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Help: Azthma for singers
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Subject: Help: Azthma for singers From: Bo Vandenberg Date: 03 Mar 02 - 01:08 PM Hi all, I'm not used to this sort of post but here goes. My Asthma has gotten steadily worse for the last 2-3 years and has essentially ended my singing. I can't describe how frustrating it is to not be able to reliably complete a single verse of a song I have performed complete on stage. I miss music and I want to get back so I was wondering if anyone had success stories of beating breathing disabilities. much appreciated Bo\Sigurd |
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Subject: RE: Help: Azthma for singers From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 03 Mar 02 - 01:30 PM I developed a cough that wouldn't go away a couple oif years ago, and in the end the doctor decided it was "late onset Asthma", and prescribed me a couple of inhalers 0 Becotide to be taken morning and night, and Salbulin to be taken as and when needed. He said I'd need them from now on.
Seems to have solved the problem. What I mean is, it might be different medication or some kind of other treatment, such as breathing exercises, for you, but with Asthma there's a good chance that there is something that will sort it out.
And in the meantime you can concentrate on playing the music even if you can't sing the songs. Playing music always makes people feel better. |
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Subject: RE: Help: Azthma for singers From: C-flat Date: 03 Mar 02 - 01:49 PM I also have a couple of inhalers that I "toot"on before singing but my condition like,I suspect McGrath of Harlow's, is a mild one. I don't think it's very practical to take a nebuliser on stage but maybe you could get involved in a band providing harmony vocals? |
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Subject: RE: Help: Azthma for singers From: Liz the Squeak Date: 03 Mar 02 - 02:06 PM The more you sing in smoke free environments, the better you should get. Any excercise for your lungs is good, but make sure you are not near any of your triggers. I have asthma that is triggered by pollution and cigarette smoke, so I don't sit near smokers, or sing outside on the streets. Breathing excercises, taking deep breaths, and then taking that little bit extra, holding it for the count of 10, then letting it out slowly over a count of 50, control is the issue. Then, when you feel yourself going, you should be able to suppress the cough that little bit longer. Don't use your inhaler in smoky conditions if you can help it, it just opens the tubes so more nasty stuff can get in. Use it once the trigger has cleared or is clearing. Take your medication when you need to, don't think that 'I'm OK, I don't need it..' especially the Becotide inhaler (there are several brand names but they tend to be brown or green) which is the preventative but doesn't kick in until a couple of days later. The salbutamol inhaler (usually the blue ones) are 'quick fixes' and should be used as such. However, they are used by professional singers as a matter of practice, to open the tubes before going on stage. Don't let it stop you. Keep singing at home, work, wherever... the more you do it, the longer you'll last.... Good luck and keep at it! LTS - late onset asthma for 10 years now. |
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Subject: RE: Help: Azthma for singers From: Genie Date: 03 Mar 02 - 02:45 PM Sigurd, I, too, have late onset asthma, which can act up right in the middle of a song if there's a trigger, such as accidentally having a drop of saliva start to go down the windpipe, being around "air fresheners" or perfumes or cigarette smoke, or inhaling a particle of dust while singing. For the most part, my asthma is under control if I take my maintenance medicines (beclomethasone dipropionate, Quvar, etc.) regularly instead of relying on (and thus overusing) the albuterol rescue inhalers. There is a new medicine I tried recently called Advair, which requires only 1 puff b.i.d., and which COMBINES the fast acting and slow acting meds. I found it very effective.
Each case is different, of course, so I don't know if there's a medicine that will solve your problem. I hope so.
One thing I haven't tried yet but am very tempted to is those little air filters that are battery operated and can be worn around the neck. The idea is that they don't try to clean the air in the whole room, just the air right by your nose. Maybe they would be helpful against irritants and allergens like industrial cleaners, air fresheners, perfumes, animal dander, smoke, etc. Anyway, they don't cost much. |
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Subject: RE: Help: Azthma for singers From: alison Date: 03 Mar 02 - 07:18 PM same story here.... I now take a combined one (like Genie mentioned) called "seretide" it is a combination of "Serevent (a long acting bronchodilator which lasts about 12 hours) and 'becotide" the preventative...... it works brilliantly... and greatly reduced my need for "ventolin" (salbutamol) slainte alison |
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Subject: RE: Help: Azthma for singers From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 03 Mar 02 - 07:30 PM My wife grew up with asthma, and before they invented the ventolin inhalers and so forth it was ephedrine they prescribed. She used to think that getting a bit high was what asthma did to you. |
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Subject: RE: Help: Azthma for singers From: E.T. Date: 03 Mar 02 - 10:19 PM One more thought - have you checked for adult onset allergies? Seems to hit early to mid-forties. If it's allergies plus asthma they could be reinforcing each other and fixing one might not give enough relief. Just knowing what to be cautious of helps. I can pet a cat or dog now - and as long as I wash the dander off the hands reasonably soon - have practically no problems. I had no idea I had any problem til I went with a friend to help clean out her horse's stall and had trouble breathing after. Elaine |
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Subject: RE: Help: Azthma for singers From: bigchuck Date: 04 Mar 02 - 07:15 AM I've had asthma all of my life. I was recently prescribed Advair, which seems like a miracle drug to me. I haven't needed to use a bronchodialator for a month now. Well worth checking out. Sandy |
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Subject: RE: Help: Azthma for singers From: harvey andrews Date: 04 Mar 02 - 08:27 AM I have allergic asthma.It's perfumes,cigar and cigarette smoke,candles, air fresheners etc. I use a dilator before a gig and have a little poster I put up in premises that allow smoking. "For medical reasons the artist politely requests no smoking please" . In the 90's I had some trouble with this from hardened smokers and lost some work because of it, but others started to make the same request and now it's general practice for gigs to be no smoking. Another problem is the curtains and drapes on stages that can be incredibly dusty! Good luck..try all things. Also good before a gig are Vocalzones, lozenges that lubricate the throat.
