I've decided to cancel all running for this week. The reason is that Sunday's run seems to have triggered problems with my asthma. On checking my peak flow today it was well down on what it should be. Having had breathless symptoms over the past few days, I decided to take my peak flow this morning. My max peak flow is (or rather was) 550 l/min.I struggled to hit 350. Not good.
For those who don't know, peak flow is a measure of lung function. The idea is to blow into a peak flow meter, expelling all the air in your lungs as quickly as possible. The meter transfers your effort into litres expelled per minute. For my age group, the average was about 630. My best ever was 550, in the lowest 5%. I was also given other peak flow thresholds. 440 would be increase medication, 330 seek medical advice, 220 get to a hospital.What I didn't know was that in 1994 peak flow meters changed, and so did the scales. They could now measure more accurately, and were made easier to blow into. The equivalent of my maximum 550 became 516. When did I discover this improvement? Today, 6 years after. Last year I has an asthma check and my peak flow was well over 550, and that was on the new scale.
So apart from telling you how good your lungs are at any one time, how else can this information help you? By monitoring over a period of time, ans seeing how your readings change by taking readings morning and night, you can get a good idea how well controlled your asthma is. If it's controlled your readings will hardly vary. If not, the readings will be up and down all over the place. The graph below explains it better than I can.
My plan is this. For the next few weeks I will monitor my peak flow closely, taking the readings morning and night. This will also act as a reminder to regularly take my brown beclamethasone inhaler, and inhaled steroid preventer which should quickly improve my readings. I should then use the blue salbutamol reliever inhaler less.
And exercising? I must make sure I use the reliever before I exercise. If it's very cold outside, I must also ensure I warm up properly. If it's too cold, go to the gym and use a treadmill instead. Not ideal, but better than what happened on Sunday.
Let's see what happens...
