PODCAST - Top 5 Asthma Myths (and the truths you should know about)
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[00:00:00] Today on the show, I wanna share with you what I believe are the top five myths about asthma and the truth that you need to know about that is going to set you free. As you may know, I've had asthma since birth, and throughout my life I have been told different things from different healthcare professionals and just from teachers, from people in general, that if I took and truly believed I would've never played soccer as a kid, which was my favorite sport, and I would've never became an elite ultra runner that I am today. And that's why today I'm gonna share with you what these different myths are. I picked five of them and what I've done in my life that has helped me either debunk the myth.
Or have a different spin on the myth that has allowed me to elevate [00:01:00] myself to being a ~very, ~very strong athlete with very strong lungs. And to this day, I deal with asthma, especially when I'm sick.
Welcome to the Athlete with Asthma Show. I'm your host Johnny Ha, an ultra runner endurance athlete, and yes, a guy who's had an inhaler prescribed since birth. Despite doctors telling me I could never play soccer nor run a marathon, let alone a hundred K ultra. I prove them all wrong. This show is where I share everything I've learned from breathing techniques to mindset shifts to help you become the athlete and the person you truly want to be.
So if you're ready to achieve your goals, despite limitations, let's get [00:02:00] started.
Let's kick it off with myth number one.
Asthma is not a serious disease, okay? This is the first myth. Asthma is not. Serious. I don't care what people tell you. You may even have on the spectrum of asthma, a small case of asthma, okay? No matter how affected you are by asthma, it is a serious disease. This is wrong. Asthma is serious. Okay, so let's get rid of this.
Okay. Asthma equals serious. It is a serious illness now it's serious because it can kill you. And that's why you always wanna make sure that you talked with your healthcare professional, okay? And you wanna make sure [00:03:00] that you have the proper medication or the proper techniques to help ~yourself ~with your asthma.
Okay? As you may know, I never use my inhaler. But I always have it with me, and that's because if my natural ways of dealing with my asthma fail, I wanna make sure that I have my rescue inhaler with me to save my life. And it can save your life too. That's why I have a disclaimer in the YouTube description and in the show notes if you're listening to this as a podcast, okay? You always wanna make sure you talk to a healthcare professional, and you always wanna take asthma seriously. Anyone who tells you that asthma is not a serious illness is kidding themselves, and you may even tell yourself that to make yourself feel better about asthma just because you have asthma, and it is this.
Serious illness doesn't mean that it has to affect you and your life. ~Okay, because, okay, cool. Okay. And ~as a kid, I not only made sure to have my inhaler with me at all times whenever I was sick, I almost [00:04:00] always used something called a nebulizer. And specifically there is different medication that my healthcare provider did give me.
And eventually, as I worked on, you know, using. The medication less, we switched from using that medication to just using a saline solution in the nebulizer to open up my lungs. Okay. And as an adult, I don't use a nebulizer anymore. I still have one just in case. And what I do when I'm sick is I'll actually try and get humidity.
Into my system, like with a humidifier. You know, when I'm taking a shower, I'll make sure that the steam is, I'm using it to open up my lungs. Okay? So just make sure that you admit to yourself and make sure that other people know that asthma is a serious illness and needs to be taken seriously. Even if you have a minor case of asthma, you need to take it seriously.
~Okay? ~Myth number two. Asthma [00:05:00] medications are the only way to manage your asthma. Okay,
so medication is the only way to manage your asthma. I'm gonna do a little arrow and put asthma. Okay. This is also very wrong. Okay, now asthma is serious, remember? So myth one ~is ~asthma is not a serious illness. Myth two ~is that ~medication is the only way to manage your asthma. Okay, well this is wrong. Medication is not the only way. Now, while you always need to make sure you have your inhaler with you, and you have these tools like a nebulizer and any other medications that your healthcare provider has given you, you wanna make sure you have them with you, okay?