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Subject: RE: Help: Azthma for singers From: Fibula Mattock Date: 04 Mar 02 - 09:02 AM I have asthma, and take Becotide (Beclomethasone Dipropionate, as mentioned) once a day, and Bricanyl (Terbutaline Sulphate, that one purports to be) when I need it as I'm allergic to Ventolin (Salbutamol). I cut down my Becotide use from twice a day after talking to the doctor, and have found that's okay, but if I get wheezy or have an attack, I double the dose of Becotide for the length of time it takes to recover, and half that time again (again, the doctor's advice). This seems to keep everything in check, and the only times my asthma makes itself known is if I run or if I walk quickly up a steep hill. Interestingly, recent studies have apparently shown that "alternative" treatments such as acupuncture etc. don't help asthma (the most recent place I read this was the Sunday Times, I think, so I can't claim to have a watertight source) BUT that one thing that does help is yoga, which seems logical since it promotes controlled breathing and relaxation. I have also heard of people being advised to take up wind instruments to help strengthen the lungs and control breathing. I don't know how well this works though, but I had a go on Ella's flute and was bent double, breathless and red-faced within 10 seconds. |
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Subject: RE: Help: Azthma for singers From: Mark Cohen Date: 04 Mar 02 - 05:37 PM This is all good advice. It's very important to see your doctor, and, if you have anything but very mild intermittent symptoms (a few times a year or less), you should also see a pulmonary specialist, who can do pulmonary function testing. I too developed asthma in my thirties, and would never go anywhere without my albuterol (=salbutamol) inhaler. One day I coughed up blood, and THAT was enough to finally get me to a doctor! Pulmonary function testing showed that I had significant chronic changes in my lower airways. Within a month after starting inhaled steroids, I felt better, wasn't coughing all the time, and now I don't even know where my albuterol inhaler is! Advair is a wonderful new treatment: a good inhaled steroid plus a long-acting bronchodilator. From alison's post, it sounds like Seretide is the UK/Oz equivalent. The anti-inflammatory component of the treatment of asthma is a relatively new development and has improved many lives...and probably saved quite a few. People do die from asthma, and it's not a disease to be taken lightly. If you use a bronchodilator like albuterol (salbutamol) or terbutaline and you find yourself needing to use it every day or nearly every day, RUN to your doctor and find out about inhaled anti-inflammatory treatments. (There are alternatives to steroids, but they don't work for everybody and don't work as well as the steroids.) As best as we can tell, the people who die from asthma are the ones who have a bad attack and keep using their bronchodilator inhaler over and over again. Definitely avoid any triggers you can recognize. I like Harvey's idea of the sign to prevent people lighting up during your gig. And as far as adjunctive or complementary treatments, my feeling is that many of them can help some people, and I wouldn't reject herbs or acupuncture etc. out of hand. The caveat being that, you should make sure these are recommended or prescribed by a competent practitioner. Self-medication with herbs can be just as dangerous as self-medication with prescription medications...sometimes even more so. (For example, stay away from ephedra, which is a common component of Chinese "lung" remedies: it can cause dangerously high blood pressure.) And if your doctor tells you that your asthma is "just something you'll have to live with"...find another doctor! Aloha, Mark |
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Subject: RE: Help: Azthma for singers From: JudeL Date: 05 Mar 02 - 12:26 PM I also have developed for want of a better term allergic asthma, and react very badly to certain types of cigarette smoke, some air fresheners/ perfumes and feathers. I can go weeks or even months without even thinking about it and then something will trigger an attack and I'll be very vulnerable to a repeat attack for a while. One thing that appears to help me recover quicker when I've had an attack, and boost my resistance to another one is inhaling steam, especially if it has something like Vick's vapour rub or Bengue's balsam in it. Both have ingredients like menthol and eucalyptus in them. I also find that stress increases the likelihood and severity of attacks. |
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Subject: RE: Help: Azthma for singers From: Ebbie Date: 05 Mar 02 - 01:12 PM I have a friend - now in her 70s - who comes from a family with 'weak' lungs; her father and several uncles lived with and eventually died of bronchial complications. My friend in the last few years took up harmonica playing in a big way. She has a small band that plays at markets and in nursing homes and churches. She says that her breathing is MUCH better since. Isn't it possible that she will escape asthma? I would like to believe so. Ebbie |
