The link didn't work - but I tried one a couple years back - I thought it was a waste of money..

Looks like torture to me. I have never used one, but for people with healthy lungs/CP systems I am not seeing how this is going to do much besides add to your pile of crazy gear that triathletes get made fun of for having (you know, the low drag shoe laces for faster lace times, aero toothbrush for high velocity brushing, and low density oxygenated water so your 3.4lb bike isn't weighed down with all of that heavy water). Having done no research into their claims I'm going to chalk this one up to VERY skeptical. They never come down and say how it will actually improve your performance, just that it "strengthens your respiratory muscles" which might be true, but I have never heard of or actually stopped a bout of exercise because my diaphragm was tired. Think about how frequently you breath... What kind of muscular endurance do you think that these muscles have adapted to have? Hint: they are working on it as you sit there reading my overpaid thoughts.

As for claims of increased lung volume, I'm not seeing how this will increase lung volume in a way that normal exercise wouldn't. You haven't actually increased the bodies demand for O2 (which actually isn't what limits exercise anyway) or gas exchange, the body cavity that houses the lungs hasn't changed volume, and their isn't actually any increased pressure put on them (no matter how long or hard you work to achieve 1 ATM pressure in the lungs it's still just 1 ATM) until the abdominal muscles take over and then the lungs are not being stressed, the rib cage and associated muscles are. Their research with patients with COPD is a little bit more interesting, but I'm not sure that they are not taking results from that and stating it without forgetting to tell you that these results were obtained from a patient population with serious pathology (probably not you).

Being that exerciser is CO2 limited, not O2 limited (look it up, shocking but true) to me to enhance performance you would be looking at muscles that improve exhalation (abdominal m.). This still wouldn't help with expelling CO2 as the limiting step is not your respiratory rate (this has been tested extensively and is actually a good read). Anyway, these muscles are not only burly, but also quite good at doing a lot of work and you can exercise those much more efficiently by joining in on the dreaded "Trifule XX days of Core." Speaking of which, what ever happened to those? Have I just been blanking them out or have they stopped showing up as often?

I don't see any obvious avenues for HUGE gains, but am open to them being presented by someone who has done more research than I have. Also, I would be interested to see if this $30 wonder could out perform a treatment of standard breathing exercises or maybe even just breathing through a coffee/soda straw. If you decide to get one I'd be interested to know what you think of it etc, but I'll just put $30 towards other toys of beer. :)

I'm guessing your doctor gave you a chest x-ray? Not to pry, but I hope so. I was a smoker from 16 years old until around 36 and took up running seriously when I was 38. I'm almost 42 now. I have not had any issues such as yours. I insist every physical on an EKG and a chest X-ray because of my history along with family history. Good luck on getting it taken care of. I wouldn't trade this either! Sorry I was no help on the breathing device. I had looked at those before but never have bought one.

Did the put you on a tread mill or bike and run you during your ekg? This is very interesting, but again my thoughts don't jump to weak muscles of inspiration. Also assume that standard blood tests done and wnl? On my phone sorry for the short reply. I will do some reading tomorrow and let you know if I find anything. Interesting.

Well, if you don't have these issues outside of exercising it seems like a logical next step would be to look at things like exercise induced asthma, which is found in something like 10-15% of the general population. It's fine and dandy that the injected you with all sorts of things looking for reactions but some people just react to exercise, and the trigger can be as mundane as a change in how you are breathing when you run (cold air tends to aggravate this condition and when you start working harder you breath more through your mouth, not warming the air in the sinuses etc ...). Their might be a new pollen in the air that is fairly uncommon, who knows. Allergies can come and go and can range in severity (what a joy hu?) so I'm not sure if you can ever totally rule out allergy.

Without knowing your case I still think it would be a good idea to look into a test that will challenge your cardio pulmonary system like it is when you have these attacks. That being said it would probably be good to have a doctor of some sort around (maybe not a dentist or optometrist). I really dislike the suggestion of "just stop exercising" as it doesn't really tell you what is causing these attacks, only what is not causing them. I also don't think "don't exercise" is a good suggestion for ANYONE. In the mean time if you don't have these problems exercising at lower intensities, and you don't have symptoms, it might help you avoid the coughing/shortness of breath. Anything that is getting after your air needs to be dealt with ASAP for obvious reasons.

The control of exercise educed asthma is far from perfect, but is getting better and the inhalers might not be a good management system for you. If the cough disappeared after you dumped another med and something else can take it's place then I'd say good to that one. Drug interactions are tricky to say the least, and are different for everyone so the best thing you can do is doing exactly what you are doing. Never take a drug without asking "what do you hope this will do for me?", "what are my options?", "How long do you want me to take this?" and "What are the risks?" Every pharmacy should have mountains of information on every script that you have and should be available upon request. How your body reacts to the drugs you are on can also change (again, oh joy, right?). Stick with it, you'll get it figure out. Remember, you pay for your Dr.'s visits, you don't need to feel bad about asking questions.

Oh, and insurance companies are statisticians that found a way to make their degree profitable. They don't have you do anything that won't save them money. Their tests don't actually seek to find out what is wrong, just how they can hedge their bets. ;)

[quote=Rbox3r]
I would think with my smoking history that the shortness of breath would show up while I was smoking or at a minium pretty quickly after I quit not 4 years later. [/quote]

Depending on how long you smoked and how your body dealt with it and the infinite confounding variables that is "life" who knows what things happened to your lungs from long term exposure. It's not a black and white issue and their is no mathematical equation that can tell you what's going on. The risks of smoking is that you expose delicate tissues to things that you don't need to. Their are people who will smoke 5 packs a day and live to be 90, their are people who will smoke nothing riskier than salmon and end up with respiratory issues. Just make sure that your Dr. knows your smoking history and all of that jazz. Like I said, you'll figure this out.

[quote=Rbox3r]
I would think with my smoking history that the shortness of breath would show up while I was smoking or at a minium pretty quickly after I quit not 4 years later. [/quote]

It is commonly believed that lungs do clean themselves out and regenerate themselves. As with anything, there is always some price to pay for some action, but over time, your lungs do recover substantially.

I have this device, and I do think it helps a little bit.... But don't depend on it. I bought it mainly because I was having breathing issues, like exercise induced asthma... I would cough and weeze after a hard workout, and this didn't start until I became very active just a few years ago. After not wanting to be on inhalers, I kept googling, and found out that stomach issues can cause breathing issues. I went to a Pulmonoligist and we decided to do an Upper GI series and an endoscopy, which told us that my L.E.S. allows food to come back up (GERD/Acid Reflux) and it causes "Reflux Laringitis".

I am working on my reflux with phosphoric acid, rather than the pills that the Dr wanted me to take, and its helping a lot. But I do use this device and notice that when I keep up with it and use it often, my breathing is stronger and I am able to hold a longer breath. You could probably get a lot out of filling up balloons as well, but this device allows you to breath in as well. I recently started swimming more and I do believe this helps with that probably the most.

I would work on your capacity naturally, wouldn't trust any sort of tool to do this, but maybe thats just me :)