You don't necessarily need to use them, what I've done throughout my life is I have used exercise to help strengthen my lungs. And manage my asthma. ~Okay. ~As a kid, [00:06:00] I loved playing soccer, and when I was four years old, I was told by a healthcare professional that I should not play soccer, or that if I was gonna play soccer, that I would need to use my medication.
All the time I would need to take my inhaler before, during, and after my soccer games. Okay. And same with soccer practice. Well, an integrated medicine doctor told me that if I wanted to actually have my lungs strengthen themselves and become less dependent on my medications throughout my life, that I should always have my medication with me.
So my inhaler with me. But only use it when I actually felt the symptoms coming on. So instead of using it before a game, I would only use it once. I started feeling the symptoms and I eventually was able to strengthen my lungs using exercise, using cardiovascular movement to a point where I didn't even need my inhaler anymore.
That's how I have managed my asthma without using [00:07:00] medication is, first of all, via exercise. Second of all. Decreasing inflammation in my body. Okay? This can be done in multiple ways. The two easiest ways is to decrease foods, eating foods that create inflammation in your body, now this can be different for each of us.
Now, there are some overarching foods that are going to create inflammation in all of our bodies. I mean, here's the thing, alcohol is gonna create inflammation in your body. Okay? Now fried food is gonna create inflammation in your body. Now I have a lot of different allergies, so there. Different foods that cause inflammation in my body that don't cause inflammation in your body necessarily.
Okay. They may, you may have the same allergies like dairy. I'm allergic to different types of nuts. So if I eat these things, it increases inflammation in my body and I'm more likely to have an asthma attack. Okay? So I want to decrease ingesting those things. Okay? And I want to. Increase ingesting anti-inflammatory foods.
~Okay? ~I talk about all of [00:08:00] this in my podcast episode called How to Cure Exercise Induced Asthma Naturally, and I have it linked in the description below. If you're watching this on YouTube, and you can. Find it on your favorite podcasting platform by just searching how to cure exercise induced asthma naturally, and then look for athlete with asthma.
You'll find that episode okay, and I talk about exactly how to do this, basically decrease inflammatory ~causing ~foods and substances and increase anti-inflammatory foods. That could be different vegetables. Okay. That could be fruits. Now, like I said, you may have sensitivities and allergies where something that may be anti-inflammatory to me may be inflammatory too.
~So ~be careful with that. Last summer I was running and I had. Saw a asparagus before the run and I had a full on allergic reaction. It's crazy. Asparagus is usually in anti-inflammatory food, but it messed me up real bad. Okay. I had to take Benadryl I had an asthma attack hit [00:09:00] me and I had to take my inhaler and thank God I had that with me.
So you always want to be careful and you can develop these any time in life. My dad, when he was 60 years old. He developed a nut allergy for the first time. Nuts. Didn't bother him his entire life, ~60 years old, and he has a nut allergy now, ~now he's 68 ~and he is ~living with, ~uh, ~a nut allergy.
~Okay? ~So you gotta be careful with that. ~Okay? ~The third thing is. To you can avoid different environments best ~that ~you can. I know that you may not be able to move, okay? And I know that you may go to school or something and there may be dust in the air, but when I was in school, you know, I don't know if they do this anymore, but there was chalk and we'd use chalk on the board, and I would not ever be one of the people that would have to clean those, you know, the erasers because the chalk would inflame my asthma.
Okay? So you can avoid these things. Avoid dust, smoke, cold, cold weather. Now I do have. ~Um, ~episodes that I [00:10:00] talk about how to work out in the cold. Okay. And I have videos on my YouTube channel talking about running in the cold, how to run in the cold, all these different things. Now, in these. Pieces of content in my podcast episodes, my YouTube videos, I do talk about if you are going to do this, how to do it so that you protect your lungs and you can reduce your asthma symptoms.
But if you want to manage your asthma altogether, you can avoid ~the ~cold weather, ~avoid it, ~or breathe through. A neck warmer. Breathe through something when you're in cold weather. But there are different things you can do to manage your asthma that do not involve medication. Just make sure you always have your medication with you.