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Subject: RE: Help: Azthma for singers From: Genie Date: 05 Mar 02 - 09:07 PM Harvey, I, too, like your idea of posting a "please don't smoke" sign. One thing that continually amazes me (and irritates me, both figuratively and literally) is the overuse of irritant substances (powdery air fresheners or carpet shampoos, perfumes, and noxious-chemical-based disinfectants) in nursing and convalescent homes. I do music therapy and entertainment in these places regularly and, as likely as not, if I say or do anything to try to cope with this indoor air pollution, I risk not being invited back because "our air freshener seemed to bother you," etc.! I am surprised that the state service agencies that regulate such facilities so tightly do not recognize this as an important issue in patient/resident health. Many, if not most, of these seniors have some respiratory problem, and many either cannot identify what is making it hard to breathe or cannot effectively voice their complaints. When taking a deep breath irritates your throat, it's natural to start breathing very shallowly, of course. So I would think that indoor air quality would be a focus of concern in facilities for the infirm or elderly. So far, it does not seem to be. In its own way, the air in these places can be as hard on an asthmatic as is a smoke-filled bar.
Good to have a doc weigh in on this, Mark. |
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Subject: Help: Asthma for singers From: Genie Date: 05 Mar 02 - 09:13 PM I just noticed that "asthma" is misspelled in the main thread title and the post titles, too. I'm correcting it in my "subject" line, so that this thread will turn up of someone does a forum search using the word "asthma." |
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Subject: RE: Help: Azthma for singers From: Kaleea Date: 06 Mar 02 - 12:44 AM All good food for thought. I also have many allergies, while not asthma, it causes some problems, many of which are quite similar. I have found that it does take alot of work to be able to overcome them, and that it takes being willing to make life changing decisions. It is not easy to eliminate most of the allergens from our lives, but worth doing to the extent possible, as obviously we cannot eliminate all those things. I would, however, suggest that you heed the suggestions which mention following the advice of a competent physician and try to find the right medicine for you which allows you to breathe the best. I also suggest that if you do not have a good, solid background of vocal instruction, you seek out good vocal instruction (a good, educated instructor can help you work around the breathing problems). Remember above all, that if it hurts, do not do it. I have also had to fight some serious injuries in the past year which make breath control difficult. After remembering that many years ago I did yoga which involved alot of deep breathing, I knew I couldn't do yoga much because of my injuries, so I got one of those beginner Tai Chi video tapes for the folks who can't move very well, and have been doing stretching & moves, and all the while doing the appropriate deep breathing, which has helped me considerably with being able to get my vocalizing back to some semblence of normal. After all, breath control is much of the process of good singing. After I was able to get my breathing muscles more in shape, I could sing better. |
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Subject: RE: Help: Azthma for singers From: Sonnet Date: 06 Mar 02 - 05:30 AM Measles at the age of six left me with asthma, for which I now need Becotide, Serevent and Ventolin, but not in the same quantities I used to need before I began therapy with a crystal healer and reiki master about eighteen months ago. It's not something that has worked overnight, but improvement is gradual. I carry a crystal called hematite. Although I'll probably be dimissed as a crank, all I can say is that it's helping me. Also, please note that asthma has to live with me, not me with the asthma, and it has to go along with a positive attitude. When I was a child I wasn't allowed to take part in anything physical, which probably accounts for the dreadful shyness I can't overcome, but these days I sing, swim, dance etc. Be positive.Don't let your asthma rule you. Janet |
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Subject: RE: Help: Azthma for singers From: Dave the Gnome Date: 06 Mar 02 - 07:25 AM I, like many others, got asthma in my mid-20's. I am now nearly 50 and still suffer a little but with one thing and another it rarely bothers me now. I have started using a combi-inhalor, Symbicort (budesonide/eformoterol fumarate)which has almost eliminated the need for my fast acting one, Bricanyl (terbutaline). I have also started Tai Chi, which complete with the preliminary breathing excercises seems to do a lot of good. I also have perennial allergic rhinitis and take both anti-histamines and a steroid nasal spray. I find keeping the rhinitis in check helps the ashtma as well. I find some drinks bring on the ashtma (some wines and some commercial beers) whereas some (real ales, other wines) are no problem. Oddly enough if I am feeling particulary 'chesty' a good stiff Whisky can put me right! Listen to Dr Mark as well - I changed doctors twice before I found one who would treat me as an individual case and actualy take notice of my personal circumstances. Having said all that I feel that even with the ashtma and rhinitis my life has not suffered unduly. I have sung in many a smoky pub. I have danced both Morris and social. I have climbed the highest peaks in the UK and, at one time, I could run 5 miles in 35 minutes! Don't let it get you down. Keep on top of it. You will get better. Cheers Dave the Gnome |
