Working out, Asthma, and Ephedra?

[Sedition]

Hey everybody.

So here is a little back story. I started working out a week or so ago after, well, to be honest other than high school sports I don't work out. My pants weren't fitting anymore so I knew I need to do something.

I started gyming it up and found myself getting incredibly short of breath and wheezing. When I was a kid, I was diagnosed with some form of asthma, but I played football and baseball all through middle and high school and never had an inhaler.
One of the Husbands of one of my classmates was at the gym one day with me and suggested that I might have some sort of exercise induced asthma and that I should look into taking ephedra. He had another work out buddy who used it before it was banned as hydroxycut and then afterwards buying it and making up his own combo.

Apparently the FDA only banned ephedra as a weight loss supplement, not as an asthma treatment. Since then, I have been doing some research and both wiki and a few other sites I have found confirm that you can buy ephedra in the US as an asthma treatment.

I figure it is definitely worth a try. I was getting very discouraged about everything and was honestly probably going to quit if it wasn't for this little suggestion. I was coming home feeling like death. Also, I don't sleep well to begin with but since starting working out, I have been barely able to roll out. Going to the gym shouldn't make you feel like a disgusting fatass, but that is exactly what it was doing to me.

Basically, to kind of cliff this whole thing, I wanted to see what sort of info I can get from all the fitness people here. My buddy told me if I was going to do it, I should do the ephedra/aspirin/caffeine combo as that is what his friend was doing, but he didn't know anything about dosing or time to take it or anything like that. Anyone have any experience with this? Any help would be extremely helpful.

 

[SociallyChallenged]

If you're going to do ephedra as asthma treatment, do it. That's fine. However, to get on a stack of ephdra, aspirin, and caffeine is 1) not for beginners, 2) unnecessary at all levels, 3) unhealthy, especially related to heart rate and blood pressure, etc. If you need to treat your asthma, then go to the doctor and have it treated. However, that ECA stack is so unnecessary. Just control the asthma and continue working out. And to be perfectly honest, I'd wonder if your friend really knows much about what you should do. If he's telling you to get on an ECA stack right out of the gates, he probably has no idea what's best for you.

Read the fat loss sticky. It will tell you what you need to do.

 

[Sedition]

Originally posted by: SociallyChallenged
If you're going to do ephedra as asthma treatment, do it. That's fine. However, to get on a stack of ephdra, aspirin, and caffeine is 1) not for beginners, 2) unnecessary at all levels, 3) unhealthy, especially related to heart rate and blood pressure, etc. If you need to treat your asthma, then go to the doctor and have it treated. However, that ECA stack is so unnecessary. Just control the asthma and continue working out. And to be perfectly honest, I'd wonder if your friend really knows much about what you should do. If he's telling you to get on an ECA stack right out of the gates, he probably has no idea what's best for you.

Read the fat loss sticky. It will tell you what you need to do.

He straight up admitted that he didn't really know much about it, just he knew someone with similar issues that had a lot of success with it.

This is the very reason I started this thread. To get more info. I tried looking around through some bodybuilding forums and all the info there seemed to not really apply to me. There were many a thread that touted the benefits of the combination.

Unfortunately a doctor really isn't an option. I don't have $300 for a check up and $150 for prescriptions. I would honestly love to go to one, especially for my sleeping problems, but it is just not in the cards.

I am 26 and 285lbs, and I don't eat horribly. I honestly never add salt to anything, stay away from processed and fried foods, and aside for my guilty pleasure chinese food, hardly eat out. Since turning 18, I have gained 100lbs. I am finally out of school and actually have free time that I could actually get off my ass and do something. Like I tried to say earlier, I am really frustrated with my opening week and I refuse to let it hold me back.

Believe me, criticisms, suggestions, feelings, anything is welcome. I really don't have any support or help right now with this stuff and I am more or less going into this blind. Hell, if you just want to come in here and call me an idiot, feel free. Something is better than nothing.

 

[SociallyChallenged]

Originally posted by: Sedition

Originally posted by: SociallyChallenged
If you're going to do ephedra as asthma treatment, do it. That's fine. However, to get on a stack of ephdra, aspirin, and caffeine is 1) not for beginners, 2) unnecessary at all levels, 3) unhealthy, especially related to heart rate and blood pressure, etc. If you need to treat your asthma, then go to the doctor and have it treated. However, that ECA stack is so unnecessary. Just control the asthma and continue working out. And to be perfectly honest, I'd wonder if your friend really knows much about what you should do. If he's telling you to get on an ECA stack right out of the gates, he probably has no idea what's best for you.

Read the fat loss sticky. It will tell you what you need to do.

