Health and Medicine – Page 7

Coronavirus FAQ

UPDATE: 2020-03-03: I’ve not had time to update the FAQ, so here’s a link to a more current one elsewhere that’s got answers to some of the bigger questions too.

UPDATE: 2020-02-24: A vaccine against COVID-19 is now being manufactured in Australia ready for lab tests.

UPDATE: 2020-02-18: WHO’s latest epidemiology: Over 80% of patients have mild COVID19 and will recover. In just 14% of cases, the virus leads to pneumonia. For one in 20 patients, it causes potentially fatal respiratory failure, septic shock and multi-organ failure.

UPDATE: 2020-02-11: The WHO has given the viral disease an official name, based on COronaVIrusDisease, hence COVID-19.

UPDATE: 2020-02-10: Scientists now suggesting that coronavirus source may be pangolins, which are used in Chinese “medicine”. Details here.

UPDATE: 2020-02-02: Death toll in China now more than 300, first death outside China (Philippines), although infection was in China.

BREXITDAY UPDATE: 2020-01-31: Two cases confirmed in the same family of coronavirus infection in the UK (BBC)

UPDATE: 2020-01-30: WHOÂ declares coronavirus international emergency, says we must stop its spread to vulnerable countries

UPDATE: 2020-01-28: 106 deaths reported in China so far. 4000 confirmed cases. Virus present in at least eleven other countries and regions. WHO yet to declare international health emergency

What is a coronavirus?

Coronaviruses are a group of viruses that cause diseases in mammals, including humans, and birds.

Why are they called coronaviruses?

The name derives from the fact that the viral capsule has a crown-like halo surrounding it, when viewed under the microscope.

What do coronaviruses do?

In humans, the virus infects the airways giving rise to flu-like symptoms, a runny nose, cough, sore throat and fever, these are usually mild, but in rare cases can be lethal.

Is there a vaccine against coronaviruses?

No.

Are there any drugs to block or treat infection?

No.

When were coronaviruses first discovered?

In the 1960s

Any details?

The first one discovered was an infectious bronchitis virus in chickens. At about the same time, two viruses from the nasal cavities of human patients with the common cold were identified and dubbed human coronavirus 229E and human coronavirus OC43.

So coronaviruses cause the common cold?

They are usually present when someone has a cold, so yes, pretty much.

Why are we so worried about them?

Some coronaviruses cause serious respiratory tract infection that is far worse than the usual symptoms of the common cold. In the elderly, infants, people with compromised lung function (such as asthma patients, COPD sufferers, people with lung cancer), an infection can ultimately be fatal, often through the development of pneumonia.

Is the Wuhan coronavirus a dangerous form?

It has infected several hundred people that we know about so far and there have been a couple of dozen deaths, mainly among vulnerable people infected with the virus. The World Health Organisation is not yet endowing this virus with the same worrying global status of earlier epidemics. It may yet be contained and fatalities limited significantly. Nevertheless, China has quarantined 20 million people already. Wuhan is a city the size of London, England.

Where did this virus come from?

At the end of 2019, a new strain of coronavirus, scientists named 2019-nCoV, was first reported in Wuhan. It is by definition an “emergent” strain of the virus and is thought to have made the species leap from infected animals to humans, probably in an environment where diseases animals are in close proximity to people, such as a live-produce market.

Where is the virus going?

Already, there have been many cases outside Wuhan and China is locking down public transport. Air travel has allowed the virus to spread to Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, Singapore, South Korea, Vietnam and elsewhere, and it has already reached the USA.

How long do symptoms take to emerge?

Up to fourteen days. This makes it difficult to screen people because they may be infected and travelling with the virus without displaying a fever or other symptoms.

Will I catch it?

You are only likely to catch the virus if you have travelled to places where it is obviously present or if you have come into contact with people who have visited those areas. If you have and you think you have symptoms, stay at home, call your physician or local healthcare provider for advice. Do not go to the emergency hospital or your doctor’s surgery, you could end up spreading the virus to others who have other health problems.

Will they check me over at the airport?

Several US airports and other places have introduced screening of passengers arriving from Wuhan. If the disease spreads widely, screening is likely to be introduced at many other airports. Basic screening might involve measuring the temperature of travellers’ foreheads non-invasively to spot those with a fever.

Is it infectious before symptoms appear?

