In case of some children, asthma attacks occur only after physical exercises, and around ninety per cent of all people suffering from asthma are vulnerable to attacks brought on by exercising or practicing sports. Normally, these attacks take place after six to ten minutes of dynamic exercise.
The majority of attacks are very short, lasting only several minutes, but some can persist for hours and may require taking some medicines. Usually, symptoms of exercise-induced asthma include: coughing, tightness in the chest or wheezing and shortness of breath.
Such sports activities as running, jogging and other vigorous disciplines that lead to mouth-breathing are most probable to provoke an exercise-induced asthma attack — particularly when done in cold, dry air. Cold-weather sports, such as ice hockey and skiing, are also probable to activate an attack in vulnerable people. That’s because asthma induced by physical activity normally stems from a loss of heat and moisture in tissues lining the respiratory tract as the consequence of inhaling large amounts of cold, dry air.
Frequently, these attacks can be prevented by taking some medicines before exercising, doing warm-up exercises before your workout or taking part in sports in warm, humid environments, such as an indoor swimming pool. Actually, the perfect sport for patients with exercise-induced asthma is swimming, due to the fact that the air above the water line is warm and humid.
Suffering from asthma doesn’t mean that you can’t be an active athlete: 1996 Olympic gold medal swimmers Tom Dolan and Amy Van Dyken as well as past Olympic champion diver Greg Louganis and field and track star Jackie Joyner-Kersee all suffer from asthma. Still, if you experience exercise-induced asthma or are subject to attacks when you practice sports, you may have to take some medicines before doing physical activities in very cold weather and when pollen counts are high, air quality is poor or you have a cold or other respiratory tract infection.
