asthma – FasterSkier

Another mask to add to your wardrobe? By Alasdair Tutt MSc.

FasterSkierNovember 17, 2020

Another mask to add to your wardrobe? These masks will not provide protection from Covid-19, however, they may be key to preventing breathing problems into the future for cross-country skiers. Whilst it may not be news to any of the readers here, but cross-country skiing as a winter sport exposes us to some quite extreme conditions both in training and competition. The FIS cut-off of -4°F (-20°C) was primarily established to prevent cold-based injuries...

General Juniors News Racing

Norwegian Nebulizer Use at World Junior Championships Stuns North Americans

Chelsea LittleNovember 14, 2016

Citing poor air quality which irritated airways, a Norwegian team doctor says he provided competitors with asthma medication at Junior and U23 World Championships in Romania last season. But American and Canadian competitors and coaches do not remember having such problems, and expressed surprise that such medications were being given to young athletes with no medical history of asthma.

Biathlon General News Racing World Cup

Doping News: Sundby Defends Asthma Meds; WADA Hacked; IBU Clears Meldonium Athletes

Chelsea LittleSeptember 16, 2016

Martin Johnsrud Sundby blamed his poor performance at 2015 World Championships on stress from his positive doping test, while WADA's scientific director is now commenting that asthma drugs are performance-enhancing at high doses. In addition, Russian hackers released athlete medical records from a WADA database.

General News Racing World Cup

Norwegian Ski Team Recommended Nebulizer Use by Healthy Athletes, Say Anonymous Skiers

Chelsea LittleAugust 26, 2016

Martin Johnsrud Sundby is beginning the appeals process, seeking to overturn his doping ban by way of the Swiss Supreme Court. Meanwhile, other Norwegian skiers -- healthy ones -- were allegedly recommended to use nebulizers as well.

General News Racing World Cup

FIS Rules and Keeping Quiet: Why You Didn’t Hear About Sundby Sooner

Chelsea LittleJuly 23, 2016

FIS rules did not require a provisional suspension for Norway's Martin Johnsrud Sundby after his urine samples came back with high concentrations of salbutamol. And after their hearing panel concluded he had broken no rules - a finding later reverse by the Court of Arbitration for Sport - FIS could only publicize the case with Sundby's permission. They say he refused.

General Health News Resources Training

Välbe’s Asthma Comments Off The Mark, Medical and Scientific Community Says

Chelsea LittleJanuary 29, 2016

A few things are clear: athletes, in particular winter endurance and pool athletes, have a high incidence of airway hyper-responsiveness, much of which may be undiagnosed. This can be treated with inhalers, which are not banned by WADA and have been repeatedly shown not to be performance-enhancing. And - those athletes can win.

General Health Strength

This Month in Journals: Does Compartment Syndrome Diagnosis Method Lead to Unnecessary Surgeries?

Chelsea LittleOctober 26, 2012

FasterSkier is starting a once-a-month series looking at new research in the field of sports science. Periodically, we’ll flip through some of the world’s best peer-reviewed medical journals and summarize, in plain English, studies that we think will be of interest to skiers. Here’s our second installment; you can check out the first in a recent paper in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports. “The pathophysiology of the condition is poorly understood,...

General Health

Rhetoric Aside, a Less Publicized Goal in WADA Ban of Asthma Medications: Healthy Athletes

Chelsea LittleOctober 19, 2012

This is the second of two pieces looking at the use of bronchodilating drugs to treat asthma in athletes – and their changing place on WADA’s prohibited list. available as PDF), the authors write that “Vigorous physical exercise can be followed by transient clinical signs and symptoms similar to an asthma attack and are due to post-exercise bronchoconstriction (i.e., a narrowing of the airways). Clinical symptoms include coughing, wheezing, shortness of breath, excessive mucus...

General Health

Study Suggests New Strategy for Long-Term Asthma Treatment – and It’s Not on the Banned List

Chelsea LittleOctober 12, 20121

This is the first of two pieces looking at the use of bronchodilating drugs to treat asthma in athletes – and their changing place on WADA’s prohibited list. *** Asthma is far from uncommon in cross-country skiers: a 1994 study in Norway found that high-level skiers were about three times as likely to self-report as asthma patients compared to the normal population. A 1999 study by researchers in Norway, Sweden, and Nebraska found that even...

General Health Testing

September Edition: This Month In Journals

Chelsea LittleSeptember 17, 20123

FasterSkier is starting a new, once-a-month series looking at new research in the field of sports science. Periodically, we’ll flip through some of the world’s best peer-reviewed medical journals and summarize, in plain English, studies that we think will be of interest to skiers. Here’s our first installment – enjoy! * Those dopers who claim that their blood measurements were funny because they just did a really hard workout might actually have a point. A...

Health World Cup

The Skinny on Marit Bjoergen’s Inhaler

Chelsea LittleMay 16, 201114

At Polish three time overall World Cup champion Justyna Kowalczyk has never been one to keep her mouth shut. Take, for example, her accusation that Marit Bjoergen’s asthma medicine is performance-enhancing. “Without the medicine Marit would not have won gold medals,” Kowalczyk said at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. If Bjoergen has asthma, then it may very well be true. But Kowalczyk’s implication was that either Bjoergen did not have asthma and was taking the...

General Health News Other Racing Training World Cup

Hjelmeset Concerned About Trend to Skip Cold Races

Inge ScheveNovember 29, 2010

Odd-Bjoern Hjelmeseth (NOR) thinks the conditions reported from Kuusamo, Finland, caused many skiers to withdraw from the FIS Norway Cup/BUL-sprint events at Gålå, Norway, this weekend.

General Health Lifestyle News Training

Health Risk: Skiing Can Cause Asthma

Inge ScheveAugust 12, 201014

OSLO, NORWAY – It’s a well known fact that cross-country skiing is among the worst offenders when it comes to increasing risk of exercise induced asthma and has some of the highest use of asthma medicine among elite athletes. According to the Norwegian TV station NRK, as many as half of the skiers on the Norwegian national team have asthma. “These are not exact numbers, but we test the national team every year, and about...