He straight up admitted that he didn't really know much about it, just he knew someone with similar issues that had a lot of success with it.

This is the very reason I started this thread. To get more info. I tried looking around through some bodybuilding forums and all the info there seemed to not really apply to me. There were many a thread that touted the benefits of the combination.

Unfortunately a doctor really isn't an option. I don't have $300 for a check up and $150 for prescriptions. I would honestly love to go to one, especially for my sleeping problems, but it is just not in the cards.

I am 26 and 285lbs, and I don't eat horribly. I honestly never add salt to anything, stay away from processed and fried foods, and aside for my guilty pleasure chinese food, hardly eat out. Since turning 18, I have gained 100lbs. I am finally out of school and actually have free time that I could actually get off my ass and do something. Like I tried to say earlier, I am really frustrated with my opening week and I refuse to let it hold me back.

Believe me, criticisms, suggestions, feelings, anything is welcome. I really don't have any support or help right now with this stuff and I am more or less going into this blind. Hell, if you just want to come in here and call me an idiot, feel free. Something is better than nothing.

Bodybuilding forums are not the place to go. They are full of misinformation and a lot of guys that just want to get huge to get laid. They say they're healthy, but they wreck their body with poor diets and crap supplements.

Ok, so even if you don't eat horribly, you're eating too much. You don't gain 100 pounds unless you have a thyroid problem or unless you're significantly overeating. People stop paying attention to what they eat and then all of a sudden, they're bigger than they ever wanted. It happens, but changing that is gonna be some work.

First things first, click on the link I posted in the first thread. It will detail the whole process you should undergo if you want to lose weight. Sadly, there is no real, good way to treat asthma over the counter. Physicians have a lot of prescription medications that do help a whole lot. The problem is that none of these are available for sale without a prescription. Do you not have any health insurance or anything? If not, you may just wanna take it really easy getting into the whole process. You can start walking until your asthma starts to mildly flare up and then take a break. Walk some more. Keep doing that. Your conditioning should start postponing how long it takes to aggravate. When you can get that up to a place where you don't really have trouble walking for a significant amount of time (30+ minutes), you can start upping the pace or the intensity of the exercise.

We're not here to criticize you. We're here to educate and help. Read the fat loss sticky. You need to help yourself by doing so. However, lifting might be out of your range right now due to asthma. Take your time in trying to make it less severe. If you lose some weight, it may very well decrease in severity as well.

 

[Sedition]

Originally posted by: SociallyChallenged

Originally posted by: Sedition

Originally posted by: SociallyChallenged
If you're going to do ephedra as asthma treatment, do it. That's fine. However, to get on a stack of ephdra, aspirin, and caffeine is 1) not for beginners, 2) unnecessary at all levels, 3) unhealthy, especially related to heart rate and blood pressure, etc. If you need to treat your asthma, then go to the doctor and have it treated. However, that ECA stack is so unnecessary. Just control the asthma and continue working out. And to be perfectly honest, I'd wonder if your friend really knows much about what you should do. If he's telling you to get on an ECA stack right out of the gates, he probably has no idea what's best for you.

Read the fat loss sticky. It will tell you what you need to do.

He straight up admitted that he didn't really know much about it, just he knew someone with similar issues that had a lot of success with it.

This is the very reason I started this thread. To get more info. I tried looking around through some bodybuilding forums and all the info there seemed to not really apply to me. There were many a thread that touted the benefits of the combination.

Unfortunately a doctor really isn't an option. I don't have $300 for a check up and $150 for prescriptions. I would honestly love to go to one, especially for my sleeping problems, but it is just not in the cards.

I am 26 and 285lbs, and I don't eat horribly. I honestly never add salt to anything, stay away from processed and fried foods, and aside for my guilty pleasure chinese food, hardly eat out. Since turning 18, I have gained 100lbs. I am finally out of school and actually have free time that I could actually get off my ass and do something. Like I tried to say earlier, I am really frustrated with my opening week and I refuse to let it hold me back.

Believe me, criticisms, suggestions, feelings, anything is welcome. I really don't have any support or help right now with this stuff and I am more or less going into this blind. Hell, if you just want to come in here and call me an idiot, feel free. Something is better than nothing.

Bodybuilding forums are not the place to go. They are full of misinformation and a lot of guys that just want to get huge to get laid. They say they're healthy, but they wreck their body with poor diets and crap supplements.

Ok, so even if you don't eat horribly, you're eating too much. You don't gain 100 pounds unless you have a thyroid problem or unless you're significantly overeating. People stop paying attention to what they eat and then all of a sudden, they're bigger than they ever wanted. It happens, but changing that is gonna be some work.