It's a fail safe. It is a rescue medication so that you, if you have a severe attack, you're able to save your life or have someone save your life for you. Okay? Myth number three. Asthma attacks can only occur during activity. Okay, [00:11:00] asthma, we'll go with exercise or activity is the only way, is the only thing that causes asthma.
This is just wrong. No exercise and activity can induce an asthma attack
because even if you have exercise induced asthma, that doesn't mean that you're not gonna have asthma hit you. Because you walk into a room that's extremely dusty. That you live in a place where a fire breaks out. I live in Colorado. We do get smoke. Maybe if you live in California, there's lots of smoke there.
When these fires break out, that can induce your asthma. Okay? Cold weather can induce your asthma. Environmental [00:12:00] toxins can induce your asthma. ~There's a lot of different things. ~An allergic reaction can induce an asthma attack, so no exercise is not the only thing that can induce asthma. You need to make sure that you're ready.
For an asthma attack to occur at any time. So that means always have your inhaler with you, right? I have a disclaimer in the show notes and in description below this YouTube video. Okay? Always talk to your healthcare professional and always err on the side of caution. Asthma can hit you at any time, ~okay?~
This is a myth. Exercise and activity can cause asthma soak in a lot of other things. Okay? Number four. I'm talking about exercise. Ha. Asthmatics should avoid exercise. This is myth number four. Avoid exercise. This is probably my favorite myth. This is so [00:13:00] wrong. Now, can exercise induce an asthma attack? Yes.
Are you more likely to have an asthma attack when you're exercising than when you're sitting down? Probably. Should you avoid exercise if you have asthma? No.
Hey, friend, I wanted to take a moment to ask you a quick question. Are you struggling to lose weight due to your asthma? If so, I get it. I used to run marathons and still kept gaining weight. It wasn't until I learned about the three pillars of healthy living that everything changed,
so I put together a healthy living guide that you can access absolutely free [00:14:00] by clicking the link in the description. This guide shares these amazing three pillars of healthy living that you can easily integrate into your life to start losing weight and live healthier today. Click the link in the description or go to.
Athlete with asthma.com/healthy-living-guide to grab your free copy. Now let's get back to the rest of the show.
Now you need to be careful with exercising. You need to talk to your healthcare professional about this, okay? For me, throughout my entire life.
I have worked on building the strength of my lungs through exercise and through something called progressive overload. Okay. [00:15:00] So what you really wanna do is use progressive overload. Progressive overload means that, yeah, if you haven't ran in five years, or if you've never ran before and you go out there and you run five miles, is there a chance you're gonna have an asthma attack?
Yeah, it's probably very likely, and you're probably gonna have it way before the five mile mark. Okay. Progressive overload means that you are going to progressively increase your exercise. So start by a walk, right? If we're talking about running, I talk about running all the time on the show and on my YouTube channel.
~Okay? ~I'm an ultra runner with asthma, and I didn't just one day become that took me years, took me thousands of miles, took me thousands of miles, ran and walked a little bit at a time, over decades. Okay. Now, over the past five years when I really took it seriously, but five years ago, I was only running four to six miles as my long run.
~Okay? ~Now I can run 60 [00:16:00] plus miles in a day. ~Okay? ~In 12 hours, ~okay? In half a day. ~Progressive overload got me there. Okay? So that means if you're running and you have, you've decided to do a 5K for the first time in your life, I highly recommend that you start by walking. Okay, you start by walking a quarter mile, then you can walk half mile, then ~a ~three quarters mile, then a full mile.
Then you can start adding a jog in, right? You can walk for a quarter mile, jog for a quarter mile, walk for a quarter mile, jog for a quarter mile to build up your lungs, build up your strength, build up your cardiovascular, build up your exercise, okay? And you can do that with anything. With soccer, same thing.
Okay, soccer. What I did is I progressively overloaded my lungs. I started by not using my inhaler before a game or before a practice, and I would go without my inhaler for like five minutes, then six minutes, seven minutes, eight minutes, nine minutes, 10 minutes, and eventually ~got to a point where ~I didn't need my inhaler at all, but ~I ~always had it with me.