Yes, unfortunately, it seems that the virus can spread between people during its incubation period(up to two weeks) before they present with any symptoms, such as high temperature. Temperature screening would not find asymptomatic carriers, this means an epidemic could become a reality once a critical infection rate is passed even before we realise how many people have caught the virus. Many colds and influenza viruses are infectious even before symptoms appear.

What’s the latest news on this coronavirus?

2020-01-25: 22 Chinese provinces affected; billion+ people. 56 million people banned from travelling at epicentre of viral outbreak, Hubei. 41 dead, 1200+ infected, 237 critical.

Should we be panicking?

Scaremongering and sensationalist headlines abound, they’re usually wrong, but conversely, the voice of reason urging us to stay calm may well be wrong too. UCL virologist Jennifer Rohn has this to say: “…we need to treat any unknown emerging disease as if it has the potential to be a massive and devastating pandemic — because despite preliminary assessments of the rate of spread and how many people have died, the jury is still very much out.”

So, how do we cope?

Quoting Dr Rohn again: “We’ll never know when the ‘big one’ has arrived until it’s already too late. So let’s deal with each outbreak as if it could be our last.” Unfortunately, no nation is ready, unfortunately, the US has cut funding in the face of preparedness for such an outbreak that might kill millions worldwide, as earlier epidemics have done.

Should I wear a facemask?

Feel free, but the cheap ones won’t offer much protection as they don’t seal around your mouth and nose well. They will to some extent limit the degree to which you might spread infection if you are a carrier by trapping your nasal and oral fluids. Proper surgical masks are sealed, but uncomfortable to wear and harder to breathe and talk through.

Facemasks might reduce the spread of infection in enclosed spaces, such as public transport and in live-produce markets where infection may be present and animals are being slaughtered in public. But, they unnecessary in the open air where infections are not readily transmitted between people. Shoes tramping through spilled matter in a market are a more likely vector for viruses.

Most “airborne” viral infections are actually passed on through so-called fomites. Bodily fluids that land on door handles via coughs and sneezes or from an infected person’s hands where they have wiped their nose or coughed into their hand and the contaminated a surface are a much more efficient route for transmission of an infection. More about facemasks in the face of emergent pathogens here.

You can read a more detailed and technical FAQ on the coronavirus in Popular Mechanics.

How I met David Bradley

I tell this tale over and over again, I think most friends and relatives have heard it at least three times by now. Still, my late Dad kindly used to laugh every time he heard it. Mrs Sciencebase just rolls her eyes…and not in a good way.

Anyway, we were on a camping trip to one of our favourite spots, Stiffkey, on the proper North Norfolk coast. It’s pronounced Stoo-kee by the locals although incomers and posh residents prefer it to be pronounced as it’s spelled. We were pitched just around the corner from the Red Lion pub, on the High Sands Creek campsite, where a couple of years later myself and artist friend Rog would almost drown trying to get that last rising tide photo. So, supping a Stiffkey Brew or too, erstwhile backing singer with my band C5, Jo, says, Oh look it’s that actor!

We all turned in concert to look where she was looking. Thankfully said actor had his head buried in his iPad and didn’t notice our less than discrete mass manoeuvres. That’s not just any old actor, Jo, I whispered loudly, that’s David Bradley, you know the guy who plays Argus Filch in the Harry Potter films?

Really? the others asked surprised. So, up I get, leaving my brew on the table, and head over to say hello to my namesake. Excuse me, I say, I’m David Bradley, just thought, I’d say hello to the more famous David Bradley. The far more famous DB stands up grabs my hand to shake it, looks me squarely in the eye and says, I know you, I’ve got your book! I was shocked, we both laughed, we didn’t do a selfie, proper famous people didn’t do selfies back then. But, I asked, might I have your autograph, it seemed the right thing to do. Certainly, of course, yes…but…only if I can have yours, David Bradley says to me.

So, we swapped autographs, said “tara”, like fellow Northerners do, and I went back to my friends waiting expectantly at our table with their brews (I think the ladies were drinking Hendricks G&Ts with slices of cucumber). I tell the tale, show them the autograph and they’re all fairly well stunned and pleased that I’d had a celeb encounter of that kind. I could almost hear Mrs _Sciencebase’s eyeballs rolling in their sockets in anticipation of years of repeated anecdote.