First things first, click on the link I posted in the first thread. It will detail the whole process you should undergo if you want to lose weight. Sadly, there is no real, good way to treat asthma over the counter. Physicians have a lot of prescription medications that do help a whole lot. The problem is that none of these are available for sale without a prescription. Do you not have any health insurance or anything? If not, you may just wanna take it really easy getting into the whole process. You can start walking until your asthma starts to mildly flare up and then take a break. Walk some more. Keep doing that. Your conditioning should start postponing how long it takes to aggravate. When you can get that up to a place where you don't really have trouble walking for a significant amount of time (30+ minutes), you can start upping the pace or the intensity of the exercise.

We're not here to criticize you. We're here to educate and help. Read the fat loss sticky. You need to help yourself by doing so. However, lifting might be out of your range right now due to asthma. Take your time in trying to make it less severe. If you lose some weight, it may very well decrease in severity as well.

I have been reading it and there is a lot of good info in there and I really thank you for it.

My problems don't kick in until I start doing something cardio. Walking doesn't kick it in. It doesn't really take too much, but when I start running on a thread mill or biking on one of the biking machines. It ruins the rest of the work out.

I am one of the many "working poor" that everyone likes to pretend doesn't exist and health insurance is not an option at my work even if I could afford it.

I do agree that I eat too much but I hoped that eating better made up at least a little. Boozing with my buddies doesn't help either. Again it is stuff I am working on.

 

[SociallyChallenged]

Originally posted by: Sedition
I have been reading it and there is a lot of good info in there and I really thank you for it.

My problems don't kick in until I start doing something cardio. Walking doesn't kick it in. It doesn't really take too much, but when I start running on a thread mill or biking on one of the biking machines. It ruins the rest of the work out.

I am one of the many "working poor" that everyone likes to pretend doesn't exist and health insurance is not an option at my work even if I could afford it.

I do agree that I eat too much but I hoped that eating better made up at least a little. Boozing with my buddies doesn't help either. Again it is stuff I am working on.

Ok, well, try doing some really, really slow jogging and taking frequent rests. Hit the zone where the exercise is challenging, but not so hard that it hurts to breathe. I have had friends that have asthma. When they consistently challenging themselves under the threshold at which their airways seize up significantly, their breathing and conditioning start to improve significantly.

I am sorry to hear that. I don't know what to tell you then. I think ephedra or epinephrine are both treatments, but both have some unfavorable side effects.

If you eat healthy and you still eat too many calories, you will gain it. It's the first law of thermodynamics. Drinking adds a ton of calories to many people's diets and it put on the pounds. Try to cut down both your calories and the drinking. You can track your calories with some of the resources in the fat loss sticky. Perhaps that is best so you can get the amount of food you eat under control.

 

[Sust]

How old are you? (It's a helpful piece of info that's not overtly obvious based on your posts)

I realize it currently isn't affordable for everyone in the US to see a doctor, but that is a political policy discussion that can be taken to P&N.
I also don't know where you live, but if there is a free clinic or university hospital nearby, I am sure that there is some kind of service available to people such as yourself who might have trouble paying for medical service. It will require you to pick up a phone and call around.

Also, if everything else checks out ok(e.g. angina, arrhythmia ruled out, etc) and this is indeed simple exercise induced asthma then you can have your albuterol (or whatever medication is given to you) prescription filled at walmart for 10 bux for 90 day supply which is probably cheaper than ephedra.

I'm no doctor, but it sounds like you should be evaluated by one.
I strongly encourage you to seek professional help before you go about and tinker with your body based off of anonymous internet laymen who know next to nothing about you, and shoulder no liability for any misinformation they provide from their own ignorance and lack of proper training.

 

[Kipper]

Originally posted by: Sedition
I am 26 and 285lbs, and I don't eat horribly. I honestly never add salt to anything, stay away from processed and fried foods, and aside for my guilty pleasure chinese food, hardly eat out. Since turning 18, I have gained 100lbs. I am finally out of school and actually have free time that I could actually get off my ass and do something. Like I tried to say earlier, I am really frustrated with my opening week and I refuse to let it hold me back.

Very good habits to start with! Keep them up...

Can I just ask you to clarify three things? First, what is a "processed" or "fried" food to you - a few examples would be nice. Second, do you know how to cook - and do you have the appropriate equipment (utensils, stove top, pots & pans, etc.)? Third, do you know how to interpret a food label?

If your answer to #3 is no, or "...not entirely," then start here:
http://www.fda.gov/Food/Labeli...ormation/ucm078889.htm

I'm not trying to be condescending, I've actually explained this to some very smart people - like college graduates in their mid-thirties.