Running With Asthma

Hello mtjhax: Thank you so much for contributing your thoughts to this blog. I see from your various comments that you are indeed a runner with a fair amount of miles and experience under your belt. Kudos to you. I also infer from your comment, “this is such an unexpected, controversial thing to hear you say,” that you have read some of my other posts on this blog. The great thing about being a writer is that I am able to explore and articulate to the page as I navigate running with asthma. The bad thing about being a writer, and publishing it, is that if a reader only looks at one sample, and disregards how that piece fits into the whole journey or body of work, there is a danger of being misunderstood or coming across as unexpected or controversial. I went back and read my words, on this specific entry, as well as a few others, and I do stand by what I said, but, I will add a little more here to try and make it a little more clear. If you still stand by your opinion, I am completely okay with that; we can agree to disagree. I admire your thoughts and respect your passion for the sport. But alas, this is my blog, so let me pontificate a bit (not that I haven’t already)…

1. You say your “anecdotal evidence is completely different.” Of course it is. The readers of this blog are the same in that we all have asthma, but, if you read through the comments, each case is completely different in how it manifests in the reader/runner. Which is why I started this blog in the first place. Because as I scanned the web, there was little or no content that spoke to me and my situation. Running with my mouth closed is not helpful. Well, okay, it did help once, but in general, I find this to be a joke. Some runners find complete relief running this way. I started this blog, allow people to speak their minds, and respond when I feel appropriate, in order to come up with some semblance of continuity or familiarity. But with all the ways in which we have shared experiences (spring pollen is nasty), there are a million other ways in which our asthma is different. Case in point: the Dr.’s generally do not know what to do with us, except give us more and more medication, try this try that, see if it works…they are generally clueless to what we go through; can I get an Amen on this? Yes, your evidence is different.

2. You say, “you have periods where asthma completely went away…went off meds…during stressful times when I happened to be running a lot.” I am in complete agreement with you here. Exercise is the number one way to get rid of being allergic to exercise. I have said this many times in my other posts. It seems like an oxymoron, to do the very thing that causes inflammation, to get rid of the inflammation. It is not an oxymoron. The lungs are a muscle and the stronger they are, the less susceptible they are to triggers. That is not to say they will never again constrict, but, it is to say that when something is strong and fortified, it is less likely to be broken down and malfunction. Pollen and animal dander and the stuff in the hills and grass we can’t see, the wind, the cold; these are out of our control. I like to take Alegra to help with the reactions to these. But in general, the stronger the lungs the better. Even during stress. Weak lungs, as well as a weak mind, are susceptible to EVERYTHING. So, yes, I am not surprised one bit that even during stress you were able to stay off the meds because you were exercising and were strong. But here is the key that you missed in my post: I wasn’t under stress. I was under an identity crisis. I did not have a voice. That is completely different than stress. I felt that if I spoke up for myself, I would get in trouble. This is against the very nature of who we are as human beings and it reeked havoc on my body.

3. You said, “are you sure your asthma improvement has nothing to do with all your intense training…” Here is where you need to go back and read through all of my other posts, boring as they may be. I have said it many times: all the exercise has everything to do with my asthma improvement. I think by not taking all the written work here into consideration as a whole, you missed the point entirely. The hard training showed me many things: my lungs can get strong and improve, my asthma is getting better with the consistent exercise, I am capable, I can do this, I am worthy of being at the start line with 300 or 3000 other people, I am strong, I can believe in myself, I have a voice, I am a runner, no matter my pace. That is what running has taught me. My asthma would NOT have had such an improvement without all the consistent training and hard work. I have also said many times that in the early days when I did not maintain a regular running schedule, that my asthma would flair up and take over; with or without stress. Yes, yes, yes, the exercise is so crucial that without it, I would not be med free right now. BUT, the mind is a powerful thing. Which brings me to your last point.

4. You said, “… but you don’t necessarily need to embrace pseudo-science to get better. Let’s get a definition so we are on the same page:
Merriam-Webster’s Medical Dictionary, © 2007 Merriam-Webster, Inc.

Medical Dictionary
a system of theories, assumptions, and methods erroneously regarded as scientific

Cultural Dictionary:
A system of theories or assertions about the natural world that claim or appear to be scientific but that, in fact, are not. For example, astronomy is a science, but astrology is generally viewed as a pseudoscience.

Answer to point 4. Ok, I will give you this one. I seem to have thrown you off when I mentioned I got the correlation between asthma and not feeling like I had a voice from a “spiritual book.” And yes, according to the above definition, this would seem like psuedo-science. For the record, I do not engage in New Age Spirituality, or Astrology, and the like. I am a follower of Jesus Christ. I read the Bible. The spiritual book was on my shelf, I can’t remember how it got there, whether I bought it or someone gave it to me, but I was in the process of cleaning out some things to take to Goodwill and the Library (which is why I can’t remember the title because I don’t have it anymore), and I before I put this book in the pile I browsed through it, looked up asthma, and ding, ding, ding. On that day, in that time of my life, I was still sucking everything in, but was in the process of trying to figure out why I was doing that, and when I read the words, “feeling as if you don’t have a voice,” something snapped inside me. It was a recognition of what I was feeling but not yet aware enough to articulate it. Those words articulated for me what I was feeling. During this time, the day I read those words, I was running consistently and was well into my journey but still on asthma medication, and that is where the two posts were eventually birthed from about asthma being in your head and being cured. I do not believe that psuedo-science is the answer to anything. I don’t buy it. I’m a concrete kinda gal. But, I also cannot ignore the timing of my asthma, the timing of the onset of symptoms in childhood P.E. class, which directly coincided with my parents marital problems, and with the timing of my adult diagnosis which coincided exactly with my own marital problems later in life. I was not running or exercising at that time, hence the barrage of medications. As a side note, I have mentioned that my dad had allergy asthma as a child, and guess what? He was physically and mentally abused by his father. Not to say that all roads lead to asthma, of course they do not. Nor to say that simply healing the mind will heal all physical ailments, it does not. I do not have the space here in the blog, it would take an entire book, but if I did, I could tell you time after time after time in my life where outside issues, all dealing with self worth, had a direct correlation with my physical health. RUNNING SAVED ME. Well, okay, so did Jesus, He saved me first I suppose. But, through Him, I had the strength to become a runner. Not a fast runner. But a runner with asthma, who finally figured out who she was, who finally discovered her voice, who finally realized through running, yes I can because I am worthy. Am I making sense? Do you understand what I’m telling you? Running, the physical training, the exercise, strengthened my lungs, my heart, my mind, and my soul. That book simply gave me the words to explain what was going on and it pointed me in the direction I needed to go. I was lost and now I’m found.

LikeLike