I should’ve asked him though whether, having had a copy of my book Deceived Wisdom, whether he’d read it or enjoyed it or even both. I doubt he’s the sort of fellow who posts on Amazon, and even if he did, there are so many other David Bradleys out there how would I know which…

David Bradley the actor is probably best known for his roles as Filch in the Harry Potter films, as William Hartnell in the Doctor Who biopic he plays alongside Brian Cox as TV producer Sydney Newman in An adventure in space and time. He’s also Walder Frey in Game of Thrones, he’s in both Hot Fuzz and The World’s End. Plays Jack Marshall in Broadchurch, he was Eddie Wells in Our friends in the north. Have a look at his IMDB page, he’s done masses.

This David Bradley is not to be confused with Dai Bradley (formerly known as David Bradley until EQUITY rules kicked in). He played Billy in the Ken Loach film Kes. Also not to be confused with martial arts star David Bradley.

There’s an odd ante-footnote to this tale. Before Mrs Sciencebase was Mrs and before Sciencebase even existed. She went with friends to Stratford-upon-Avon to see the RSC (not that one, the other one) performing Doctor Faustus with David Bradley as Mephistopheles. They’d all had tickets in advance, I tagged along for the ride, but did a walking tour of the town while they watched the play, instead of watching the play.

So, second encounter with a David Bradley from the RSC after this DB from the RSC for the pre-Mrs Sciencebase.

The invention of vaccines

Somebody just made the brilliant suggestion on an anti-vax discussion group that doctors, instead of injecting chemicals, should inject a tiny bit of the virus so that the body can build up natural immunity to the disease…

…basically, they just “invented” vaccination.

What do the antivax brigade think doctors are injecting now? Fairy dander and unicorn tears?

The truth about penis enlargement

When it comes to penis size, there is probably not a man on the planet who has not worried about it at some point in his life. Moreover, there is probably not a single person on the planet who has not received at least one spam email announcing some way of increasing length, girth, or both.

So, what is the truth about penile enhancement? Is it possible? Is there even a grain of truth in any of those spams and even if there is does it really matter how big your p3n!s is? Are all those spam subject lines merely empty promises: “Reliable method of natural pen!s enlargement!”, “GretaSizeableMembr!”, “Special offer for your little willy!”, “All Natural Enlargement Add Inchees”, et ceteeeeera.

The simple fact of the matter is surgery is the only way to increase penis size, but surgeons will point out that it can be painful, involves a lot of heartache, can go seriously wrong and will not increase the size of your penis by more than a few millimetres even in a best-case scenario.

But, what about all those other techniques, pills, and remedies mentioned in billions of spam messages, surely some of them work? Well, clinical trials are limited, but there is absolutely no definitive evidence that suggests any of them work at all, there may be a marginal placebo effect that boosts a man’s confidence a little without actually boosting his dimensions, but that’s as far as it goes. Anecdotes, by the way, are not medical evidence.

Vacuum pumps – These devices are supposed to increase size by increasing blood flow, but in reality can cause damage to blood vessels, reduced sensitivity, and even cause impotence.
Pills and potions, and pills – There is no known medication that will increase penis size. Moreover, miracle pills could be contaminated with
toxic material, such as lead and even faecal matter.
Hanging weights – Stretching human tissue usually leads to stretch marks and there is no evidence that any lengthening will be permanent once the weights are removed. There is evidence of loss of sensitivity, tissue damage, and impotence in men using such an approach, however.
Exercises – The penis is not a muscle so cannot be made bigger through any form of exercise. Even Kegel exercises to strengthen the pelvic girdle, which allows you to seemingly “flex” your penis have potential drawbacks if overdone, such as potentially leading to retarded ejaculation (an inability to reach orgasm).
Jelqing – You may have heard this odd word, which refers to basically tugging and slapping your penis (without masturbating). There is no evidence that it works.
Surgery – Not generally recommended by surgeons and potentially dangerous.

So, there you have it. The truth about penile enlargement is that it cannot be done safely. More to the point though, unless you are suffering from the medical condition known as micropenis, you really shouldn’t worry about it, after all the human penis is proportionally much bigger on average than that of a gorilla!

Actually, now that I mention gorillas you may not wish to read on if you really are worried about your size. Gynaecologist Edwin Bowman explains in the journal Archives of Sexual Behavior that humans evolved a proportionally larger penis in parallel with the evolutionary widening of the birth canal as our brains got larger.

Males with a larger penis would have fared better in natural selection as they had more chance of ejaculating during sexual intercourse and so more chance of mating resulting in a pregnancy. “I have had many occasions to discuss penile size with women,” Bowman says, “In general and within reason, women prefer larger penises. The preference is ingrained in our culture and probably has been so since prehistoric times.”