~Okay, so ~you can progressive overload that way. You can do [00:17:00] that with literally any type of exercise. This is the way progressive overload. Avoiding exercise is not the way. Start slow, progressively increase it. Now I don't exercise for a week and then I exercise again, I'm going to feel symptoms. Am I gonna need to use my inhaler? ~Um, ~depends, but most likely not. If I don't exercise for a month and I exercise, yes, I'm gonna feel it. ~Okay. ~That's why progressive overload and consistency. You wanna do this over time, that's why you wanna get walks in all the time.
Okay? You wanna avoid walking and smoke cold weather and if very dusty places though, okay. Progressive overload. You don't need to avoid exercise. Just be mindful when ~you're ~exercising and focus on progressive overload.
Adding a little bit each time. ~Okay, ~number five.
Asthma. Is curable. Okay. This is very controversial and I've actually done a whole [00:18:00] podcast episode on how to cure exercise induced asthma naturally. Well, asthma is technically not curable. The symptoms are manageable. Okay. And in my podcast episode, how to Cure Exercise-induced Asthma. Naturally, I talk about how over my lifetime I have been able to manage my asthma symptoms without using medication. And I even won a hundred K Ultra race last year, ~okay. ~Against people with asthma and without asthma. ~I don't know who had asthma and who didn't. ~I'm just assuming other people that ran that race had asthma. Okay, so is asthma curable? No. You gotta be careful with this because curable makes it seem that all of a sudden you're not gonna need an inhaler.
You always wanna have an inhaler. Okay? Your symptoms are manageable and you can [00:19:00] technically cure symptoms naturally. By, ~you know, ~focusing on exercise, decreasing ~the ~inflammation in your diet and avoiding environments that ~can ~set off your asthma. But asthma ~in and of ~itself isn't curable. ~You ~always ~wanna make sure you ~have your inhaler.
If you've ~ever ~been diagnosed with asthma, always make sure you have your rescue inhaler with you. Anything else your healthcare provider recommends you, for me, that means always having a nebulizer on hand. 'cause when I'm sick, that's when I do feel my asthma come on. Okay, now I have a gift for you for spending ~this ~time with me, ~and it is ~called My Three Pillars of Healthy Living Guide. What I've done is I've taken the three pillars of healthy living that I've kind of really integrated into my life, especially over the past few years, I was about 30 or 40 pounds overweight, and I lost 30 pounds in less than 90 days and have been able to keep it off ever since. By integrating these three pillars of healthy living into my life and these three pillars of healthy living have really helped me manage my asthma too.
[00:20:00] The first pillar is movement, right? Progressive overload and movement, progressively moving more. The second pillar is tracking, so tracking what I'm eating, right, making sure I'm not putting a bunch of inflammatory foods into my system, making sure I'm eating a bunch of anti-inflammatory foods.
Then the last one is accountability. That's the third pillar. Accountability is, you know, making sure ~that ~I have a partner that keeps me on track with these other things. Accountability with asthma could mean that. The people around you know that you have asthma and they help you keep accountable with always having your inhaler with you.
They know where your inhaler is so that you are safe. If you have an attack and you're in a panic, someone else knows when your inhaler is. Okay? So my three Pillars of Healthy Living Guide, you can integrate these three pillars into your life. F immediately, and this guide is gonna take you less than two or three minutes to read.
~So ~have it linked in the show notes and ~in the ~description below the YouTube video. Or you can go to [00:21:00] www.athletewithasthma.com/healthy-living-guide to grab your free guide today. I'll see you in the next episode.
Thanks for tuning in to the Athlete with Asthma Show. I hope today's episode inspired you to overcome any perceived limitations you may have. Remember, your health and wellness journey isn't about perfection. I. It is about progress. So I invite you to take a small step right now towards your goals, and if you found something helpful here, make sure to subscribe, leave a review, and share the podcast with others on a similar path.
Until next time, keep challenging yourself and redefining what's possible.
