narrow, you get an asthma attack. Its exactly the same as an allergen asthma attack, its just the trigger thats the same. The more you ride in the cold and force cold air down your airways, the more damage you do, the more the airways constrict, the more asthma attacks you get.

farrell wrote:

Do asthma inhalers give non-asthmatics any sort of boost?

They've never made a jot of difference to me when I've tried.

Assuming you're referring to the reliever type inhalers such as Salbutamol (the blue inhalers you normally see asthma sufferers using while exercising), then no they don't make any difference to non-sufferers. As the name suggests, they relieve the symptoms of asthma, so if you don't have any symptoms, they don't do anything.