Do you experience episodes of cough, wheeze and chest tightness or shortness of breath when you exercise? If so, you probably have exercise induced asthma.
Like it sounds, Exercise Induced Asthma or EIA, is asthma that is triggered by doing strenuous activity, physical exertion or prolonged exercise.
Reports have shown that 80-90 percent of all individuals who have allergic asthma will experience symptoms of exercise induced asthma with vigorous exercise or activity. This is often the most common cause of asthma symptoms for teenagers and young adults.
But why does exercise can induce asthma?
As you can see, when we exercise, we breathe faster and we breathe through our mouth and the air we inhale is colder and drier unlike the air we take in during normal breathing or at rest that is typically, warmed and moistened by our nasal passages.
For people with asthma, the muscle bands around the airways are highly sensitive to these changes in air temperature and humidity. This decrease in warmth and humidity can contribute to bronchospasm. In other words, the muscle bands around the airways will contract or constrict leading to a narrowed airway hence, exercise induce asthma sets in.
Rarely, some individuals will experience “late phase” symptoms four to twelve hours after stopping exercise. Late-phase symptoms are frequently less severe and can take up to 24 hours to wear off.
So, in this case if I have asthma, should I avoid exercise?
No, that is not the case. If asthmatic, one should not avoid indulging into physical activities because or exercise-induced asthma because there are certain things to consider in order to prevent asthma symptoms that will allow you maintain normal physical activity. Here’s how:
- Your health care provider will prescribe asthma inhalers or bronchodilators these medications are considered as your pre-exercise inhaled drugs that help prevent the narrowing of airways. These must be taken 10 minutes prior to exercise.
- For those with allergies and asthma, restrict exercise during high pollen days or during cold weather. However, if the weather is cold, you can exercise indoors or wear a mask or scarf.
- Try breathing through the nose while you exercise, this helps humidify the air that goes into your lungs.
- Restrict exercise when you have viral infection (i,e. colds and flu). Infection can aggravate asthma symptoms.
Asthma is not an excuse to avoid exercise, with proper treatment, you can be able to participate in various physical activities and sports and achieve your highest level of performance without experiencing asthma symptoms.
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