Asthma and ExerciseWe all know that exercise is crucial to good health. Our doctors tell us so, we read articles in magazines and online, and new studies about the benefits of exercise are all over the news. For most of us, getting enough exercise is a matter of getting motivated and making the time for it. But for asthma sufferers, exercise can be a very scary idea. Attacks are serious and life-threatening. They cause great difficulty in breathing, and if they're untreated or treatment is not effective, a trip to the emergency room is necessary. It is the cause of a large number of missed days at work and school each year. Therefore many sufferers avoid exercise altogether for fear that it will trigger an attack. Exercise-induced attacks are usually caused by breathing through the mouth during exercise. When we breathe through our noses, the air is warmed and moistened before it reaches the lungs. But when we breathe through our mouths, as we tend to do during exercise, the air that goes into the lungs is much colder and drier. This causes sensitive muscles in the airway to contract, constricting the airway. This can cause an attack in chronic sufferers, as well as some people who do not otherwise experience symptoms. There are also other factors that may cause exercise-induced attacks. Two of the things that often cause regular symptoms, pollen and pollution in the air, can also contribute to exercise-induced symptoms. And in some particularly sensitive people, just the increase in the amount of air inhaled and exhaled can trigger an attack. Preventing Exercise-Induced Asthma Exercise-induced attacks are no reason not to get the exercise your body needs. There are things you can do to prevent it, such as: A diagnosis of asthma does not mean you can never exercise safely. It just means that you'll need to take a few extra precautions. There's no reason it should stand in the way of physical fitness.
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