It sounds like nonsense to me, given that the average aroused vagina is only about 4 inches long and the average aroused penis about 5 to 6 inches. More to the point, surely a widening birth canal would only select for a thicker penis rather than a longer one.

Bowman, E. (2007). Why the Human Penis is Larger than in the Great Apes Archives of Sexual Behavior, 37 (3), 361-361 DOI: 10.1007/s10508-007-9297-6

Sniffing out Parkinson’s disease

Dogs that can sniff out cancer have been in the science and medical news periodically over the thirty years I’ve been a science writer…but…something new is on the horizon, people who can smell whether you have Parkinson’s disease.

Everybody’s skin has a waxy substance known as sebum. It’s akin to lanolin in sheep. But, in PD, other chemicals are present that have a distinctive odour that some people can detect. These compounds are eicosane, hippuric acid, and octadecanal. A clinical test based on the presence of these chemicals in one’s sebum could be used to test for PD early on.

Ironically, one of the symptoms of PD is a change or loss of the patient’s own sense of smell.

Read the full story from my colleague Steve Down writing in the mass spec channel of spectroscopynow.com, Steve Down.

Criminal antivaxxer

Thirty years as a science writer, covering almost every #STEM beat at some point, I just received my first antivax death threat…

“Your criminal bastard david bradley published an article lying about the benefits of vaccinations. The only benefit is for the evil criminal government bastards running this planet who need to be executed! We know vaccines are nothing but toxic bioweapons ow because of Planet X and they are designed to make people too sick and stupid to pay attention! They also spread government-created designer diseases like when they AIDS in smallpox and hepatitis vaccines. So your evil lying bastard bradley is guilty of accessory to genocide and the criminal piece of shit needs to be executed along with all the evil bastard governments!”

Classic shoddy grammar and conspiracy references from these kinds of idiot.

On Twitter, Robin Davidson suggested it is a badge of honour, while Ian thought it was “really quite something”. Simon Leather noted my email client’s classification: “A real piece of junk rhetoric” and Silvia Castro offered me congratulations: “So congrats! You are doing a great job! Criminals are the one that put their kids and everyone around them in danger of being killed by a disease that can be prevented by vaccines. We all should all learn from NY Measles Emergency happening right now.”

Ryan O’Hare told me: “That’s brilliant! :) You should be proud to have risen through the ranks from science writer to “criminal bastard”. That’s another step up the ladder to “Evil Overlord”.” and posted a gif of Mike Myers as Dr Evil.

Digesting ten unpalatable myths about food

I’ve put together a menu of my favourite food myths #DeceivedWisdom and separated the fact and fiction based on the debunking of nutrition myths in a recent well-referenced feature on examine.com. Myth 10 is my own bonus myth debunked.

Myth 1: Carbs are bad for you

Fact: As long as you do not overindulge, there is nothing inherently harmful about carbohydrates.

Myth 2: Fat is bad for you

Fact: If you eat too much and don’t get enough exercise, and so stay in a caloric surplus, a low-fat diet won’t help you lose weight. You need some omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. Saturated fat won’t give you a heart attack, but too much trans fat might.

Myth 3: Protein is bad for your bones and kidneys

Fact: Protein, even in large amounts, isn’t harmful to your bones or kidneys (unless you suffer from a pre-existing condition).

Myth 4: Red meat is bad for you

Fact: The risk of getting cancer from eating red meat has been vastly exaggerated. Healthy lifestyle choices, such as maintaining a healthy weight, exercising, not smoking, and drinking alcohol only in moderation is far more important to overall risk.

Myth 5: Salt is bad for you

Fact: Salt reduction is important for people with salt-sensitive hypertension, and excess salt intake is associated with harm. But drastically lowering salt intake has not shown uniform benefit in clinical trials. See Myth 4 for general comment on health risk reduction.

Myth 6: Fresh is better than frozen

Fact: There are only tiny nutrient differences between truly fresh fruit and veg compared with frozen produce. Choose to suit your taste, budget, and lifestyle, any fruit and veg is better than no fruit and veg. Some supermarkets cold store “fresh” fruit and veg for months, so in that case frozen might even be fresher.

Myth 7: You should do a ‘detox’ regularly

Fact: The concept of a detox is pseudoscience. Nothing dietary you ingest will accelerate significantly the body’s natural processes (in the liver and kidneys) of waste products. Moreover, some supplements add to the burden on the liver and can even interfere with medication, leading to more tox than detox.

