Understanding Asthma is a Free comprehensive guide covering asthma's various forms, its symptoms, its management, and its treatments. An essential guide for anyone wanting to understand this growing health concern. Free! Learn more.

INVALUABLE ASTHMA INFORMATION

Most often characterized by a difficulty with breathing, asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease that causes a particularly sensitive reaction of a person's airways (bronchial tubes) to irritants. In most Western countries, it's a highly-ranked chronic health condition in adults, and is the leading chronic illness of children. If you have asthma, managing it is an ongoing and important aspect of your life. 

So how is it affected by exercise?

Some types of exercise are worse than others.  If you participate in different forms of exercise that require similar levels of oxygen consumption, you'll find some will cause more wheeziness or chest tightness than others. For example, running outdoors is generally harder on asthmatics than swimming.  (In fact, swimming is one of the best forms of exercise because it usually causes the least amount of chest tightness.)

Another consideration ... if the air you breathe during exercise is cold and dry, your asthma will be worse.  If it's warm and moist, your asthma will be less affected.  This helps explain why swimming generally causes less stress to your lungs and airways than outdoor running. The lining of your air passages cool down and dry out.  It's still not known why this cooling and drying of the airway linings causes increased asthma activity, but you need to keep this in mind when choosng a form of exercise for yourself.

There's another factor to keep in mind as well.  The affect of chlorine fumes from swimming pools sometimes will cause an asthma reaction for some people. For these people, swimming in a chlorinated pool can be much worse than running outdoors.

Also important ... the timing of your exercise. It usually takes around six minutes of exercising to trigger exercise-induced asthma.  Exercising less than this may not be enough to trigger an asthma episode. In addition, for a few hours after you've experienced exercise-induced asthma, repeating the same amount of exercise will no longer produce the same level of asthma symptoms.  In fact, it may not produce asthma symptoms at all.

Some people are able to "run through" their exercise-induced asthma by warming up with short bursts of exercise. Sports and exercises which consist of short bursts of activity with periods of rest in between can be particularly suitable for asthmatics. 

Keep these in mind:

• Long-distance or cross-country running are particularly strong triggers for asthma because they are undertaken outside in cold air without short breaks.
• Team sports such as football or hockey are less likely to cause asthma symptoms as they are played in brief bursts with short breaks in between.
• Swimming is an excellent form of exercise for people with asthma. The warm humid air in the swimming pool is less likely to trigger symptoms of asthma. However, swimming in cold water or heavily chlorinated pools may trigger asthma.
• Yoga is a good form of exercise for asthmatics because it relaxes the body, reduces stress levels, and may also help with breathing.

Many athletes, especially runners, suffer from exercise-induced asthma.  If you'e an athlete with this experience, it's worth seeking out the advice of a top-level specialist to help you find a solution.  Athletes train at levels of exertion most ordinary people can't even imagine, so it's deinfintely worth tracking down the best advice you can find to help you manage the disease.

In the past, many Olympic medal winners have been asthmatic, many have suffered from exercise-induced asthma.  With the right help, advice, training, treatment, and self-discipline the problems can usually be overcome.

There are several steps that you can take to help to reduce the symptoms of exercise-induced asthma.  These should be used in conjunction with any medicines your doctor has prescribed.

• Warm up and down.
• Avoid the cold air. It can also help to cover the nose and mouth with a scarf in cold weather.
• Stay fit.  Good aerobic fitness can help to reduce exercise-induced asthma.

At A Glance

• Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease that makes airways (bronchial tubes) particularly sensitive to irritants, and this is characterized by difficulty in breathing.
• Exercise can induce asthma. However, asthma can be managed, even by professional athletes.
• People, particularly children, should not avoid sensible exercise just because they have asthma.
• Swimming is generally a good exercise for asthmatics.