Exercise Induced Asthma

People with asthma have extra sensitive or hyper-responsive airways. During an asthma attack, the airways become irritated and react by narrowing and constructing, causing increased resistance to airflow, and obstructing the flow of the air passages to and from the lungs. A few people seem to get asthma attacks only when they run or take other exercise.

In the past, doctors thought this was a different form of asthma. However, it is now known that it is very common for people with asthma to have asthma attacks during exercise.

Exercise induced asthma is a problem for especially young people. In fact, doctors used to puzzle over why children got exercise induced asthma and why adults did not. Eventually research discovered the obvious reason: most adults don't exercise as much as children.

Doctors currently believe that people who get asthma attacks only when they exercise have a mild form of asthma that isn't apparent most of the time. The increased provocation from faster breathing tends to bring it out.

If the air you breathe during exercise is cold and dry, then the asthma will be worse. If it is warm and moist, the asthma will be less pronouced. This explains why swimming usually causes less asthma than outdoor running.

Increased breathing during exercise also causes a cooling and drying of the lining of the air passages, which is usually necessary for someone to experience exercise induced asthma. This is why warm, moist air protects against exercise-induced asthma. It is still not understood why the drying and cooling of the airway linings causes the asthma episode.

You should understand that exercise is just one of many things which irritate the air passages and indicate that you might be an asthma sufferer. To some extent each person is a little different. What triggers one person's asthma attack may not trigger another's. Nevertheless, all asthma attacks cause irritation or narrowing of the air passages.

It's interesting to note that exercise induced asthma can be useful for diagnosing asthma in your child. Exercising a child for five or six minutes can be a convenient and safe way of provoking a mild asthma attack. This short period of exertion, closely monitored, has resulted in many children getting early and appropriate advice and treatment.

Exercise induced asthma has also been useful in asthma research. It can be used for testing the effectiveness of new medicines which may help treat asthma in the future.

By now, you've already picked up some useful clues. Swimming rather than running, warmer and moister air, warm-up by short periods of exercise, and getting into training can all help.

Many cross-country skiers wear breathing masks which store some of the heat and moisture from the air they breathe out and return it to the air they breathe in. This is helpful in avoiding exercise-induced asthma.

In addition, taking control of your asthma, by using a "preventer" treatment or by avoiding causes of asthma such as house dust mites and pets, can have a tremendously positive effect on exercise-induced asthma.

If you're a professional athlete, then you may be concerned about disqualification because you use drugs to control your asthma. The good news is that all the ordinary asthma medicines, used in the medically recommended way and dosage, are acceptable to sporting bodies, provided you use them correctly for asthma. If you are in any doubt, seek expert advice.

 At A Glance

• 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.