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Subject: RE: Help: Azthma for singers From: jup Date: 06 Mar 02 - 04:02 PM All the above is great advice,I use the new combination SERATIDE, it is easily the best I have ever had. Asthma almost killed me twice,both times I had the flu as an extra. Get in contact with your local Asthma association,and do some education classes.They can point you toward a therapist who is up to date. Try YOGA to help you destress, but choose a good teacher,try a few. THERE IS NO NEED TO LET ASTHMA RULE YOUR LIFE. I use a PEAK FLOW METER to monitor my lung function so I can adjust my medication.If the reading is under about 400 I go to the doctor. You need to be tested to know what your action plan should be. ALL THE BEST ,JUP. |
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Subject: RE: Help: Azthma for singers From: Barry Finn Date: 06 Mar 02 - 04:49 PM You might also try to insure yourself against flues of any kind. Because of my asthma I always got flue shots before winter (my worst time of year). The drier & colder it got the worst my condition (also the hardest time for me to sing). I started out at 25 with exercised induced asthma & after a couple bouts with bronchitis developed chronic asthma. Of course I smoked up until 5 yrs ago (I know...DUH). Since I've never had to use another inhaler. Barry |
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Subject: RE: Help: Azthma for singers From: Bo Vandenberg Date: 07 Mar 02 - 02:22 AM Thanks so much for everyone's advice Bo |
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Subject: RE: Help: Azthma for singers From: Genie Date: 07 Mar 02 - 02:26 AM Dave, If some wines and beers bring on asthma, it may well be from the sulfites that are used in their preparation. FWIW, my asthma started at just about the same time I got heavily involved in wine-making at about age 40. (I first noticed it as exercise-induced, but after a while I began to notice that I had to hold my breath whenever using sulfites with the wine and then go outside to catch my breath.) I had to quit making wine because the sulfites would trigger massive asthma attacks.) Some beers, many wines, and even some bottled fruit juices will bring on an attack for me, and many of these products are made using sulfites. The labels don't have to tell you. Paradoxically, if I were out dancing vigorously in a smoky club and began to wheeze uncontrollably, a stiff brandy would sort of clear it up--by making me cough up all the phlegm until I could breathe again. I don't recommend that remedy, though, because by the time I could breathe again, I was, likely as not, drunk on my arse! Genie §;-) |
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Subject: RE: Help: Azthma for singers From: Dave the Gnome Date: 07 Mar 02 - 02:23 PM Well prompted, Genie - I remember after reading your note that when I used to make beer I could use potassium metabisulfite quite happily but sodium metabisulfite made me cough like hell! My friend reckoned there was no difference but my chest didn't believe him! Funny you mention fruit juices as well. Even before the ashtma lemon barley water brought on coughing attacks like nothing else. Cheers DtG |
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Subject: RE: Help: Azthma for singers From: Fibula Mattock Date: 08 Mar 02 - 08:19 AM Aha! Interesting - orange squash, lemon barley etc. are okay for me, unless I drink them hot - for some reason hot diluted orange drinks make me wheeze like hell. Red wine definitely has an effect, but I love it and it's not too bad an effect, so I risk it. ;) |
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Subject: RE: Help: Azthma for singers From: Liz the Squeak Date: 08 Mar 02 - 07:57 PM I knew there was a reason I hated Robinsons' drinks.... LTS |
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Subject: RE: Help: Azthma for singers From: Dave the Gnome Date: 09 Mar 02 - 05:26 PM Apart from Robinsons bitter and Old Tom don't you mean, Liz..;-) Cheers DtG |
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Subject: RE: Help: Azthma for singers From: Liz the Squeak Date: 10 Mar 02 - 03:30 PM Ah, been a while since I had an Old Tom..... LTS |
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Subject: RE: Help: Azthma for singers From: Arnie Date: 10 Mar 02 - 04:35 PM When I developed asthma in my mid-30's, I was prescribed a ventolin inhaler (the blue one). I suddenly found at work that quite a few of my mates had one about them - something I hadn't previously noticed. I bet that everyone either suffers from asthma or knows someone who does - my wife, a teacher, has a whole drawer full of inhalers for the kids in her class. I'm convinced that we are wrecking our kids' health (and our own) through the proliferation of modern chemicals, processed food etc. etc... |
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