As little as three years ago, your friend would鈥檝e been considered a cheat. Now, researchers might call him a dolt.
Until recently, the World Anti-Doping Association (WADA) considered the asthma medication salbutamol (a.k.a. albuterol) a banned substance requiring medical proof of need because it was thought the medication , likely in the form of increased oxygen consumption (VO2 max). But late in 2009, that salbutamol would be allowed in doses recommended for asthmatics. And starting in 2012, WADA took another asthma medication called formoterol .
Why would notoriously strict WADA downgrade these meds? Because several studies over the past few years concluded that asthma medications, also referred to as beta-2 agonists, had no significant, positive effects on performance. For example, of 26 studies on the effects of inhaled beta-2 agonists found that the medications did not improve 鈥渆ndurance, strength or sprint performance in healthy athletes.鈥 In another study published in 2011, Belgian researchers wrote that taking salbutamol 鈥.鈥
Leading up to the Beijing Olympics, news outlets suggested that the large number of elite athletes using inhalers, including silver medalist swimmer and gold medalist triathlete , signaled a potential abuse of asthma meds to get ahead. Amateur athletes, it seemed, were following suit, leaving a .
Now, however, it鈥檚 speculated that the intense training Olympic athletes do might actually cause asthma symptoms. Olympic athletes with asthma regularly beat their non-asthmatic competitors, redorbit.com reports鈥攏ot because they鈥檙e using inhalers, but possibly because the athletes that trained the most . Or because asthmatic athletes train harder to make up for their pulmonary deficit.
BOTTOM LINE: If you don鈥檛 have asthma, don鈥檛 use an inhaler. It won鈥檛 make you faster, stronger, or last longer, and you could unnecessarily subject yourself to performance-hindering including dizziness, headaches, and nausea.聽