Myth 8: Breakfast is the most important meal of the day

Fact: You don’tÂ needÂ to eat breakfast to be healthy or lose weight.

Myth 9: You won’t lose weight if you eat before bedtime

Fact: EatingÂ lateÂ won’t make you gain fat, unless it drives you to eatÂ more. Also, tasty, high-calorie snacks are very attractive after a long day.

Myth 10: There is a magic formula to make you healthy, wealthy, and wise

Fact: There isn’t. Eat sensibly, don’t overindulge in any one food, get plenty of exercise, preferably in the fresh air where you can hear birdsong away from traffic. Don’t smoke. Don’t drink to excess. Avoid worrying about your health and nutrition.

The psychology of reunions

I just spent the weekend in another city with a bunch of people most of whom I hadn’t seen for twenty years. All-but-one-or-two of those people I met for the first time in another country when we worked together on a kids’ summer camp. It was a wonderful reunion, none of us has changed a bit…on the inside.

We didn’t stop talking at each other and laughing over the old stories (of which there were approximately 10476 or was it 10477, I lose count). We laughed and scoffed over the old photographs of us looking smooth-skinned and youthful and in the way we all know we still are…on the inside.

A word did come to mind though as we gassed and laughed and drank.

Disorientation.

Ironic really as way back then, before setting out for those foreign shores weÂ had been coraled albeit separately in the Spring of ’88, for an orientation course by the organisers of these student jollies that told us a little about the process of getting there,Â working and living there and how to think about what to do in terms of travel if any of us had time and cash left afterwards.

Disorientation.

The vertiginous feeling of reuniting with very familiar faces with whom we had all had a deep friendship so long ago. Some had stayed in touch of course and there had been occasional sightings and visits over the winding course of three decades. But, this reunited group was much of the hardcore of Brits who had corresponded fervently for weeks and months and sometimes years after our American rite of passage. We were, back then, perhaps clinging on to the exuberance of that summer, trying not to admit that we were all back in Blighty and student studies had to be begun again or, perish the thought, jobs sought.

Disorientation at how after 30 years we mostly all had families, some of whom were grown up. We had all taken very disparate routes to other foreign shores for long and short trips. We had all eventually got very different jobs and made some amazing career choices that might never have come to mind when we were working in 96 degreeÂ heat among those not-so-lonesome pines.

We had all constructed new circles of friends with whom we had all created strong bonds in the intervening years. But, there was this feeling when we all looked at each and talked and drank that although our heads were full of the faces of newer friends and the experiences we had all had since we last met, that this strange shared experience of a summer working on a kids camp in West Virginia had taken us down so many country roads and yet we were still in the same place…on the inside.

Strange how nostalgia hits you in the stomach and brings a lump to your throat and puts a teardrop in your eye…almost Heaven.

Oh, and one more thing, I didn’t go bare-chested at any point during the reunion…despite their endless demands, hahaha.

Afterthought: Readers will no doubt have got the feeling that we all just picked up where we left off all those years ago. It’s true. And, almost everyone has similar experiences to report when being reunited with old friends. It is amazing that it seems to work like that. I think the “Dunbar number” theory about how many people a human can “keep” in their head in terms of social connection needs to be updated. Fundamentally, there may well be a limit to the number in any single clique or group to which we belong, but I reckon there is a layer above that. We can perhaps belong to many different groups and have a large number of connections in each of those too. Well, that’s my experience.

Then, there is the disorientation one feels when those different groups overlap or meet. That whole “So….how do *you* two know each other?” syndrome. It’s a fascinating social PhD to be undertaken, I reckon.

Inevitably, I wrote a song.

Weapons grade chilli dressing

UPDATE: I blitzed them in the food processor today and converted the jar of pickled chillis into a lethal cocktail for drizzling into curries and marinades etc. Thought I had better put a hazmat type sign on the bottle.

Turns out these are Scotch Bonnets, up to 400,000 Scoville units in terms of capsaicin concentration. I’ve now chopped, deseeded and blanched half a pound of them to freeze and pickle.

I wore rubber gloves, a facemask and goggles while I did so, but the house is now full of their volatiles and neither Mrs Sciencebase nor myself can stop coughing and sneezing. I just touched my face with a formerly gloved finger that I thought I’d washed thoroughly and the skin there is sizzling gently…why do we use these weapons on mass destruction in food again, remind me?

UPDATE: I was talking chillis in the pub last night with biochemist and brewer friend Mark. He reckons the best thing to do is blend them up with some salt and white wine vinegar or cider vinegar, seeds and all, to make a useful drizzle to add a bit of fire to anything you cook, as and when. He also warned against adding anything fresh and rottable, such as freshly plucked chillis to oil to make a chilli oil, for instance, as there is a significant risk of botulism with such homemade products unless you add the requisite preservatives that defeat Clostridium botulinum.

Apparently, the chilli peppers I have grown are ~~habanero~~ Scotch Bonnet (1000s times hotter than a jalapeno on the Scoville scale). I chopped one without the seeds into scrambled eggs for lunch and almost couldn’t breathe while they were frying…my stomach is still complaining three hours later, my nose is running, and my lips feel like I’ve been chewing wasps. I only ate the tiniest fragment and none of the seeds. Although there is usually very little capsaicin in chilli seeds its highest concentration being found in the pith that attaches them to the interior of the fruit.

My chillis are now destined for homemade chilli pizza oil, I reckon. I daren’t cook with them again. They’re weapons grade.

In case you were wondering: The Scoville scale is a subjective measure of the heat of peppers, or other spicy foods, basically acting as a proxy for capsaicin concentration. Capsaicin is perhaps the most well known of the many related pungent capsaicinoids compounds in chillis. The scale is named for American pharmacist Wilbur Scoville, whose invented an organoleptic test for chilli heat in 1912. It is still discussed but high-performance liquid chromatography (HLPC) provides a more objective way of testing capsaicinoid concentration.

Capsaicin has the chemical name 8-methyl-N-vanillyl-6-nonenamide) it is a serious irritant to all mammals causing a burning sensation in any tissue with which it comes into contact, particularly sensitive parts of the body such as the eyes and nose, any part of the alimentary tract from top to bottom, and for some unfortunate chilli “chefs” who don’t wash their hands thoroughly after handling, any part of the reproductive tract too…hence the phrase – Chilli Willy – familiar to many waiters in restaurants serving spicy food.

Ironically, capsaicin has been used as a topical painkiller (in shingles for instance) and it has also demonstrated antifungal activity. Indeed, it may well have evolved in the plants for this purpose to protect the seeds, which are dispersed in avian guano (birds don’t feel the burn).

Does asthma drug boost athleticism?

TL:DR – Does salbutamol boost athleticism? Not really, no.

UPDATE: 2021 The GINA guidelines for healthcare workers helping people with asthma is, internationally, to avoid any use of salbutamol. If you have asthma and are still using this old drug, please speak to your doctor and mention GINA.

If you’re an athlete taking the WADA allowed 1600 micrograms of salbutamol each day that’s the equivalent of 16 doses from a standard metered dose inhaler. If you’re taking so much that it leads to you failing a drug test, then you have serious problems. Most lay people take two doses at a time to relieve symptoms, such as chest tightness, coughing, wheezing and breathlessness, so that’s still using the stuff 8 times a day.

I wonder though, whether you are an athlete or not, if you need to take that much bronchodilator each day to get relief and a decent peak flow rate, then it’s odd that you got so high up in the world of sport in the first place irrespective of how tenacious you might be. Asthma at that level of reliever need can be quite debilitating regardless of fitness.

Moreover, at that level of dosing, most GPs would’ve prescribed inhaled corticosteroid preventers to preclude the need for taking so much bronchodilator. That, of course, brings with it its own issues with respect to bone density and, of course, the World Anti-Doping Agency’s rules, even though corticosteroids are not muscle-building anabolic steroids.

So, does inhaled salbutamol actually benefit people without asthma? And thence enhance athletic performance. It’s possible. Presumably, everyone has some degree of possible expansion of their airways even if they don’t have the disorder. There was an item in the January 2016 issue of Cycling Weekly that discusses the issues in more detail and suggests that there may well be benefits. However, earlier work suggests that salbutamol does little to enhance the performance of top-level athletes. A research paper from May 2017 studying salbutamol use among professional footballers corroborated that earlier finding; that said it looked at footballers using a single therapeutic dose (2 puffs, 200 micrograms), rather than the big daily dose that represents the upper allowed limit under WADA’s rules.

Salbutamol can have a range of side effects: tremor, anxiety, headache, muscle cramps, dry mouth, heart palpitations, tachycardia, arrhythmia, flushing of the skin, myocardial ischaemia (rare), and insomnia.